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It reached 100km from the Earth's surface which is the boundary of space.
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Fruit flies were used to test the effects of space travel on animals.
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Albert II was the first monkey he was a Rhesus monkey, a type of monkey that originally came from Asia. He flew to a height of 83 miles from Earth.
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Russia launched Sputnik 1 and the space age began. It was the first satellite in orbit around the Earth. Today there are over 500 working satelites orbiting the Earth.
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"Laika " meaning barker was the dog's name. She was sent into orbit to help scientists investigate whether humans could survive in space.
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Space-probe Luna 2 crash-landed into the moon at a speed that would kill an astronaut if one had been travelling in it! It was ten more years until a human visited the moon's surface.
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Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. Gagarin's spacecraft, Vostok 1, completed one orbit of the earth, and landed about two hours after launch.
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The first woman in space was Valentina Tereshkova. A crater on the far side of the Moon is named after her!
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In 1966 US President John F. Kennedy promised the world that the US would land men on the moon before 1970. It was called Surveyor 1, and it made the second soft landing on the Moon
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Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first men on the moon. Apollo 11 worked perfectly, flying them 250,000 miles to the moon, and bringing them all the way back safely to earth.
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Two days into it's journey to the moon, Apollo 13 suffered an explosion caused by a wiring error. The crew on board and the NASA scientists were able to repair it enough to bring the crippled space ship home.
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American astronauts on the fourth, fifth and sixth Apollo missions were given the aid of a moon car to explore the moon. Known as the Lunar Rover, it was electric powered, and had a top speed of 8mph.
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American astronauts on the fourth, fifth and sixth Apollo missions enjoyed use of a moon car to explore the moon. Known as the Lunar Rover, it was electric powered, and had a top speed of 8mph.
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Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after launch, because of a fuel system failure. All seven astronauts on board were killed, and all shuttles were grounded for nearly three years.
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In 2000 the first permanent crew moved into the International Space Station (ISS), where crews of astronauts have been living ever since.
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Dawn enters orbit around the asteroid Vesta on July 16, 2011. Vesta is one of the largest asteroids in the Solar System with a diameter of 300 miles (530 kilometers). It is roughly the size of the state of Arizona and is located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Dawn will remain in orbit around Vesta for about a year, studying and photographing its rocky surface. Dawn will then continue on to study another asteroid called Ceres.