Space Exploration

Yuri Gagarin in Sweden Vostok 1 (Russian: Восто́к, East or Orient 1) was the first spaceflight of the Vostok programme and the first manned spaceflight in history. The Vostok 3KA space capsule was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on April 12, 1961, with Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin aboard, making him the first human to cross into outer space. The orbital spaceflight consisted of a single orbit around Earth which skimmed the upper atmosphere at 169 kilometers (91 nautical miles) at its lowest point. The flight took 108 minutes from launch to landing. Gagarin parachuted to the ground separately from his capsule after ejecting at 7 km (23,000 ft) altitude. In Politics The Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States, the two Cold War superpowers, began just before the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, in 1957. Both countries wanted to develop spaceflight technology quickly, particularly by launching the first succes...

Mars 1M Mars 1M spacecraft Mars 1M was a series of two unmanned spacecraft which were used in the first Soviet missions to explore Mars. They were the earliest missions of the Mars program. The Western media dubbed the spacecraft "Marsnik", a portmanteau of Mars and Sputnik. Spacecraft Mars 1M No.1 , known in the west as Marsnik 1, Mars 1960A and Korabl 4, was destroyed in a launch failure on October 10, 1960. In 1962, NASA Administrator James E. Webb informed the United States Congress that NASA believed the mission was an attempt at a Mars flyby probe. Some Soviet scientists involved with the program at that time claim no knowledge of this mission, stating that only the second launch was an intended Mars mission. However, V. G. Perminov, the leading designer of planetary spacecraft at the Lavochkin design bureau, states that this mission was indeed intended for Mars and was identical to the later mission. Mars 1M No.2 , known in the west as Marsni...

13 September 1959 Luna 2  (E-1A series) or  Lunik 2  was the second of the  Soviet Union's   Luna programme  spacecraft launched to the  Moon . It was the first spacecraft  to reach the surface of the Moon , and the first man-made object to land on another celestial body.  On September 13, 1959, it hit the Moon's surface east of  Mare Imbrium  near the craters Aristides,  Archimedes , and  Autolycus . Launch was scheduled for September 9, but the Blok I core stage was shut down after it failed to reach full thrust at ignition. The booster was removed from the pad and replaced by a different vehicle, delaying the flight by three days.  Luna 2 , like  Luna 1 , took a direct path to the Moon, with a velocity high enough to result in a travel time of around 36 hours.  Luna 2  hit the Moon about 800 kilometers (500 mi) from the centre of the visible disk on 1959 September 13 at 21:02:...

Replica of Sputnik 1 Sputnik 1  ( / ˈ s p ʊ t n ɪ k /  or  / ˈ s p ʌ t n ɪ k / ; "Satellite-1", or "PS-1", Простейший Спутник-1 or Prosteyshiy Sputnik-1, "Elementary Satellite 1") was the first  artificial Earth satellite .The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical  low Earth orbit  on 4 October 1957, orbiting for three weeks before its batteries died, then silently for two more months before falling back into the atmosphere. It was a 58 cm (23 in) diameter polished metal sphere, with four external radio antennas to broadcast radio pulses. Its radio signal was easily detectable even by  radio amateurs ,  and the 65° inclination and duration of its orbit made its flight path cover virtually the entire inhabited Earth. This surprise success precipitated the American  Sputnik crisis  and triggered the  Space Race , a part of the  Cold War . The launch ushered in new political, military, technol...