Page 3 - The Appollo Story

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Key Events In The Apollo Story
1958 July: National Aeronautics and Space Act signed into law establishing NASA.
October: Mercury program begun; six successful manned flights would occur.
November: Space Task Group officially organized, at Langley Field to implement the manned
satellite project, known later as Project Mercury.
1959 April: First group of astronauts is selected for manned space flight program.
December: Saturn configuration and development program are approved.
1960 February: Ranger project for lunar hard landings is formally authorized.
May: Lunar soft-landing program, later renamed Surveyor, commences.
July: Apollo approved as name of advanced manned space flight program.
1961 May: First U.S. suborbital manned space flight, by Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr., in a Redstone
rocket-boosted Mercury capsule named Freedom 7.
May: President Kennedy proposes broad, accelerated space program, including manned lunar
landing within the decade, in a special message to the Congress.
August: Cape Canaveral selected as the launch site for manned lunar fights.
November: The Space Task Group redesignated as the Manned Spacecraft Centre.
1962 February: First U.S. orbital manned space flight by Astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr., in an Atlas-
boosted Mercury capsule named Friendship 7.
July: Selection of lunar orbit rendezvous flight mode for Apollo missions.
1963 May: First U.S. long duration space flight, by Astronaut L. Gordon Cooper, Jr., aboard an Atlas-
boosted Mercury, Faith 7; last flight in the Mercury program.
August: Lunar orbiter program, to team with Ranger and Surveyor, approved.
1964 May: First flight of an Apollo-configured spacecraft with a Saturn vehicle (two-stage Saturn I),
launched from Cape Kennedy; craft, upper stage orbited.
July: Close-up television pictures of lunar surface are sent by Ranger VII.
1965 March: First U.S. two-man orbital space flight, by Astronauts Virgil I. Grissom and John W.
Young in Titan II-boosted Gemini III.
June: First U.S. extravehicular activity, Astronaut Edward H. White II manoeuvring from Gemini
IV piloted by Astronaut James A. McDivitt.
December: First Piloted rendezvous in space, by Astronauts Schirra and Stafford in Gemini VI
with Gemini VII, Astronauts Borman and Lovell aboard.