Technological developments in the mid-20th Century made space travel possible. Humans, for thousands of years, had always looked up at the sky and wondered. There was a lot of curiosity about what lies above the Earth, in the heavens. The invention of rockets and space probes made it possible for the first time to get out of Earth and actually see and sometimes go to heavenly bodies. Human beings, for the first time in thousands of years, traveled out of the Earth. But the Space Race was actually accelerated by the geopolitical competition between two opposing superpowers. Both nations, USA and USSR, tried their best to be the first in many things in space. USSR was leading initially in the space race with its spectacular achievements. The USA was also catching up with its rockets and space probes. Americans finally became the first to land humans on the moon in 1969, a big achievement. The pace of the space race slowed after that and there was even coloration between the superpowers in the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975.

1. The First Man-
made Object to
Reach Space
The V-2 rocket became the
first man-made object to
reach space on June 20,
1944 when it reached an
altitude of 176 km. It was
also the first suborbital
flight of a man-made
object. Pictured is the first
successful launch of a V-2
rocket on October 3, 1942
from Peenemünde,
Germany.
Credits – Cygni_18 /CC BY-SA
2.0/Source.

2. The First Photo of
Earth from Space
The image pictured is the first photo of the
Earth taken from space by a modified V-2
rocket on October 24, 1946. It was
launched from White Sands Missile Range
in White Sands, New Mexico, USA.

3. First Man-made
object to orbit Earth
On October 4, 1957, Sputnik 1
became the first satellite to
orbit the Earth. It was
launched by the USSR from
Baikonur Cosmondrome, now
in Kazakhstan. The launch of
marked the beginning of the
‘Space Race’ and ‘Space Age’.

4. The First Animal to
Orbit the Earth
Sputnik 2 was launched on
November 3, 1957. It carried a
dog named Laika. She survived
the launch, however by the
fourth orbit, the cabin
overheated. She died after a
few days from overheating.
Credits - Laika ac/ CC BY-SA
2.0/Source.

5. First Space Probe to Achieve
Escape Velocity and Flyby the
Moon
Luna 1 was launched January 2, 1959 from a
Luna 8K72 rocket from Baikonur Cosmondrome
in what is now Kazakhstan. It was intended as an
impactor but it missed and moon. It made a
flyby of the moon with the closest distance to
the moon being 5,995 kms on January 4, 1959.
Credits - RIA Novosti archive, image #510848/Alexander
Mokletsov/CC-BY-SA 3.0/Source

6. First Man-made Object to
Impact Another Celestial
Object
Luna 2 was launched on September
12, 1959 on a Luna 8K72 rocket. On
September 13, 1959, it impacted the
moon east of Mare Imbrium near the
craters Aristides, Archimedes, and
Autolycus. Pictured here is Luna 2 in
its launch configuration inside the
rocket.
Credits - RIA Novosti archive, image #73086 /
Alexander Mokletsov / CC-BY-SA 3.0/Source

7. First Picture of the Far-
side of the Moon
Humanity saw the far-side
of the moon for the first
time on October 7, 1959,
when Luna 3 photographed
the Far-side of the moon.

8. First Space Probe to Use
Gravity-assist from Another
Celestial Body
Luna 3 was also the first space probe
to use gravity-assist from another
celestial body. To image the far-side
of the moon, it used the gravity of the
moon to change its trajectory.

9. First Human in
Space and to
Orbit Earth
On April 12, 1961 Yuri
Gagarin became the first
human to reach space
and orbit the Earth. He
returned to the Earth
after completing an
orbit round the Earth
and then parachuting
safely after ejecting
from his re-entry
capsule. This spaceflight
was the beginning of
the human exploration
of Space.
Credits – ИринаЯ/CC BY-SA 4.0.
Source.

10. First Spacecraft to make a
Survivable Landing on the
Another Celestial Body
Luna 9 was the first spacecraft to
make a survivable landing on the
moon. It landed on the moon on
February 3, 1966 after slowing down
its speed by retrorockets and then
using a landing bag.
Credits – Pline/CC BY-SA 3.0/Source

11. First Ever Pictures Taken
From the Surface of
Another Celestial Body
The first-ever photographs were
taken from the surface of the
moon by Luna 9 lander on
February 3, 1966.

12. The First Space
Probe to Flyby
Another Planet
On May 19, 1961, Venera 1
passed within 1,00,000 km of
the planet Venus. However,
by this time it had lost contact
with the ground control. It
made several discoveries
regarding solar wind and
space plasma. It was launched
by USSR on February 12, 1961
atop a Molniya rocket.

13. First Woman in Space
Valentina Tereshkova became the first
woman in Space when she was launched
into space on June 16, 1963 by a Vostok-K
rocket. She orbited the Earth for three
days before landing on June 19, 1963.
Credits - RIA Novosti archive, image #579932 /
Alexander Mokletsov /CC-BY-SA 3.0/Source

14. First Aircraft to
Reach Space
Flight 90 of the North
American X-15 rocket
aircraft reached to a
height of 106.01 km on
July 19, 1963. It was
piloted by Joseph A.
Walker.

15. First Space Walk
Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov
made the first Space Walk on
March 18, 1965, when he
came out of the Voskhod 2
spacecraft. The Spacewalk
lasted 12 minutes 9 seconds.
Credits – NASA. Source.

16. First Spacecraft to Flyby
Mars
On July 15, 1965, Mariner 1
became the first spacecraft to
flyby Mars when it flew 9,846
km from its surface. It was
launched on November 28,
1964 by a Atlas LV-3 Agena-D
rocket by the USA.

17. Credits - Gunter's Space Page. Enhanced by letsenhance.io.
First Space Probe to
Impact Another Planet
On March 1, 1966, Venera 3
became the first space probe to
impact the planet Venus.
Launched by USSR on November
16, 1965, its goal was to land on
the surface, but its initial
trajectory missed Venus by
60,550km. A course-correction
made it to impact the surface, but
it had lost contact 15 days before.

18. The first docking of two
spacecrafts in Space On March 16, 1966, Gemini
8 docked with the Agena
Target Vehicle completing
the first docking of two
spacecrafts in Space. After
docking there was an
emergency situation in
which the docked
spacecrafts began rolling
fastly. The two member crew
of Gemini 8 had Neil
Armstrong, who heroically
steadied the spacecraft.

19. First Spacecraft to Orbit
Another Celestial Body
On April 3, 1966, Luna 10
became the first
spacecraft to orbit
around the moon. It was
launched on March 31,
1966 by USSR.
Credits – Pline/CC BY-SA 3.0/Source.

20. First Living Beings to Leave
Earth’s Orbit, Circle the
Moon and Return Safely to
Earth
Zond 5 was launched on
September 14, 1968 by the USSR
using a Proton-K/D rocket. It
carried two tortoises, fruit flies
and plants and other species. On
September 18, it circled the moon
with the closest distance 1,950
km. It splashed down in The
Indian Ocean on September 21,
1968.

21. First Humans to enter into
Gravitational Influence of
Another Celestial Body, Orbit and
Return Safely to Earth
Apollo 8 was launched on
December 21, 1968 on a Saturn
V rocket with astronauts Frank
Borman, James Lovell and
William Anders on board. On 24
December, 1968, it entered into
the moon’s orbit and departed
for Earth the next day after a
Trans-Earth burn.

22. First Docking between two
Crewed Spacecraft in Earth Orbit
and Crew Exchange in Space.
On January 16, 1969,
Soyuz 4 docked with
Soyuz 5 and exchanged
cosmonauts, thus
performing the first
crewed docking in Space.
Credits - Lunokhod 2/CC BY-SA 3.0/Source. Enhanced by letsenhance.io.

23. On May 23, 1969 the
command module of the
Apollo 10 mission docked
with the lunar module thus
making the first docking
around another celestial
body.
First docking
around another
celestial body

24. First Man on the Moon/
another Celestial Body
On July 21, 1969, Neil
Armstrong became the first
man to set foot on the
moon, when he came out
of the Apollo 11 lunar
module into the surface.
He is pictured here inside
the lunar module.

25. First space launch of humans
from a celestial body other than
the Earth and sample return
On July 21, 1969 the Apollo
11 lunar module lifted from
the lunar surface and
docked with the command
module. It was also the first
time samples were returned
from another celestial body.

26. First Rendezvous on
Surface of Another
Celestial Body
Apollo 12 landed on the moon
on November 19, 1969. The
astronauts landed close to the
landing site of Surveyor 3 probe
and visited the probe during one
of their spacewalks. They took
many pieces of the Surveyor
including the TV camera.

27. First Rover on Another
Celestial Body
Lunokhod 1 was a rover
taken on the moon by
Luna 17 space probe. It
descended on the
surface on November
17, 1970. It operated for
322 Earth days.

28. Credits – Emerezhko/CC BY-SA 4.0/Source.
First Spacecraft to Soft-Land on
Another Planet and Transmit Data
back to Earth
On December 15, 1970, Venera 7
became the first space probe to land
on Venus. It was launched on August
17, 1970 by a Molniya 8K78M rocket
by USSR.

29. First Space Station
Salyut 1 was the World’s first
space station launched into
orbit on April 19, 1971 by the
USSR. It orbited the Earth for
175 days before it burned up in
the Pacific Ocean after running
out of fuel.

30. First Person to Operate
a Telescope in Space
In June 1971, Victor Patsayev
became the first person to
operate a telescope in Space
when he used the Orion 1
Ultraviolet Telescope in Salyut 1
station, to study stars.

31. First People to perish
in Space
Cosmonauts Georgy
Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov,
and Viktor Patsayev were killed
when a cabin depressurization
happened in space on Soyuz 11
when they were returning from
Salyut 1 space station on June
29, 1971.

32. First Spacecraft to Orbit
Another Planet
On November 14, 1971, Mariner 9
entered into an orbit around Mars. It
was launched on May 30, 1971 by the
USA using a Atlas SLV-3C Centaur-D
rocket.