U.N. Secretary General Kurt Waldheim congratulates the American and Soviet astronauts for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. On July 17, 1975, Commanders Thomas P. Safford and Aleksei Leonov shook hands in space.

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On February 28, 1946, Secretary of State James Byrnes addresses the Overseas Press Club to discuss the purposes of the United Nations. In his speech, Byrnes makes an indirect reference to the Soviet Union when he declares that the United States is prepared to "act to prevent aggression."

An August 22, 1968, a U.S. Democratic Platform hearing is interrupted when Chairman Hale Boggs is handed a bulletin announcing the Soviets' invasion of Czechoslovakia. Rep. Boggs reads the news and Secretary of State Dean Rusk makes a hasty departure to find out what's going on.

President Kennedy establishes his New Frontier with a challenge to venture into outer space. John Glenn became the first American astronaut to orbit the earth, one step in America's endeavor to land on the moon.

On April 12, 1981, NASA launched the world's first reusable manned spacecraft. In the minutes before takeoff, Kennedy Space Center launch control communicates with astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen as they prepare to take Columbia on its first test flight into space and back.

In this video clip from Ask Steve, the reason for Americans interest in the Space Program was explored. It is explained that competition, and the technological wonder of the space race were some of the reasons for the Americans interest. Between President Kennedy saying that they would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, and a famous photo taken by the Apollo 8 in 1968 of the earth from a distance, the Americans knew that the space race would be a very important technological breakthrough.

Just after liftoff of the space shuttle Atlantis on July 8, 2011, Kennedy Space Center Mission Control notes the historic moment. NASA retired the 30-year-old space shuttle program, making this the final space shuttle flight.