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Until very recently it was believed that the scientific concept of "rocket-powered space travel" had been conceived by Russian Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and American Robert Goddard between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who in turn had been inspired by the science fiction work.
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Robert Hutchings Goddard was responsible for the first flight of a liquid fuel (gasoline and oxygen) powered rocket launched on March 16, 1926, in Auburn, Massachusetts, United States.
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Yuri Gagarin, the first human being in space. The world's first spacecraft with a man on board, the Vostok, was launched into orbit from the Soviet Union on April 12, 1961.
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The first man in space.
By June 16, 1962, the Soviet Union launched a total of six cosmonauts within the Vostok mission, two pairs flying at the same time, and accumulating a total of 260 cosmonaut-orbits and over sixteen cosmonaut-days in space. -
1) Shuttle vehicles,
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2) Unmanned or robotic ships
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3) Manned spacecraft
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The space shuttle program began on April 12, 1981 with a mission carried out by Columbia. Today, Atlantis will be the last to take off from Cape Canaveral, Florida.