Helen Sharman becomes the first British astronaut. She was selected from 13,000 applicants to visit the Soviet space station Mir in May 1991. Sharman now works at the Faculty of Science, Engineering…
Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space. Ride joined NASA in 1978 after studying physics at Stanford University, and went into space twice and worked for NASA until 1987….
Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman and first civilian in space. Tereshkova spent 3 days in space and orbited the earth 48 times on Vostok 6, the sixth manned flight…
Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space, flying a single orbit around the Earth in the spacecraft Vostok 1. American Alan Shepard followed Gagarin into space three weeks later.
The Soviet Sputnik 1 becomes the first satellite successfully launched into space. A US satellite launch later the same year is a public failure.
The “Space Race” begins with both the United States and Soviet governments announcing an intent to launch satellites into Earth’s orbit.
