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The Cold War Begins
The beginning of the rivalry between the United States led to a massive competition to see who could get into space and land a man on the moon first. -
Sputnik- 1 Launched
The Soviets launched the first ever man-made satellite. This worried the people of the United States, and was a main trigger for the space race. -
The Soviets launch a dog into space
Shortly after the Soviets launched Sputnik, a dog named Laika was put into orbit. The dog became the first living animal to enter space. Unfortunately, the dog died due to high stress and overheating. -
Sputnik- 3 is launched
The Luna-3 was designed to retrieve photos from the back side of the moon, once again beating the Americans to a major achievement. -
The Luna-1 is Launched
The Luna-1 was the first space probe to exit Earth's orbit, and later became the first artificial object to orbit the sun. The probe was originally meant to impact the moon, but missed, and instead was caught in an orbit around the sun. -
Soviets obtain photos of the dark side of the moon
When the Luna-3 succesfully accomplished its goal, the Soviets were far ahead of the Americans, and were consistantly beating them to several 'firsts'. -
Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin makes the first manned space flight
In the Vostok spacecraft, Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. After the Soviets beat the Americans once again, President Kennedy gave his famous statement about getting to the moon within the decade. -
Soviets send the first woman in space
The Soviets were also responsible for sending the first woman into space. Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman to leave the Earth's atmosphere, and another woman would not be sent into space for another 19 years (also a Russian woman). -
The Soviets conduct the first space walk
Alexei Leonov became the first human to ever set foot in outer space after exiting the atmosphere in a Voskhod-2 ship wearing a prototype spacesuit. This mission was performed months before the Americans were able to, proving once again that the Soviets were advancing faster than the American's program. -
The Luna-10 is launched
The Luna-10 became the first-ever spacecraft to orbit the moon. This gave the Soviets useful data on how to reach the moon, and could have helped on any manned missions they may have planned for the future. -
The first remote rover lands on the moon
The Soviet space program landed the first ever remote rover on the moon with the intention of using it to help guide and mark landings of manned spacraft on the moon's surface. The rover had spare oxygen tanks attatched for cosmonauts to use, and landing beacons to mark landing zones. -
Salyut-1 is launched
The Salyut-1 became the first ever space station. However, the first launch was a failure, and after a complication with the staging of the rockets, the crew of 3 died. -
Venera-9 launched
The Venera-9 was an unmanned mission that was targeted for Venus, and became the first spacecraft to orbit Venus. It also was able to transmit several photographs of Venus back to Earth. -
The N1-L3 program is cancelled
The N1 and L3 rockets were both Soviet-designed rockets intended to be used for the space program. However, after being proven unreliable by many failed launches, the program was cancelled. -
Soviet Union collapses
The Soviet Union eventally fell into economic ruin, and the Soviet Union collapsed. This caused the space program to take a major hit, and no new developments were made until Russia recovered.
