Now the US and Soviet started to go back and forth with eachother which different satellites and break the barrier. 1959 marked the day that the Soviet Space Program launched Luna 2, a space probe that hit the moon. Then, in April of 1961, a Soviet named Yuri Gagarin was the first person ever to orbit the Earth. He was in a capsule called Vostok 1. Project Mercury by the U.S. was the goal to send a man into space. They designed something smaller and less heavy then Vostok 1 and tested with chimpanzees. Final flight test was in March of 1961 before Soviets went ahead with Gagarin's launch. May 5th also marked the day that the first American was in space. His name was Alan Shepard. In that same May of 1961, John F. Kennedy made a public statement that the U.S. would have a man on the moon before the end of the decade. Yet again, In February of 1962, John Glenn was the first American to orbit Earth. After all of these back and forths with the Soviet Union and the U.S., NASA would build the lunar landing program, named Project Apollo.