Editing 1961 in science (section)

==Astronomy and space exploration==
* January 31 – [[Ham (chimpanzee)|Ham]], a 37-pound male [[chimpanzee]], is rocketed into space in a test of the [[Project Mercury]] capsule designed to carry [[United States|U.S.]] [[astronaut]]s into space.
* April 12 – [[Yuri Gagarin]] is the first human in space, making a single [[Low Earth orbit]] in [[Vostok 1]] before parachuting to the ground.
* April 15 – R. N. Schwartz and [[Charles Hard Townes]] publish "Interstellar and Interplanetary Communication by Optical Masers" in ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'', providing a basis for [[Optical SETI]].
* May 19 – [[Venera]] program: [[Venera 1]] becomes the first manmade object to fly-by another planet by passing [[Venus]] (however the probe had lost contact with Earth a month earlier and does not send back any data).
* May 25 – [[Apollo program]]: [[John F. Kennedy|President Kennedy]] announces before a special joint session of Congress his goal to initiate a project to put a "man on the [[Moon]]" before the end of the decade.
* The [[Drake equation]] is written by [[Frank Drake]]. <ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.seti.org/drake-equation-index | title=Drake Equation | publisher=SETI Institute | date=July 2021 | accessdate=20 December 2021 | author=Shostak, Seth}}</ref>