Human spaceflight has contributed greatly to space knowledge. To ensure the safety of spacecraft crew, scientists around the world have carried out thousands of experiments. As of February 2004, the only manned spaceflights that have been made have been in Earth orbit or to the moon. However, developments in areas such as propulsion have made manned missions to Mars a possibility. Here, you will read about the famous or infamous missions that in some way has been a "first." There have been many firsts in space: the first animal, man, man on moon, woman, space tourist, prevented catastrophe, and fatal catastrophe.
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Overview
Soyuz TM-32
The Russian Soyuz TM-32 was to be kept at the International Space Station as a lifeboat, and the crew that brought it returned to Earth on the Soyuz TM-31 stored there... >> Click here for more info
Vostok 6
The Russian Vostok 6 was to continue experiments for joint spaceflights and also observe the effect of space travel on the female body... >> Click here for more info
Apollo-Soyuz
This mission involved a docking of ships between the American Apollo and Russian Soyuz to develop techniques for emergency rescues, as well as to perform some experiments... >> Click here for more info
Challenger
The American Challenger explosion occured on the tenth mission of this space shuttle... >> Click here for more info
This American mission was to gather information and pictures from the moon. There were several problems that resulted in a dangerous explosion... >> Click here for more info
Apollo 11
This American mission was the first lunar landing that also brought the first man on the moon... >> Click here for more info
Shenzhou 5
This was the People's Republic of China's first manned flight. Liwei Yang was the first Chinese man in space... >> Click here for more info
Voskhod 1
In this mission, the USSR launched the first space flight with more than one person aboard. This was also the first flight without spacesuits... >> Click here for more info