Famous Firsts in Space Travel

The Soviet Union launched Sputnik on October 4, 1957. Sputnik became the world's first artificial satellite. This started the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Laika, a female dog from Russia, became the first animal launched into space in 1957. She lived seven days inside Sputnik II., Laika proved living creatures could survive in space. No one could bring Laika back to Earth. She also became the first animal to die in space.

Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space on April 12, 1961. Problems occurred during reentry. Gagarin ejected from Vostok 1 and parachuted to Earth.

Alan Shepard flew for 15 minutes and 28 seconds aboard Freedom 7 on May 5, 1961. Three weeks later, President John F. Kennedy promised to send men to the moon and back by the end of the 1960s.

Gherman Titov spent more than a day in space. During Vostok 2 in 1961, he was the first person to sleep in space.

John Glenn circled Earth three times in 4 hours and 56 minutes on February 20, 1962.

The Soviets launched Valentina Tereshkova went into space on June 16, 1963, aboard Vostok 6She spent three days alone in space.

Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov performed the first space walk on March 18, 1965. He was attached to Voskhod 2. He was outside the craft for 10 minutes.

Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov died when the Soyuz 2 crashed upon reentry. The Soyuz 2 crashed upon reentry on April 24, 1967.

The first crew exchange in space happened in 1969. This involved the Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 spacecrafts.

Neil Armstrong walked on the moon on July 20, 1969, fulfilling JFK's promise. He said, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Millions watched the event on television.

In 1970, an oxygen tank exploded on Apollo 13. Mission Control helped the crew return safely to Earth four days later. Jim Lovell told the story in his book Lost Moon, and on-screen in the 1995 movie Apollo 13, starring Tom Hanks, Ed Harris, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, and Gary Sinise.

Pioneer 10 launched in 1972. It became the first spacecraft to leave our solar system on September 22, 1990. It reached a distance 50 times farther from the sun than Earth. It is now heading toward the constellation Taurus.

Skylab launched on May 14, 1973, but it suffered damage during launch. The first crew arrived 11 days later for a 28-day stay. They made in-orbit repairs and set records for the longest time spent in space then.

The Viking 1 probe sent the first pictures from Mars on July 20, 1976.

The space shuttle Columbia took off like a rocket and landed like an airplane in 1981. It became the world's first reusable space vehicle. Sadly, the ColumbiaA piece of foam broke off the external tank, striking the vehicle's left wing. This caused the '1981 - First Reusable Space Vehicle' to disintegrate in 2003, killing everyone aboard.

Guion "Guy" Bluford Jr. became the first African American in space aboard the space shuttle Challenger on August 30, 1983.

Bruce McCandless and Robert Stewart performed the first untethered spacewalks in 1984. Aboard the STS-8 Challenger flight, they used jetpacks to move away from the shuttle, without any tethers.

The space shuttle.The Challenger.The Challenger exploded on January 28, 1986. It killed all seven crew members. Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher in space, was one of them.

In 1990, the space shuttle deployed the Hubble space telescope. This technology let humans see farther into space than before. A mirror on the telescope broke after deployment, but another space shuttle mission in 1993 fixed it.

In 1997, NASA astronaut David Wolf.David Wolf.(pictured) cast the first vote in a federal election from space. Wolf was on the Russian Mir space station. Mission Control in Houston beamed his vote back, and they sent it to the voting authorities.

The robot Sojourner explored the surface of Mars and took pictures after landing on July 6, 1997. Sojourner was a six-wheeled, remote-controlled, solar-powered vehicle, even though a craft landed on Mars earlier and took pictures.

Dennis Tito became the first space tourist. He flew himself in 2001, spending eight days in orbit visiting the International Space Station. Tito is not just an American engineer and multimillionaire.

Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko married on August 10, 2003. He was in space at that time.

On July 1, 2004, Cassini-Huygens became the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn. Later that year, the spacecraft flew within 800 miles of Titan, Saturn's largest moon and the only moon in our solar system with an atmosphere.

On July 11, 2021, British entrepreneur and Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson.Richard Branson.became the first billionaire to fly to space. His company's plane, the VSS Unity, was carried by an aeroplane before it separated and flew to the edge of Earth's atmosphere.About 53 miles.The trip took about an hour. Branson, two pilots, and three other crew members were on board, flying about 53 miles above the Earth.

Just nine days later on July 20, 2021, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.Jeff Bezos.became the second billionaire in space. Bezos and three crew members flew aboard the New Shepard, a spacecraft built by his company Blue Origin. They carried a capsule fueled by a booster rocket, flying higher than Branson, over 62 miles above the Earth. The entire trip took about 10 minutes. His crew included Wally Funk, 82, the oldest and youngest people to travel to space, who was part of the Woman in Space program.Woman in Space program.The project tested women's spaceflight capabilities in the 1960s. Oliver Daemen, 18, paid passenger from the Netherlands.