 A chart of selected space milestones as accomplished by the USSR and the USA. This is a list of first achievements in spaceflight from the first artificial satellite through the Moon landing. It focuses primarily on Space race accomplishments that led to the landing on the Moon. Missions are given in order of launch date.
[edit] Miscellaneous milestones [edit] Notable firsts The Soviet space program pioneered many aspects of space exploration. Two days after the United States announced its intention to launch an artificial satellite, on July 31, 1956, the Soviet Union announced its intention to do the same. Sputnik 1 was launched on October 4, 1957, beating the United States and stunning people all over the world. The Soviet space program pioneered many aspects of space exploration: - 1957: First intercontinental ballistic missile, the R-7 Semyorka
- 1957: First satellite, Sputnik 1
- 1957: First animal to enter Earth orbit, the dog Laika on Sputnik 2
- 1959: First firing of a rocket in Earth orbit, first man-made object to escape Earth's orbit, Luna 1
- 1959: First data communications, or telemetry, to and from outer space, Luna 1.
- 1959: First man-made object to pass near the Moon, first man-made object in Solar orbit, Luna 1
- 1959: First probe to impact the Moon, Luna 2
- 1959: First images of the moon's far side, Luna 3
- 1960: First animals to safely return from Earth orbit, the dogs Belka and Strelka on Sputnik 5.
- 1960: First probe launched to Mars, Marsnik 1
- 1961: First probe launched to Venus, Venera 1
- 1961: First person in space (International definition) and in Earth orbit, Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1, Vostok programme
- 1961: First person to spend over a day in space Gherman Titov, Vostok 2 (also first person to sleep in space).
- 1962: First dual manned spaceflight, Vostok 3 and Vostok 4
- 1963: First woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, Vostok 6
- 1964: First multi-man crew (3), Voskhod 1
- 1965: First EVA, by Aleksei Leonov, Voskhod 2
- 1965: First probe to hit another planet (Venus), Venera 3
- 1966: First probe to make a soft landing on and transmit from the surface of the moon, Luna 9
- 1966: First probe in lunar orbit, Luna 10
- 1967: First unmanned rendezvous and docking, Cosmos 186/Cosmos 188. (Until 2006, this had remained the only major space achievement that the US had not duplicated.)
- 1969: First docking between two manned craft in Earth orbit and exchange of crews, Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5
[edit] Unmanned lunar missions [edit] Manned missions | Milestone | Date | Country | Mission | | First man in space, first man to orbit the Earth | April 1961 | USSR | Vostok 1 | | First manual control of a manned spacecraft | May 1961 | USA | Freedom 7 | | First one-day flight | August 1961 | USSR | Vostok 2 | Two spacecraft launched into nearly intersecting orbits.
(Mistakenly reported as first rendezvous.)[4] [5] [6] | August 1962 | USSR | Vostok 3 and Vostok 4 | | First flight over three days long | August 1962 | USSR | Vostok 3 | | First woman in space | June 1963 | USSR | Vostok 6 | | First crew of three astronauts onboard one spacecraft | October 1964 | USSR | Voskhod 1 | | First spacewalk (EVA) | March 1965 | USSR | Voskhod 2 | | First manned spacecraft to change orbit | March 1965 | USA | Gemini 3 | | First mission over seven days long (long enough for a mission to the Moon and back) | August 1965 | USA | Gemini 5 | Two spacecraft maneuvering to close proximity under fine control.
The first rendezvous in space. [5] [7] | December 1965 | USA | Gemini 6A | | Longest flight of the decade (13 days, 18 hours) | December 1965 | USA | Gemini 7 | | First docking with another spacecraft | March 1966 | USA | Gemini 8 | | First extended EVA | June 1966 | USA | Gemini 9A | | First manned mission to leave Earth orbit, first to orbit the Moon | December 1968 | USA | Apollo 8 | | First docking between two manned craft in Earth orbit with exchange of crews | January 1969 | USSR | Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 | | First successful manned flight of a spacecraft capable of landing on the Moon (Apollo Lunar Module) | March 1969 | USA | Apollo 9 | | First manned landing on the Moon | July 1969 | USA | Apollo 11 | [edit] Unmanned planetary missions | Milestone | Date | Country | Mission | | First flyby of Venus (< 100,000km), but contact was lost | February 1961 | USSR | Venera 1 | | First successful flyby of Venus (less than 35,000km) | August 1962 | USA | Mariner 2 | | First Mars flyby (11,000km) but contact was lost | November 1962 | USSR | Mars 1 | | First successful Mars flyby (returned pictures) | November 1964 | USA | Mariner 4 | | First impact of Venus (contact lost) | November 1965 | USSR | Venera 3 | | First to enter Venus's atmosphere | June 1967 | USSR | Venera 4 | | First to parachute in Venus's atmosphere, lost contact before landing. (soft landing?) | January 1969 | USSR | Venera 5 | [edit] See also [edit] References - ^ Project SCORE (December 1958) broadcast a delayed relayed message and tested satellite communications.
- ^ Vanguard 2 returned data on the amount of cloud cover in February 1959
- ^ Used an airbag to survive 15 meter/second impact
- ^ G. Salakhutdinov, in a Russian periodical from 1990, relates the following quote :
"The group flight ... well, a day after the launch, the first craft was over Baykanur. If the second craft were launched now with great precision, then they would turn out to be next to each other in space. And that's what was done ... The craft turned out to be 5 kilometers from each other! Well, since, with all of the secrecy, we didn't tell the whole truth, the Western experts, who hadn't figured it out, thought that our Vostok was already equipped with orbital approach equipment. As they say, a sleight of hand isn't any kind of fraud. It was more like our competitors deceived themselves all by their lonesome. Of course, we didn't shatter their illusions."
- First Deputy Chief Designer Vasily Mishin -- G. Salakhutdinov, "Once more about space, interview with Academician Vasiliy Pavlovich Mishin former chief designer of rocket-space equipment" (English title), Ogenek 34 (August 18-25 1990):4-5.
Translation at http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20000088626_2000122281.pdf , page 379. - ^ a b The USSR's susposed rendezvous was two spacecraft launched into nearly intersecting (but not identical) orbits, but never coming closer than five kilometers. Space historians indicate that the first true rendezvous was in 1965, when Gemini 6A shifted its orbit and maneuvered to and remained within 30 cm (about 1 foot) of Gemini 7. (A rendezvous is a precursor to docking, although Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 did not dock.) For further clarification and references, see Space rendezvous.
- ^ Vostok 3
- ^ Gemini 6
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