The race to the moon had started a few years earlier In 1957 the Soviet Union sent Sputnik and Sputnik 2 into space They were the first human-made satellites to orbit Earth In 1958 the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA was created This organization would control US activity in space On April 12 1961 cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to orbit Earth But the United States was not far behind One month later Alan Shepard became the first American to enter space In February 1962 John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth These early space flights were part of NASA’s Project Mercury Before sending astronauts to the moon NASA had to develop equipment such as rockets and life-support systems During Project Mercury NASA practiced launching astronauts 6
John Glenn left Virgil Gus Grissom center and Alan Shepard right were part of the Project Mercury missions into orbit and studied how people could live and work in space Another set of missions known as Project Gemini helped NASA learn how longer flights affected astronauts During these missions NASA also practiced connecting two spaceships in space Finally NASA was ready to begin the Apollo missions to the moon 7
CHAPTER 2 ORBITAL MISSIONS The first Apollo mission began in 1967 On January 27 three astronauts were strapped into the command module This part of the spacecraft carried the crew and equipment into space The astronauts planned to orbit Earth as part of a test But during a launch test the command module caught fire All three astronauts died Their names were Roger Chaffee Virgil Gus Grissom and Edward White Apollo 1 crew members enter the spacecraft’s command module 9
