* NASA was founded in 1958.

* Mercury 1 was an unmanned test flight of the Mercury capsule in 1960.

Before Mercury 1, NASA conducted several other missions, including:

* Project Vanguard: An attempt to launch the first US satellite, which failed in 1957.

* Explorer 1: The first successful US satellite launch in 1958.

* Pioneer 1: An early attempt to reach the moon in 1958.

The first crewed NASA mission was Mercury-Redstone 3, also known as Freedom 7, which launched Alan Shepard into space in 1961.