-
1942 German Rocket
In 1942 the German V2 was the first rocket to reach 100km from the Earth’s surface (the boundary of space). The rocket was designed by Wernher Von Braun, who later worked with NASA as the creator of the rockets that went to the moon. -
American Monkey
Albert II, was the first monkey in space. He was a Rhesus monkey, a type of monkey that originally comes from Asia. Albert went into space on 14th June, 1949 in a specially adapted American V2 rocket, that flew to a height of 83 miles from earth. -
Russian Satilite
On 4th October 1957, Russia launched the first satellite into space; Sputnik 1, and the space age had properly begun! Sputnik was the first satellite in orbit around the earth. Today there are over 500 working satellites in space. Sputnik means "Satellite" in Russian. -
Russian Cosmonaut
On 12th April 1961, Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. Gagarin's spacecraft, Vostok 1, completed one orbit of the earth, and landed about two hours after launch. Gagarin had to bail out and land using his parachute, because the Vostok 1 was designed to crash land! -
Neil Armstrong
On 20th July 1969, Neil Armstrong, and then Buzz Aldrin took "one small step" and became the first men on the moon. The first words said on the moon were "the Eagle has landed". Their spaceship, Apollo 11 worked perfectly, flying them 250,000 miles to the moon, and bringing them all the way back safely to earth. Buzz was a childhood nickname - his real name was Edwin! -
Apollo 13
Two days into its journey to the moon, on 13th April 1970, Apollo 13 suffered an explosion caused by a wiring fault. Using only whatever was on board, NASA scientists and the astronauts on board improvised repairs to bring the crippled spaceship home. The mission was a successful failure: although the crew never walked on the moon at least they made it home alive! -
Mars 2
In 1971, Russian space probe Mars 2 explored Mars, the fourth planet of the solar system. The probe was made of two parts. One part stayed in orbit for a year, sending pictures of Mars back to earth. The other was to land and explore the surface of Mars, but it was destroyed when its parachute failed to open. -
Lunar Rover
From 1971 American astronauts on the fourth, fifth and sixth Apollo missions enjoyed use of a moon car to explore the moon. Known as the Lunar Rover, it was electric powered, and had a top speed of 8mph. It was designed and developed in only 17 months, by Boeing, the aeroplane company famous for making the Jumbo Jet. -
First Shuttle
Until 12th April 1981 all spacecraft were designed to be used only once. The Space Shuttle, was designed to be reused for up to 100 visits to space, in an attempt to make space travel less expensive. With five hugely powerful rocket motors, it can fly at more than 17,000 miles per hour. Six have been built. -
SpaceShipOne
On June 21st, 2004, SpaceShipOne made the first ever privately funded manned space flight. This space plane was built by a private aviation firm to win the 10 million dollar Ansari X Prize. A new Airline, Virgin Galactic has been set up to offer private tourist flights into space, using a new version of this space plane. Tickets are available for flights, starting around 2012.
