A Look Through the History of U.S. Space Travel

Photographs show key moments of the effort to land on the moon

1 min read

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks to place two components of the early Apollo scientific experiments package on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission.
Photo: NASA

IEEE is marking the 50th anniversary of the moon landing and spaceflight through the Footsteps: IEEE’s Commemoration of Human Space Travel effort. These images were provided by the IEEE History Center, which is funded by donations to the IEEE Foundation’s Realize the Full Potential of IEEE Campaign.

Photo: NASA

Humans weren’t the first living things to travel into space. Primates and other animals were used for biomedical space research by the United States and other countries. Miss Baker (above), a squirrel monkey, and Miss Able, a rhesus macaque, were launched into space on 28 May 1959 on a Jupiter rocket. They returned safely on the same day.

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