It thundered into space perfectly, pushing an unmanned Apollo spacecraft more than eighteen thousand kilometers up into the atmosphere.

VOA: special.2009.07.08

The atmosphere is about twenty-percent oxygen and eighty percent nitrogen from Earth's surface to where space begins at one-hundred-twenty kilometers up.

VOA: special.2011.04.06

Much of what was learned from its flights speeded up the development of the space program.

VOA: special.2010.07.07

They worked quickly to catch up. Less than a year later, on October first,nineteen fifty-eight, the National Aeronautic and Space Administration,or NASA, began operations.

VOA: special.2010.08.20

So America's space agency,NASA, said there was no reason to send up Gemini Six.

VOA: special.2009.07.01

So we all went up to the Space Needle to watch the fireworks and this big cloud moved in and covered the Space Needle and so we just kind of watched the clouds and that was it."

VOA: special.2010.07.02

And that's what they're up to - trying to use the rationale of a legitimate space launch for a missile, which is in its foundation a military missile,".

VOA: standard.2009.03.26