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First Animal In Space
This dog was aboard the Sputnik 2, launched by the Russians. The purpose of sending an animal into space was to prove that animals and eventually humans could live safely in a space shuttle. -
First Human In Space
Yuri Gagarin was the first human to ever go to space, aboard the Russian Vostok 1. -
First American To Orbit Earth
John Glenn did 3 laps around Earth in about 4 and a half hours. At the time, he was seventy-seven, making him the oldest person to ever fly in space. -
First Woman In Space
Russian Valentina Tereshkova was onboard the Vostok 6. While in space, Valentina's shuttle comes within 3 miles of fellow Russian Valeri Bykovsky's shuttle, who was abaord the Vostok 5. This the closest two spacecrafts have come to each other while in space. -
First Space Walk
Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov was the first to take a space walk. The tethered walk was about 10 minutes long. -
First Deaths In Space
A test on the launchpad kills 3 Apollo 1 astronauts during a fire. -
First Moon Landing
Neil Armstrong becomes the first man on the moon aboard the Apollo 11. Millions of people watched live on television. -
First Space Rescue
After an oxygen tank explodes aboard the Apollo 13, Mission Control back on Earth helps the crew onboard return to Earth. -
First American Space Station
The very first American space station was called the Skylab. The station is damaged during launch. A crew arrives 11 days later and stays for 28 days, breaking records for the longest time spent in space. -
First International Docking In Space
American and Russians meet in space, and cooperate to become the first people to dock spaceships together. -
First Mars Landing
The first Mars landing was a scientific probe controlled by scientists on Earth. The probe sends back the first pictures from Mars. -
First Resuable Space Vehicle
The Colombia space shuttle has a flawless take off and landing, so the vehicle was resuable. This was the first space mission manned by mission control on Earth since Apollo in 1975. -
First American Woman In Space
For the first time on an American space ship, a woman (Sally Ride) was a member of the crew going into space. -
First Civilian Death
The Challenger space ship exploded with civilians aboard. (People that weren't professionally trined in space travel) Everyone on board was killed unfortunamtely, including the first teacher in space, Christa McAuliffe -
First Woman To Do A Space Walk
Soviet Svetlana Savitskaya takes a 3 hour space walk completing experiments with her partner Vladimir Dzhanibekov. -
First Year in Space
The first people ever to spend an entrire year in space were Musa Manarov and Vladimir Titov. The two spent 366 days in space. This record was later broken when a cosmonaut spent 437 days in space. -
First Space Telescope
In 1990 the Hubble spacee telescope was launched. Hubble brought back pictures of distant galaxies and planets outside our solar system. -
First Spacecraft To Leave The Solar System
The Pioneer 10 was launched in early 1972, only to leave the solar system in 1990. It is currently 6.5 billion miles away, and still counting. -
First International Space Station
Russians and Americans come together when a Russian boards an American Space Shuttle. This was during Phase 1 of the International Space Station. During Phase 2, an American boarded a Russian space station. -
First American To Spend Six Months In Space
Shannon Lucid broke a recird for American time in space, but also women in space.
