American Astronauts

On May 5th, 1961, Astronaut Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. became the first American in space aboard the Freedom 7 Space capsule.

Spacewalking Astronauts

In 1965, the first spacewalk took place as Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov left his Voskhod 2 capsule and remained outside the spacecraft for 20 minutes, secured by a tether.

Today In History: Hubble Telescope Launched

On April 24, 1990, the space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., carrying the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope. The Hubble Space Telescope was launched into orbit on April 24, 1990, aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. It was named after American astronomer Edwin Hubble, who is considered one of the most important observational cosmologists