Important Events
 in the History of Space Travel

There are many events in the history of Space Travel. We really wish we could put all of them here. However, due to space constrains, we can only put 3 events here. Yes, we believe that most of the history of space travel is unimportant and can be removed. Below are what we believe to be the 3 most important events in space travel.

The First Artificial Satellite

October 4, 1957 - Sputnik 1, the first man-made object to orbit the Earth, was launched by the U.S.S.R. Sputnik 1 had two radio transmitters which broadcast the "beep-beep-beep" that symbolically ushered in the space age. Analysis of the radio signals were used to gather information about the upper atmosphere. It remained in orbit until January 4, 1958.

First Man in Space

April 12, 1961 - Vostok 1 is launched by the U.S.S.R., carrying Cosmonaut Yuri A. Gargarin, the first man in space. The launch was a purely for the purpose of testing the idea of manned spaceflight. The flight was entirely automated and the spacecraft controls were locked, but Yuri had the key to unlock the controls in case of an emergency. When Vostok 1 was in reentry, the service module did not detach from the reentry capsule because of a wire bundle. Vostok 1 proceeded to spin wildly until the wire bundle burned through.

July 20, 1969 - Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr. make the first manned soft landing on the Moon, and the first moonwalk, using Apollo 11. The two astronauts spent 21 hours on the lunar surface and returned 46 pounds of lunar rocks. As Neil stepped on the surface of the moon, he said the now famous phrase, "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."