This site is part of the Science Museum's	STEM Project	and it was completed by a student of North London Collegiate School,	based on a visit to the 'Exploration of Space' Gallery, and called
			The Development of Space Travel and the First Moon Landing.

Steps to the Moon.

October, 1957	The Soviet Union's Sputnik 1, first man-made satellite, was launched into orbit around Earth.
November, 1957	Sputnik 2 took dog Laika into space.
January, 1958	Explorer 1, The United States' first satellite, was launched.
April, 1961	World's first spaceman, Yuri Gagarin, went into orbit in Russia's Vostok 1.
Russian Vostok rocket at launch-pad
May, 1961	America's first spaceman, Alan Shepard, made 15-minute sub-orbital flight to an altitude of 116 miles.
February, 1962	American astronaut John Glenn orbited Earth three times in Friendship 7.
June, 1963	Russia's Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space, orbiting the Earth 48 times in Vostok 6.
July, 1964	Ranger 7 sent to Earth high-quality photographs taken as the craft approached the Moon for a planned crash-landing.
October, 1964	First multi-seater spacecraft, the Soviet Union's Voshkod, took three men into orbit.
March, 1965	Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov took first "walk" in space (10 minutes). In the same month Project Gemini, America's programme of two-man flights began with a three-orbit mission in which men for the first time steered their craft from one orbital path to another.
June, 1965	American Edward White "walked" in space (22 minutes).
December, 1965	Two double-manned American Gemini spacecraft made rendezvous, coming to within one foot (around 30cm) within each other.
Gemini 6 in orbit
February, 1966	Soviet Luna 9 made first soft landing on the Moon. In the same month two Russian dogs were sent through the Van Allen radiation belt - the highest flight at that time by living creatures.
March 1966	American manned Gemini craft with two men on board docked with an unmanned Agena rocket. Emergency splashdown after craft developed a roll.
June, 1966	Surveyor 1 made first soft landing on the Moon, sending back thousands of close-up pictures
August, 1966	First of series of five successful Lunar Orbiter spacecraft launched. Craft went into Moon orbit after a three-day flight and sent back low-altitude
January, 1967	Spacecraft flash fire killed three United States astronauts at Cape Kennedy. The dead men - Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee - had been assigned to make America's first three-man flight a month later.
April,1967	Soviet Soyuz 1 crash landed on return to Earth when braking parachute failed to open, killing cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov - the first man to die while on a space mission.
October, 1967	Two unmanned Soviet satellites automatically linked up in space and afterwards automatically separated - the first unmanned space link-up.
September, 1968	Soviet Zond 5 became the first craft to go round the Moon and return to Earth.
	America's first three-man flight, Apollo 7, made 10-day space journey in Earth orbit for first manned test of the new spacecraft which was destined eventually to take men to the Moon.
December, 1968	Apollo 8, with Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders on board, was the first manned space flight to leave the influence of Earth gravity. It completed 10 orbits of the Moon.
This aerial view of the Apollo 8 space vehicle was photographed at dusk on December 17, 1968 at Kennedy Space Centre's Launch Complex 38.
January, 1969	Soviet Soyuz 4 and 5 effect first transfer of men in space, after the docking of the manned spacecraft, also a first.
March, 1969	James McDivitt, David Scott, and Russell Schweickart in Apollo 9 made Earth orbital flight to test the lunar module for eventual Moon landing.
May, 1969	Tom Stafford, Eugene Cernan and John Young in Apollo10 made Moon orbital flight lasting eight days to test the lunar module, which descended to 8.2 nautical miles above the Moon.

As published in The Times of July 21, 1969.