Space Research Paper

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Recommended: The history of space exploration

Missions in space became notable on April 12, 1961. This was the day when the first human went to space. Yuri Gagarin was sent by the USSR in Vostok 1 on a Vostok 3KA rocket into space. Since that first space mission, space missions became more prevalent over time. Alan Shepard was the first astronaut sent by the US on May 5, 1961 aboard the Freedom 7. Later, Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman sent to space on June 16, 1963 aboard Vostok 6. This was when humans were sent for space missions, but humans were not the only ones sent to space for these missions. Human’s first space mission participant was a satellite called Sputnik I. On October 4, 1957, Sputnik I was launched into space by the Soviet Union and it was known as the world’s …show more content…

Conducted by the Soviet Union, who also launched the Sputnik I, they started the Luna Program in 1959. These series of missions were designed to attain information on the Moon and the environment surrounding it. January 2, 1959 was the date of the first launch, Luna 1. The first launch passed over the Moon at around 5000 to 6000 km on January 4 of the same year. Luna 1 was supposed to make an impact on the Moon, but it is still known as the first spacecraft to fall around the Sun’s orbit. The second Luna mission was the first successful spacecraft that impacted the Moon’s surface. Luna 2 was launched on September 12, 1959 and it made its impact on the surface of the Moon on September 13, 1959 at 22:02:04 UT. This spacecraft became the first man-made object that was able to reach another world. The third Luna spacecraft was able to orbit around the Moon and return photographs of its far side, which we cannot see from Earth. Other successful Luna missions include entering lunar orbit and landing on the moon multiple times with Luna 9 being the first successful landing on the moon. It is also notable that the Soviet Union launched 24 Luna space crafts, but 15 out of the 24 were successful. Through every mission, the Soviet Union learned to build space crafts that were capable of performing safe landings on the moon’s surface and retrieving panoramic photos of the landing sites. The 17th and 21st Luna space

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