NASA's Apollo missions (1968-1972) landed men on the moon and returned them safely to the Earth.

NASA's Gemini missions (1965-1966) featured longer flights, spacecraft maneuverability, and multiple pilots.

NASA's Mercury missions were the first American manned flights into space (1961-1963).

Skylab was the United States' first space station. Launched on May 14, 1973, it was manned by three separate crews (May 25 to June 22, 1973; July 28 to September 25, 1973; and November 16, 1973, to February 8, 1974) who conducted an array of scientific, medical and technical experiments and observations. Skylab was destroyed in controlled re-entry (like Mir) on July 11, 1979.