This short chronology showing the main highlights of the first American space flights is meant to simply bring out the major achievements in the field of space research’s feats and accomplishments. May 5, 1961 was the day that Freedom 7, the first ever human-piloted Mercury space craft carrying a single Astronaut onboard was launched. It reached a remarkable altitude and range of 115 and 302 nautical miles respectively. Thus it became the first successful American space flight that involved human beings. On February 20th, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth in the Friendship 7 Mercury space craft. Many people celebrated the technological success while embracing Glenn as a personification of heroism and dignity, not only to himself but also to the United States as a whole.

Then on May 15th and 16th of 1963, the space flight Project Mercury took place with much news making the rounds, and with the flight of renowned Astronaut Gordon Cooper who orbited the Earth twenty two times in just thirty four hours. March 23rd, 1965 was another remarkable day in space flight history when the first mission of Project Gemini was executed following two previous test flights. Then between June 3rd and 7th, 1965, the second Gemini mission stayed aloft for four days while Astronaut Edward White did the first non-vehicular activity through space walking. Between October 11th and 22nd, 1968, the first flight of the spacecraft Apollo 7 involved three Astronauts. Again, between December 21st and 27th, 1968, Apollo 8 departed from its base at the Kennedy Space Center with three astronauts onboard for a historic mission to the Moon. The advantages of this feat in space flight were important, both in technical and scientific terms. It was also a global demonstration of what America and the world could achieve with this mission.

After Apollo 8 space craft made one and a half orbits in flight, the third stage soon started to burn, putting the space craft on a lunar path. As it traveled outward from the Earth, the space flight’s crew focused a portable camera on Earth so for the first time in man’s history, the whole world saw its home from a distance; a small, lovely, blue marble suspended in dark space. When the Apollo space craft arrived the Moon on the Eve of Christmas, Earth’s image was more reinforced when the flight crew sent photos of the planet to its inhabitants, while reading a verse from the Bible that says: "In the beginning of the world, God created the heavens and the Earth, and the Earth was without form and void" before sending their Christmas tidings to the World. It was a very significant accomplishment because it came at a time when the American society was in deep crisis over the Vietnam War, the racial dispute of the Martin Luther King struggle, urban and human problems, among a host of other difficulties.

July 16th to 24th 1969 became the period when Apollo 11, the first lunar mission departing, began a three day trip to the Moon. The following year, between April 11th and 17th, 1970, the space flight of Apollo 13 unfortunately became one of the near disasters of the Apollo space flight series. About fifty six hours into the flight, an oxygen tank in the Apollo space craft got ruptured and consequently damaged some of the electrical and life support systems in the shuttle, but was thankfully brought under control. The next year around July 26th to August 7th of 1971, the first of the lunar landing missions, Apollo 15 was the first to extend the range of the astronauts on the Moon. After a successful era of space flights, Apollo 17 finally became the last of the Apollo missions to the Moon on December 19th, 1972.

January 28th, 1986 was an unfortunate day in the history of space flights when the Space Shuttle Challenger was tragically destroyed and its crew of seven killed, during its launch from the Kennedy Space Center. The crew members of the fatal space flight represented a cross-section of the American population in terms of race, gender, geography, background, and religion. The disaster prompted a thorough review of the safety program and procedures of human space flight.