• First animals in space:

The Mercury missions was NASA's first human spaceflight program, from 1958 to 1963. There were 20 unmanned flights (some which sent animals into space), and six successful flights by astronauts.

The Gemini missions was NASA's human spaceflight program in the early 1960s. The Gemini missions came after the Mercury missions, and before the Apollo missions. Each Gemini spacecraft could carry two astronauts, and 10 spacecraft were launched during the Space Race.

The Apollo program was a NASA mission to land humans on the Moon from 1969 to 1972. Six of the missions (Apollo 11, 12, 14, 16, and 17) were successful in landing astronauts on the Moon. There were also many unmanned Moon landings. The Apollo missions followed NASA's Mercury and Gemini missions.