Over its sixty-year history the Soviet space program was responsible for a number of pioneering accomplishments in space flight, including: the first.

SPACE EXPLORATION

Russian (Soviet) Space Program

Over its sixty-year history the Soviet space program was responsible for a number of pioneering accomplishments in space flight, including:

the first satellite (Sputnik -1) 1957

First living creature in space

Laika - 1957

First human in space and first earth orbit, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on Vosok 1 April 12

1961 

First woman in space – Valentina Tereshkova 1963

Other firsts

-first spacewalk (cosmonaut Alexey Leonov on Voskhod 2), March 1965

  -first Moon impact (Luna 2),   -first image of the far side of the moon (Luna

3) and unmanned lunar soft landing (Luna 9),   -first Space Station (MIR) 1986 to 2001   - first interplanetary probe to Venus.

American Space Program

Project Mercury Goals   Initiated in 1958, completed in 1963, Project

Mercury was the United States' first man-in-space program. The objectives of the program, which made six manned flights from 1961 to 1963, were specific:

1.To orbit a manned spacecraft around Earth2. To investigate man's ability to function in

space3. To recover both man and spacecraft safely

Mercury, America's first human space flight program, introduced the nation to its first astronauts. There were six total flights with six astronauts flown. Total flight time for these missions was 53 hours, 55 minutes and 27 seconds.

Mercury-Redstone 3

Spacecraft: FREEDOM 7Mission Date: May 5, 1961Astronaut: Alan B. ShepardFlight Summary: 15 minutes, 28 seconds - Suborbital flight that successfully put the first American in space.

Mercury-Redstone 4

Spacecraft: LIBERTY BELL 7Mission Date: July 21, 1961Astronaut: Virgil I. Grissom Flight Summary: 15 minutes, 37 seconds - Suborbital flight, successful flight but the spacecraft sank shortly after splashdown

Mercury-Atlas 6Spacecraft: FRIENDSHIP 7Mission Date: Feb 20, 1962Astronaut: John H. Glenn, Jr.Flight Summary: 4 hours, 55 minutes, 23 seconds - Three-orbit flight that placed the first American into orbit.

Mercury-Atlas 7 Spacecraft: AURORA 7

Mission Date: May 24, 1962Astronaut: Scott M. CarpenterFlight Summary: 4 hours, 56 minutes, 5 seconds - Confirmed the success of the Mercury-Atlas 6 by duplicating the flight

Mercury-Atlas 8

Spacecraft: SIGMA 7Mission Date: Oct 3, 1962Astronaut: Walter M. SchirraFlight Summary: 9 hours, 13 minutes, 11 seconds - Six-orbit engineering test flight.

Mercury-Atlas 9

Spacecraft: FAITH 7Mission Date: May 15-16, 1963

Astronaut:L. Gordon Cooper, Jr.

Flight Summary: 34 hours, 19 minutes, 49 seconds - The last Mercury mission; completed 22 orbits to evaluate effects of one day in space.

Gemini missions: stepping stones to the Moon

The Gemini Program was a necessary intermediate step between Project Mercury and the Apollo Program, and had four objectives:

  1) To subject astronauts to long duration flights- a requirement for

projected later trips to the moon or deeper space;

2) to develop effective methods of rendezvous and docking with other orbiting vehicles, and to maneuver the docked vehicles in space;

3) to perfect methods of reentry and landing the spacecraft at a pre-selected land-landing point;  

4) to gain additional information concerning the effects of weightlessness on crew members and to record the physiological reactions of crew members during long duration flights. 

Gemini 3

Mission Date: March 23, 1965Astronauts: Gus Grissom, John YoungFlight Summary: 4 hours, 52 minutes The mission's primary goal was to test the new, maneuverable Gemini spacecraft

Gemini 4 Mission Date: June 3, 1965

Astronauts: Ed White, James McDivitt

Flight Summary: 4 hours, 52 minutes Ed White became the first American to make an extravehicular activity (EVA, or "space walk")

Gemini 5

Mission Date: August 21-29, 1965

Astronauts: Gordon Cooper, Pete Conrad

Flight Summary: demonstrated the 8-day endurance necessary for an Apollo lunar mission with the first use of fuel cells to generate its electrical power

Gemini 6A

Mission Date: December 15, 1965

Astronauts: Wally Schirra, Tom Stafford

Flight Summary: Rendezvous with Gemini 7

Gemini 7Mission Date: December 4, 1965

Astronauts: Frank Borman, Jim Lovell

Flight Summary: Rendezvous with Gemini 6A, 14 day endurance record

Gemini 8

Mission Date: March 16-17, 1966

Astronauts: Neil Armstrong, David Scott

Flight Summary: First space docking with unmanned space craft

Gemini 11Mission Date: September 1966

Astronauts: Pete Conrad and Richard Gordon

Flight Summary: set a manned Earth orbital altitude record of 739.2 nautical miles (1,369.0 km)

Gemini 12

Date: Nov 11, 1966

Astronauts: Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin

Flight Summary: Aldrin became the first space traveller to prove that useful work could be done outside a spacecraft without life-threatening exhaustion

Apollo missions

Goals: · Establish the technology to exist in space. · Achieve preeminence in space for the United

States. · Carry out a program of scientific exploration

of the Moon. · Develop man's capability to work in the lunar

environment.   New type of rocket Saturn V for lunar flights.

Apollo 1

Mission Date: Feb 1967 Astronauts: Grissom,

White, Chaffee Flight Summary: Never

launched. A fire erupted in the command module during preflight tests, killing all three crew members.

Apollo 7 and 9

Apollo 7 and 9 Mission Date: 1967-1968 Flight Summary: Testing of all the

components necessary for lunar orbit and landing.

Apollo 8

Date: Dec. 21-29, 1968

Crew: Jim Lovell, Frank Borman, William Anders

Flight summary: First orbit of the moon

Apollo 10

Mission Date: May 18 1969 Astronauts: Stafford, Cernan, Young Flight Summary: the dress rehearsal

for the moon landing, orbited the moon

Apollo 11 Mission Date: July 16,

1969 Astronauts: Neil

Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins

Flight Summary: First moon landing. Neil Armstrong first man on the moon.

Apollo 12 Mission Date:

November 14 1969 Crew: Conrad,

Gordon, Bean Flight Summary:

Moon landing

Apollo 13Mission date April 11, 1970

Crew: Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, Fred Haise

Flight summary: Problem after launch. Oxygen tank explosion. Re-engineered materials on board to clean the air and ensure survival. Safely returned to earth.

Apollo 14-17

Further missions to the Moon

Dates: Jan 31, 1971 to Dec 7, 1972

Different landing sites, carts driven on moon, samples of rocks gathered.

Space shuttles

Design a reusable space craft. Launched by being strapped to rockets,

lands on its own like an airplane. Transported from landing to launch site on

the back of a 747.   First launch: April 12, 1981 Final launch: July 21, 2011   Space shuttles: Columbia (28),

Challenger(10), Discovery(39), Atlantis(33) and Endeavour(25)

Notable missions

Two disasters Challenger STS-51L : Jan 1986 cold at

launch, O-rings leaked causing explosion 73 seconds into flight. All crew lost.

Columbia STS-107: 2003 broke apart on re-entry. Damage to wing on launch from piece of foam. All crew lost.

Mission to Mars

Planned launch in 2024. First humans to Mars. Multinational program. Would you go?