November 3, 1957: The second experimental spacecraft successfully launched into earth orbit, Sputnik 2 contained onboard the dog Laika - the first biological organism to enter space.

Frank (the older sibling) loves codes and ciphers and football. Max (the younger sibling) has autism and for him, some colors are too bright and he has problems with new things in his daily schedule and if that happens he has melt-downs.The Soviet Union's Luna 16 moon sample return spacecraft (Image credit: NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive)

A month after Gagarin's historic flight, on May 5, 1961, the United States was able to catch up with their Soviet Rivals, when Navy Test pilot Alan Shepard became the second man into space, according to The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Because of the placement of the portholes in the capsule, Shepard was, unfortunately, unable to view any stars, according to his flight report. May 1961: The US achieve the first pilot-controlled journey and first American in space with Alan Shepard aboard the Mercury-Redstone 3 (or Freedom 7) spacecraft. On this flight, Shepard did not orbit Earth. He flew 116 miles high. The flight lasted about 15 minutes. In addition to launching the first artificial satellite, the first dog in space, and the first human in space, the Soviet Union achieved other space milestones ahead of the United States. These milestones included Luna 2, which became the first human-made object to hit the Moon in 1959. Soon after that, the U.S.S.R. launched Luna 3 . Less than four months after Gagarin’s flight in 1961, a second Soviet human mission orbited a cosmonaut around Earth for a full day. The U.S.S.R. also achieved the first spacewalk and launched the Vostok 6 mission, which made Valentina Tereshkova the first woman to travel to space. August 1959: The US launches Explorer 6, the world's first weather satellite and obtains the first pictures of Earth from space.

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March 18, 1965: For 12 minutes Soviet Cosmonaut Alexi Leonov floats freely in outer space on the end of nearly 16 foot long tether, becoming the first astronaut to 'space walk'. July 1965: The US satellite, Mariner 4, performs the first successful voyage to the planet Mars, returning the first close-up images of the Martian surface. President John F Kennedy, the 35th President of the United states (Image credit: Getty: Central Press / Stringer)

August 19, 1960: The USSR launches Sputnik 5 carrying two dogs, Belka and Strelka, who became the first animals to return to earth following a day in space.May 25 1961: President Kennedy makes a speech to congress in which he announces that the United States will put a man on the moon before the end of the decade. I have worked with autistic people and their families for years – I started volunteering at a special needs playgroup when I was still at school, then progressed to working in SEN schools and for social care. I knew a lot of amazing families but I didn’t often see an exploration of the relationships between an autistic child and their siblings and parents in the books I read. I think it’s so important for every child to know they’re represented in fiction, and also for children to read beyond their own experience. I wanted to show autism as a different way of being, but not something that is a burden or a terrible and unfortunate condition. Max has his challenges, but he leads a rich life full of love and joy. A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high values in the face of grave risk and succeed in drawing goodwill from others. April 1970: The US Apollo 13 mission is known as the first explosion onboard a spacecraft where the crew survived. In 1959, the Soviet space program took another step forward with the launch of Luna 2, the first space probe to hit the moon. In April 1961, the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to orbit Earth, traveling in the capsule-like spacecraft Vostok 1. For the U.S. effort to send a man into space, dubbed Project Mercury, NASA engineers designed a smaller, cone-shaped capsule far lighter than Vostok; they tested the craft with chimpanzeesand held a final test flight in March 1961 before the Soviets were able to pull ahead with Gagarin’s launch. On May 5, astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space (though not in orbit).