1960s Terms: Space Exploration

In 1961, the Soviet Union sent the first man into space. Also, in 1961 the United States sent the first people to the moon on Apollo 13. This was important because no one had tried to go to space before this time and the technology to do this was new and impressive. Also, the Soviet Union and the United States were in a rivalry because of the Cold War, and so this was a way that they competed without actually fighting a war. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960s#Space_exploration]