The Space Race

Laika was one of the first animals in space and the first animal to orbit the earth!

Laika was selected to be the occupant of the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2 that was launched into outer space on 3 November 1957

Unfortunately Laika did not return home

Yuri Gagarin was a Soviet Union Air Force pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey to outer space

On 12th April 1961, in the spacecraft Vostok 1 he orbited the earth in approximately 108 minutes.

Gagarin became an international celebrity and was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union, his nation's highest honour.

Mariner 4 was a spacecraft intended for planetary exploration in a flyby mode.

On November 28th 1964 Mariner 4 performed the first successful flyby of the planet Mars, returning the first close-up pictures of the Martian surface.

It captured the first images of another planet ever returned from deep space.

Alexei Leonov, from the USSR was the first astronaut to go on a ‘spacewalk’ in April 1965.

He exited the capsule during the Voskhod 2 mission for 12 minutes and 9 seconds.

A spacewalk is a walk made outside a craft orbiting Earth (such as the International Space Station)

On 3rd February 1966, Luna 9 was the first spacecraft to achieve a 'soft landing' on the moon.

The purpose of Luna 9 was to take images of the moon's surface.

Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon.

The USA sent Apollo 11 containing 3 astronaughts-Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins into space on 16th July 1969.

Armstrong and Aldrin completed experiments and collected fragments of rocks. Collins took photographs of the moon.