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Highlights of the U.S. Space Program
The space shuttle Atlantis marks the 135th and final space shuttle launch for NASA.
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President John F. Kennedy in his historic message to a joint session of the Congress, on May 25, 1961 declared, "...I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him
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1961: Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr. during suiting for the first manned suborbital flight, MR-3 mission. The Freedom 7 spacecraft, carrying the first American, Astronaut Shepard and boosted by the Mercury-Redstone launch vehicle, lifted off on May 5, 196
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1965 Edward H. White II, pilot of the Gemini 4 spacecraft, floats in the zero gravity of space with an earth limb backdrop. This represents the first time an American has stepped outside the confines of his spacecraft. White is attached to the spacecraft
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May 1969: This NASA studio file image shows the Apollo 11 crew of U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong, (L) who was the Mission Commander and the first man to step on the moon, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, (R), who was the Lunar Module Pilot, and Michael Collins, (C) w