The Apollo Program ran from 1961 to 1972, with the first crewed flight in 1968. A major setback was the fire that killed the crew of Apollo 1,  Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee. Kennedy's goal of "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" was accomplished on July 20, 1969 when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed and walked on the moon.

Apollo–Soyuz was the first crewed international space mission, carried out jointly by the United States and the Soviet Union in July 1975.  Apollo–Soyuz was the last crewed United States spaceflight for nearly six years until the first launch of the Space Shuttle on 12 April 1981.