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The soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite. It was called Sputnik. Sputnik was launched on October 4, 1957.
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The first animal that was launched into space was a dog. It was launched into space on Sputnik II on November 3, 1957. It was a female dog, and her name was Laika. She lived in space for seven days, but there was no way to bring her back alive, so Laika was put to sleep in space.
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The first human in space was Yuri Gagarin. He entered space on the the Vostok I on April 12, 1961. That space shuttle belonged to the Soviets.
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The first American in space was astronaut Alan Shepard. He was on board Freedom 7 and was in space on a fifteen minute, twenty eight second sub-orbital flight. This took place on May 5, 1961.
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On June 16, 1963, the Soviets launched Valentina Tereshkova into space. She was in the spacecraft Vostok 6. Valentina was the first woman in space.
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The first space walk took place on March 18, 1965. It was completed by Russian astronaut Alexi Leonov. It was a ten minute journey tethered to the Voshkod 2.
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Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to the moon. It was a NASA mission, and was launched on 9:32AM on July 16, 1969 in a Florida field. Neil Armstrong, Ediwn “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins.
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The first orbiting space station was launched by the Soviets on April 19, 1971. It was named Salyut. It’s original crew died during re-entry on June 30, 1971.
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NASA sent its first American space station, Skylab, into orbit in 1973. But, because of budget, it is abandoned in 1974. The sun burned it, and its remains dropped into western Australia when the spacecraft fell on July 11, 1979.
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On January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded.The explosion killed all seven crew members, including a teacher, Christa McAuliffe. The explosion was blamed on faulty seals in the shuttle’s solid rocket boosters.
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ON January 24, 1990, two satellites were placed in orbit around the moon. They were placed there by the Japanese.
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The first space telescope was deployed on April 25, 1990. It is named the Hubble Space Telescope. At first, the primary mirror was damaged, so they had blurry pictures of distant galaxies and planets outside of our solar system. However, the crew of STS-61 corrected the problem.
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The Mars Rover, or Sojourner, arrived on Mars after being discharged from the space probe Pathfinder on July 6, 1997. It is a six wheeled remote controlled solar powered rover. It sends pictures of Mars’s surface and tests its soil.
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Senator John Glen, returned to space on October 29, 1998. He was the oldest person ever to fly in space, at the age of 77.
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On December 4, 1998, the assembly of the first International Space Station started. It attached the United States built Unity connecting module with the Russian built Zarya control module. The Zarya was already in space.
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The United States installed the first ever permanent framework structure on the International Space Station. That guaranteed future additions. This took place on October 11. 2000.
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The first non-astronaut to enter space was Dennis Tito, He paid twenty million dollars to go to space. He was sixty years old when he went on April 28, 2001. He now promotes programs supporting regular, everyday citizens traveling into space.
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On June 21, 2004, SpaceShipOne became the first privately manned craft to reach outer space. It won the ten million dollar Ansari X PRIZE four months later when it reached an altitude of one hundred kilometers.
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Cassini-Huygens became the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn on July 1, 2004. After, it flew within eight hundred miles of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.
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China sent its first man into space on October 15, 2003. The man’s name was Yang Liwei. That made China the third country to send a human into space, behind the United States and Russia. Yang was in space for twenty one hours.
