Dan Pierson
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Man has looked towards space in awe since the beginning, but it’s only been about 50 years since we breached the atmosphere and reached space. In that time, however, we’ve sent men to the moon, launched satellites to expand our knowledge, and landed rovers on Mars to test the soil and look for water.
The first animal sent into space was a Rhesus monkey named Albert, an unknowing passenger aboard a V-2 Blossom missile launched on June 11, 1948 from White Sands, New Mexico. He died on impact.
But what was the first object that was actually sent into orbit? That would be the Sputnik 1, launched on October 4, 1957 by the Soviet Union. It weight less than 200 lbs, and orbited for only an hour and a half, but made history, as well as a lot of Americans very nervous.
The Soviets struck again less than four years later, when cosmonaut Yury A. Gagarin orbited the earth once in the Vostok 1 in early April, 1961. And the title of first woman in space? That one goes to the Soviets as well, and pilot Valentina V. Tereshkova, who entered space on June 16, 1963.
The United States did capture one important milestone, landing Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon on July 20, 1969.
 Posted 5237 day ago
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