Timeline:
1957 - Russia launches Sputnik 1, the first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite.
       Space race is on.
1959-1963 - Mercury Program - Put a human in orbit around the earth.
April 1961 - Russian, Yuri  Gagarin, became the first human in outer space and
             the first to orbit the Earth.
May 1961 - President Kennedy's Mission Statement to land a human on the moon.
February 20, 1962 - John Glen is the first American in orbit the earth.
1965-66 - Gemini program - Two man spacecraft orbital missions
1962-65 - Construction of launch pads and Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB)
       for the Apollo program. 
1967 - First unmanned Apollo flight
1968 - Apollo 8's lunar orbiting mission
July 1969 - Apollo 11 makes the first moon
            landing
1972 - Apollo 17 - Last moon mission
       In these six Apollo spaceflights,
       12 men walked on the Moon.
       Apollo 13 was aborted following an
       oxygen tank rupture.
1981 - First Space Shuttle Launch

• Apollo Spacecraft - $5.3 Billion
• Saturn Rockets - $8.7 Billion
• Other Costs - $11.4 Billion

Technology:
Saturn V, a three-stage liquid-fuel expendable rocket. Standing at 363 ft. the first stage consisted of 5 engines capable of launching the spacecraft the initial 42 miles in just 150 seconds. The five engines of the second stage burned for 360 seconds boasting the spacecraft to 109 miles at 15,647 miles per hour. Finally, the single engine third stage sent the Apollo into low-earth orbit 150 seconds later at 17,450 miles per hour. From launch to low earth- orbit took approximately 12 minutes.

The space shuttle's workforce was about 15,750 in 2005.