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Ted- The History of the Space Program in America

The first means of reaching space used rockets, originally used for bombs. After the launch of Sputnik 1, America became more and more interested in reaching space, and thus began the space race four months later. On January 31, 1958, the Explorer 1, America's first satellite, was launched off of Cape Canaveral, Florida. On May 5, 1961, Alan B. Shepherd was the first American in space when flying in a Mercury capsule atop a Redstone rocket. Although he had not made a full orbit, he had taken a suborbital flight from Cape Canaveral to far out on the Atlantic Ocean. On February 20, 1962, John H. Glenn Jr. orbited Earth three times in the Mercury capsule Friendship 7.

On May 25, 1962, John F. Kennedy requested a proposal; to bring American people onto the moon and back. To do so, three programs were started; Apollo, Gemini, and Mercury. The goal was to reach the moon by the end of the decade. The Mercury program had begun before JFK's proposal, but it was used for his project nonetheless. The people included in the Mercury program where M. Scott Carpenter, L. Gordon Cooper Jr., John H. Glenn Jr., Virgil I. Grissom, Walter B. Schirra Jr., Alan B. Shepherd, and Donald K. Slayton. May 19, 1963 was the Mercury's final flight.

The Gemini capsule was much larger than the Mercury capsule in size. Many astronauts accompanied the Gemini on it's journey, including Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Between 1964 and 1966, the Gemini capsule made a total of twelve flights.

The Apollo program was the first to land on the moon. For the first time, men were able to walk the lands of another mass, viewing their own home from such a distance. The Apollo could hold three people, so even more astronauts were scheduled for space, the most famous among them being Aldrin and Armstrong. The Apollo spacecraft was fit atop an enormous Saturn V rocket, the largest and most powerful rocket the U.S. has ever built. The rocket was as high as a 36 story building. In 1967, during the testing of the Saturn V and Apollo spacecraft, a fire started and killed three men; Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffeethe. The first manned flight of the Apollo was on October 11, 1968. although, on July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 lifted from Cape Canaveral. Four days later, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong touched down on the moon, with Micheal Collins in the command spacecraft orbiting the moon.

Source: Dupler, Douglas. Space; New Frontiers Wylie, Texas: Information Plus 2002