1960s Timeline

Latest Podcasts

Politics | Culture | Entertainment | Sports

Nov 28, 2021

Chimp Chosen for Space Flight

Nov. 28, 1961 - A 37-pound chimpanzee named Enos was chosen today to make a 3-orbit trip around the eaerth tomorrow. It is to be the last test before a human astronaut makes a similar try. The 5-year-old animal will be loaded aboard a bell-shaped Mercury capsule and will ride into space aboard an Atlas rocket. If all goes as planned, Enos will circle the earth three times in four and a half hours and be brought back for a parachute landing in the Atlantic Ocean about 1,000 mi

Nov 12, 2021

NASA: Man in Orbit Will Have to Wait until '62

Nov. 12, 1961 - United States hopes for sending a man into orbit this year apparently ended today when a flight with a chimpanzee was postponed. The chimpanzee flight was delayed because of troubles in the space capsule. Scientists plan to send the chimpanzee three times around the earth as the last test before one of the seven astronauts gets a chance to follow the trails of Majs. Yuri A. Gagarin and Gherman S. Titov, Soviet astronauts. But the chance of putting an astronaut

Oct 27, 2021

NASA: Saturn Rocket Big Success in Test Flight

Oct. 27, 1961 - The United States space program took a large leap forward today when an eight-engine Saturn rocket was successfully fired on its first test flight. It was a spectacular debut for a booster whose main task will be to lift three-man capsules on orbital missions around the earth prior to an attempt to land a man on the moon. NASA said the rocket’s eight engines had generated a total thrust of 1,300,000 pounds. This was half a million pounds more than the 800,000

Oct 7, 2021

Going Rates on 1970 Round Trip to Mars

Oct. 7, 1961 - Space scientists forecast today that the cost of a round trip to Mars in 1980 would be $1 million. The cost for a person for the same trip in 1970, they said, will be about $100 million. The estimates were presented to the 12th annual congress of the International Astronautical Federation by three NASA officials. They based their forecast of the drop in cost from $100 million to $1 million on the assumption that nuclear rockets will be traveling regularly on in

Aug 21, 2021

Scientists View Space Explosion that Happened 800 Million Years Ago

Aug. 21, 1961 - News of a gigantic explosion in space has just reached earth. A star, perhaps about the size of our sun, suddenly exploded 800 million years ago. But the news has just arrived in the form of brilliant light from the explosion. It took the light that long to get to the earth traveling at 186,000 miles a second. Dr. Fritz Zwicky of Mount Palomar Observatory in California said it was the most distant known supernova, or star explosion, yet observed. #space #stars

Aug 19, 2021

Mercury-Atlas 4, Carrying Robot, Set to Launch into Orbit this Week

Aug. 19, 1961 - A Mercury capsule called Mercury-Atlas 4 (pictured) carrying robot devices that breathe, perspire, and talk is scheduled to be launched into orbit from Cape Canaveral, Fla., this week. Plans call for bringing it back to earth after just one orbit and recovering it from the Atlantic east of Bermuda. If the flight should be successful, it would greatly increase the nation's chances of achieving its first manned orbital flight by the year's end. There is one addi

Aug 18, 2021

After Orbital Flight, NASA to Move from Project Mercury to Apollo

Aug. 18, 1961 - NASA has decided to omit further suborbital flights. Instead, it will concentrate on an orbit of the earth with a manned vehicle, hopefully by November. The agency said that the two suborbital flights made by American astronauts this year were sufficient in providing necessary data. After a manned vehicle has been orbited, the agency will proceed from Project Mercury, the current program, to Project Apollo. In that program, more than one man, possibly three, w

Aug 12, 2021

NASA Deemed Sluggish Out of the Gate in All-Out Race to Moon

Aug. 12, 1961 - Nearly three months after President Kennedy called for an all-out race to the moon, there is no one in direct charge of the expedition. NASA has yet to start building the capsule that is supposed to carry a three-man expedition to the moon before the end of the decade. Also, no decision has been made on the rocket that is to be built to launch the Apollo capsule on a round trip to the moon. There is concern in many quarters - Congress, the Pentagon, the execut

Aug 6, 2021

NASA hopes to Put American Spaceman in Orbit by End of Year

Aug. 6, 1961 - The earliest the U.S. can now figure on putting a man in orbit is toward the end of the year, according to Project Mercury officials. They say they hope to make it, in any case, by early 1962. The timing will depend on how quickly the spaceflight team can accomplish two prior objectives: an unmanned one-orbit flight and a three-orbit flight with a chimpanzee aboard the capsule. The second orbiting of a Soviet astronaut caused little surprise among officials in

Aug 6, 2021

Second Russian Astronaut Returns Safely to Earth

Aug. 6, 1961 - A Soviet spaceship that carried the second Russian astronaut landed safely today after orbiting the earth more than 17 times in 25 hours and 18 minutes. The five-ton satellite piloted by Maj. Gherman S. Titov (pictured with Maj. Yuri A. Gagarin) was returned to earth on command from the Soviet space center during its 18th revolution of the earth. The 26-year-old Soviet astronaut covered more than 700,000 kilometers, or approximately the distance to the moon and

Aug 5, 2021

Soviets Put Second Man Into Space

Aug. 5, 1961 - The Soviet Union put its second manned spaceship into round-the-earth orbit today, Tass press agency said. Tass said the spaceship was manned by Maj. Gherman Stepanovich Titov. Named "Vostok 2," it weighs about 10,000 pounds. The latest Soviet space feat came less than four months after Maj. Yuri Gagarin made his epochal flight April 12. Gagarin orbited the earth for 108 minutes at a peak altitude of 187 miles. Pilot Titov is maintaining two-way radio communica

Jul 25, 2021

TV Networks Clarify Policy on Taped Segments after NASA Telecast Controversy

July 25, 1961 - NBC-TV made known today its plans to avoid the confusion that led to criticism of the telecast of the astronaut launching last Friday. At that time, NBC and CBS both used rehearsal shots on the screen while the live audio portion of the telecast gave details of the flight of Air Force Capt. Virgil I. Grissom as it was taking place. NBC said that the integration of simulated or prepared tape and live TV would be avoided in the future except in rare instances wh

Jul 22, 2021

Grissom: Everyone Should Take Space Trip, View "Fascinating"

July 22, 1961 - Capt. Virgil I. Grissom (center) disclosed today he had been "scared" during much of his flight into space yesterday. But then the seasoned veteran of 100 fighter combat missions in Korea said: "I have been scared a few times before." He recommended a space trip for everyone because the view is so "fascinating." After the flight, Captain Grissom was forced to plunge hurriedly into the water when the escape hatch suddenly blew off the side of the capsule, letti

Jul 21, 2021

Goldwater Proud of Astronaut Grissom

July 21, 1961 - The nation's capital, from President Kennedy to the man in the street, joined today in praise for Capt. Virgil I. Grissom moments after he had made this country's second man-in-space flight. Captain Grissom's friend and fellow jet pilot, Senator Barry Goldwater, Arizona Republican, described the astronaut as "a great little fighter pilot." Mr. Goldwater's description seemed to summarize the reaction of others in Washington. "This demonstrates," the Senator sai

Jul 21, 2021

President Kennedy Watches Grissom Flight, Calls to Congratulate Astronaut

July 21, 1961 - President Kennedy watched the space flight of Capt. Virgil I. Grissom (pictured center) on television this morning. Then he congratulated the astronaut on a personal telephone call. This nation's policy, the President said, will continue to be one "to use space for the advancement of all mankind." There will be "free release" of the information obtained, he said. President Kennedy made a similar call last May after the successful flight of the country's first

Jul 21, 2021

Grissom Spaceflight a Success

🚨July 21, 1961 - Virgil I. Grissom became the nation's second space explorer today. The Air Force captain rocketed aboard a Mercury capsule on a flight that took him 118 miles into the sky and 303 miles out into the Atlantic. From the take-off at 8:20 a.m., until the capsule landed in the ocean 16 minutes later, the mission appeared as successful as the nearly perfect journey of the nation's first space traveler, Navy Comdr. Alan B. Shepard Jr., on May 5. Minutes later, for

Jul 19, 2021

Grissom's Spaceflight Postponed Due to Weather

July 19, 1961 - Capt. Virgil I. Grissom spent four hours atop a Redstone missile today, ready for a ride into space that was blocked by an abrupt build-up of tropical clouds. It was to have been the nation's second manned spaceflight - virtually a duplicate of the 302-mile suborbital flight made by Comdr. Alan B. Shepard Jr. on May 5. Today was the second time weather forced a postponement. The firing was tentatively rescheduled for 6 a.m. EST Friday. Observers noted one new

Jul 19, 2021

Congress Backs Kennedy's Space Goal: the Moon before 1970

July 19, 1961 - President Kennedy's sharp acceleration of the race for the moon won resounding approval today from a Senate-House conference committee which agreed on the full $1,784,300,000 requested by Mr. Kennedy. Quick passage is expected in the House and the Senate. The President said in a message to Congress in May that "now is the time to take longer strides - time for a great new American enterprise - time for this nation to take a clearly leading role in space achiev

Jul 14, 2021

Grissom Likely Choice for Next Week's Spaceflight

July 14, 1961 - Two astronauts intensified preparation today for a rocket flight that will send one of them briefly into space next week. Capt. Virgil I. Grissom, 35, of the Air Force and Lieut. Col. John H. Glenn Jr., 39, of the Marine Corps ran through simulated missions in a ground-based capsule. Informed sources report that Captain Grissom of Mitchell, Ind., is the more likely choice for the flight. In that case, Col. Glenn would serve as back-up as he did for Comdr. Alan

Jul 13, 2021

Soviet Astronaut Gagarin Mobbed in London

July 13, 1961 - Maj. Yuri A. Gagarin, the Soviet Union's hero of space and now the darling of Londoners, was "imprisoned" in the Tower of London by an enthusiastic crowd today. For ten minutes he was penned in the Wakefield Tower, the most closely guarded fortress in the land, in which the crown jewels are kept. "They are magnificent, truly wonderful," the major said of the jewels. Official doors also swung open to Major Gagarin today. Prime Minister Macmillan (right) receive