NASA was founded in 1958 in response to the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik. Project Mercury launched America's first astronauts into suborbital and low Earth orbital flights between 1961 and 1963. Project Gemini developed orbital flight techniques from 1965 to 1966 in preparation for the Apollo program to land astronauts on the Moon. Apollo 1 ended in tragedy with the deaths of its crew during a launch pad test in 1967. The first successful manned Apollo mission was Apollo 7 in 1968, followed by Apollo 8 which orbited the Moon in 1968. Apollo 11 succeeded in landing the first humans on the Moon in 1969. A total of six manned lunar landings were made between 1969 and 1972, culminating with Apollo 17. These missions achieved President Kennedy's