Top ten firsts in space

10 SPACE FIRSTS

First man in orbit

Yuri Gagarin
Launch date: 12 April 1961
The Russian cosmonaut completed an orbit of earth during his 108-minute spaceflight aboard Vostok I. Being the first human in space, he later explained the experience of weightlessness: “You feel as if you were hanging in a horizontal position in straps. You feel as if you are suspended.” After landing back on earth, Gagarin became an instant celebrity, touring the world to tell the adoring public about his big adventure. It was to be his only mission into space and he died in a plane crash in 1968 during a routine flight. His ashes are buried in the walls of the Kremlin in Moscow.

First woman in orbit

Valentina Tereshkova 
16 June 1963 the russian orbited the earth 48 times during her nearthree-day spell aboard Vostok 6.

First space walk

Alexey Leonov 
18 March 1965 Another russian cosmonaut, leonov undertook a 12-minute period of ‘extravehicular activity’ (space walk) during the Voskhod 2 mission. He was secured by a five-metre tether.

First death in space

Vladimir Komarov

24 April 1967 the russian was killed when the soyuz 1 spacecraft he was piloting crashed on its re-entry to earth.

First moon walk

Neil Armstrong 
21 July 1969 Apollo 11 mission commander Armstrong climbed down from the lunar lander eagle and onto the moon’s surface.

First space tourist

Dennis tito
28 April 2001 the American multimillionaire spent nearly eight days in space, reaching the international space station eP-1 aboard the russian craft soyuz tm-32.

First primate in space

albert ii
14 June 1949 A rhesus monkey called Albert ii reached an altitude of about 134km in a uslaunched V2 rocket. Albert ii died on impact after a parachute failure.

First animal in orbit

Laika
3 november 1957 the russian mongrel dog laika survived four orbits aboard sputnik 2 before dying, possibly as a result of overheating.

first manually controlled spaceflight

Alan shepard 
5 may 1961 the American reached an altitude of 187km aboard freedom 7 during which he had some control of his craft (Gagarin’s flight was strictly automatic).

First whole day in orbit

gherman titov 
6 August 1961 As well as spending a whole day aboard Vostok 2, russian titov orbited the earth 17 times and was the first to sleep in space.