Project Mercury, from 1958 to 1963, led to the first crewed space voyage on May 5, 1961. President John Kennedy told Congress on May 25, 1961, that the U.S. will place a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth before the end of the decade. This ambitious aim would be fewer than nine years after the U.S. put a man in space for 15 minutes and 28 seconds. After the Soviet launch of Sputnik in October 1957, the space race became a race to the Moon between the US and the USSR. After Kennedy's statement, Project Apollo began in 1961. Mercury and Apollo failed to meet Moon-reach challenges. This required a new program to bridge Mercury's capability gap and Apollo's knowledge gap. This program was Project Gemini.

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