300 Firsts

[gracemini]

Space


First artificial satellite launched into orbit
Sputnik 1, USSR (1957)

First artificial satellite by the United States
Explorer 1 (195

First manned space vehicle
Vostok 1, USSR (1961)

First international co-operative space flight
A US Apollo spacecraft docks with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft while in earth orbit. The two flight crews visited each other’s spacecraft and had meals together (1975)

First US astronaut to orbit earth
John Glenn (1962)

First manned private spaceflight
‘Space Ship One’ piloted by Mike Melvill (2004)

First fully controlled soft landing on moon
Surveyor 1 (1966)

First spacecraft to orbit Saturn
Cassini Huygens (2004)
First living creature to orbit the earth
Laika, the dog, aboard the Soviet satellite, Sputnil 2. Laika was asphysiated after a week in orbit. Her cabin burned up on re-entry to the earth’s atmosphere (1957)

First man in space
Yuri Gagarin of USSR. He is the first human to orbit Earth (1961)