TOP 31 Facts about the Space Race

by | Oct 1, 2014 | THE HISTORY OF RUSSIA , Space | 0 comments

Vostok 1

фотобанк Лори

Records, food and other facts from astronauts

Space Records

  1. 1957. USSR. The first earth satellite vehicle. Sputnik I was the first earth satellite that was launched into Earth orbit, and it marked the beginning of a serious space race.
  2. 1959. USSR. The first spaceship that flew close to the Moon, the first man-made satellite of the sun. Automatic interplanetary station “Luna-1” flew close to the moon and became the first man-made satellite of the Sun.
  3. 1960. USSR. The first dogs in space that came back to earth. “Squirrel” and “Arrow” were accompanied by a rabbit, a few mice and flies. All came back safe and sound. Later, Nikita Khrushchev gave Jacqueline Kennedy one of the Arrow’s pups.
  4. 1961. USSR. The first man in space. The first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made the journey into space and Earth orbit. He spent 1 hour 48 minutes in space. The man stepped into space!
  5. 1963. USSR. The first woman in space. Valentina Tereshkova was the first female astronaut to travel into space.
  6. 1964. USSR. The first multi-seat spaceship, the first ever flight without using space suits. “Voshod 1” – three-seat spacecraft.
  7. 1965. USSR. The first extravehicular activity in space. Alexei Leonov left the spacecraft “Voskhod-2” for a distance of 5 m and spent 12 minutes 9 seconds in open space.
  8. 1966. USSR. The first landing of a spacecraft on the moon. Unmanned spacecraft Luna-9 became the first spacecraft that completed a soft landing on the moon.
  9. 1967. USSR. The first docking of spacecrafts in space. Spacecrafts “Cosmos-186” and “Cosmos-188” completed the first docking in space.
  10. 1968. USA. The first flight of the piloted spacecraft around the moon. Spacecraft “Apollo-8” with three American astronauts made ​​10 circles around the moon.
  11. 1969. USA. The first landing of a manned spacecraft on the moon. Spacecraft “Apollo-11” with a crew of three people landed on the moon. Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon.
  12. 1970. USSR. The first spacecraft on another planet. Interplanetary automatic research station “Venus-7” was the first space station that made ​​a soft landing on the planet Venus and transmitted data.
  13. 1975. USSR. The first pictures from the surface of another planet. Spacecraft “Venus-9” landed on the planet Venusand sent images from its surface.
  14. 1975. USSR-USA. The first international docking of two spacecrafts. As a result of implementation of the program “Soyuz-Apollo”, spacecrafts “Soyuz-19” and “Apollo” completed an orbital docking. Cosmonauts from the United States and the USSR visited the ships of each other’s crews and held a series of joint scientific experiments.

After that, the space race was over. We will mention a few more interesting Russian space records.

  1. 1995. Russia. The longest space flight in history. Cosmonaut Valery Polyakov spent in space without interruption 437 days 17 hours and 58 minutes.
  2. 1998. Russia. The longest time spent in the open space and the highest number of spacewalks. Cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyov during his flights into space completed 16 spacewalks of total duration of 78 hours and 48 minutes.
  3. 2005. USSR / Russia. The longest total time of flying in the orbit of the earth. Sergei Krikalev spent in space the total of 803 days 9 hours and 42 minutes.