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The space age erupted with a flurry of satellites. The first two Soviet Sputniks launched in 1957, soon followed by the US Explorer I and Vanguard I. In 1959, spurred on by cold-war tensions, NASA selected seven men as astronauts for its Project Mercury programme. (Thirteen women who passed the same hurdles, courtesy of a private, parallel programme, were vetoed.) Barely a decade later, NASA’s Apollo astronauts walked on the Moon.