This picture was taken on March 6, 1969. It shows the Apollo 9 commander, James McDivitt, aboard the command module.
Click on image for full size
Courtesy of NASA

History of Human Spaceflight

There are two type of space missions. Some missions are done by spacecraft that are machines or robots. Other missions have people on the space ships. We call the missions with people onboard "human spaceflight" missions.

The first astronauts and cosmonauts (the Russian word for astronaut) were test pilots who were very familiar with flying in fast and dangerous planes! The first human being to travel into space was Yuri Gagarin (USSR, 1961), followed a month later by the US astronaut Alan Shepard.

Once we found out that humans could travel in space, a "space race" quickly developed between the United States and the Soviet Union. The United States main interest was to land on the moon. The Soviet Union was more interested in setting endurance records and doing scientific research.

Through a sequence of human and robot space mission programs, including Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo, the United States finally succeeded in landing the first people on the Moon in 1969 with Apollo 11!

In 1973, the first American space laboratory was shot into orbit, and scientific experiments began to take place. Between 1973-1981, the United States scheduled only one or two human spaceflight missions.

Finally in 1981, the United States revamped their human spaceflight program with several new missions and brand new spacecraft design, the space shuttle. The space shuttle is a reusable craft.

In the meantime, the Soviets made several missions testing out new spacecraft and became the "first" to create a space station. In 1971, the cosmonauts spent several days aboard the first space station. The cosmonauts continued to spend time on several space station since then, breaking several endurance records in space. Laboratory experiments were conducted on all of these space stations, and the Soviets made great strides in expanding our knowledge of space, medicine, and engineering.

Now both countries participate in the International Space Station. It opened its doors to its first visitors in November 2000.


Last modified May 10, 2004 by Randy Russell.

You might also be interested in:

Traveling Nitrogen Classroom Activity Kit

Check out our online store - minerals, fossils, books, activities, jewelry, and household items!...more

Apollo 11

Apollo 11 was the first mission that landed a person on the moon. On July 16, 1969, the U. S. rocket Saturn 5 was launched carrying the lunar landing module Eagle. The Eagle was released and it reached...more

International Space Station

There is a large space station circling Earth right now. It is called the International Space Station (ISS for short). Astronauts live and work in the ISS. Sixteen countries, including the United States,...more

Life Found on the ISS

Three men are living on the the International Space Station (ISS). They've been living there for about 2 weeks now. For the next 4 months, Russian astronauts Yuri P. Gidzenko and Sergei K. Krikalev and...more

Hubble Space Telescope

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is really neat! It was first launched in 1990, but scientists started building it in the 1970's! We have found all kinds of objects like stars, nebulae and galaxies. The...more

Apollo 12

Apollo 12 was launched on Nov. 14, 1969 and arrived at the Moon three days later. Astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean descended to its surface, while Richard Gordon remained in lunar orbit aboard the...more

Apollo 15

Apollo 15 marked the start of a new series of missions from the Apollo space program, each capable of exploring more lunar terrain than ever before. Launched on July 26, 1971, Apollo 15 reached the Moon...more

Deep Impact Mission

NASA chose Deep Impact to be part of a special series called the Discovery Program. This program is for cheap, scientific projects. In May 2001, NASA said it was ok to start with mission development for...more

Windows to the Universe, a project of the National Earth Science Teachers Association, is sponsored in part is sponsored in part through grants from federal agencies (NASA and NOAA), and partnerships with affiliated organizations, including the American Geophysical Union, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Earth System Information Partnership, the American Meteorological Society, the National Center for Science Education, and TERC. The American Geophysical Union and the American Geosciences Institute are Windows to the Universe Founding Partners. NESTA welcomes new Institutional Affiliates in support of our ongoing programs, as well as collaborations on new projects. Contact NESTA for more information. NASA ESIP NCSE HHMI AGU AGI AMS NOAA