Milestones in space exploration – MENAFN.COM

Milestones in space exploration – MENAFN.COM

(MENAFN - Jordan Times) PARIS “” From Yuri Gagarin to the first man on the Moon and the robot that landed on a comet, we look at 10 key dates in space exploration. Moscow launches the first satellite, Sputnik 1, on October 4, 1957, ushering in the Cold War tussle for the cosmos. The beach ball-sized aluminium sphere takes 98 minutes to orbit the Earth and sends back the first message from space, simple 'beep-beep-beep' radio signals. A month later Sputnik 2 carries the first living being to fully orbit the Earth, a dog named Laika, who dies after a few hours. On April 12, 1961 Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space, completing a single, 108-minute orbit aboard Vostok-1. Twenty-three days later Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space when he makes a 15-minute trip. On June 16, 1963 cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space. It takes a full 40 years for the old Cold War rivals to be joined in space by a third country, when China sends up Yang Liwei onboard Earth orbiter Shenzhou 5. US astronaut Neil Armstrong is the first man to step onto the Moon on July