His fellow astronaut John Glenn was the first American to orbit Earth on February 20, 1962.

Only eight years later his goal was accomplished on the Apollo 11 mission in July 20, 1969, when astronaut Neil Armstrong took “a giant step for mankind” as he stepped onto the moon. Five further Apollo missions were made to explore the moon between 1969 and 1972. 

Skylab was the United States' first and only space station, orbiting Earth from 1973 to 1979, when it fell back to Earth.

Three NASA astronauts were launched into space in an Apollo Command and Service Module to meet two Russian cosmonauts in a Soyuz capsule. The two dissimilar crafts docked in orbit and the American and Soviet crew members shook hands, hugged and exchanged gifts.

The next important step in space exploration will be manned missions to Mars. 

Mir was also the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996. The space station was bigger than any previous spacecraft. At the time it was the largest artificial satellite in orbit.

The ISS is operated by the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada

NASA aims for the next manned mission to the moon carried out by the Orion spacecraft in 2023 and hopes to send people to Mars in the 2030s.

SpaceX already tested and launched different rockets into space and completed several missions to resupply the ISS

SpaceX also works on the reusability of their rockets and plans to implement “Earth to Earth Transportation” with spacecrafts. Long distance flights such as New York to Shanghai could be completed in about 30 minutes

Unlike the Hubble telescope which has a smaller mirror and fewer cameras, the Webb has a larger mirror and the capacity to switch seamlessly between one camera to another (this is currently being updated).