• Key Information

  • The First Rockets

  • Time
    1903 to 1966
  • First Rocket to Space
    V-2 rocket (Germany), June 1944
  • First Animals in Space
    Fruit Flies, V-2 Rocket (USA), 1947
  • First Satellite
    Sputnik 1, R-7 (USSR), October 4, 1957
  • First Living Animal in Space
    Laika (Dog), Sputnik 2, R-7 (USSR), November 3, 1957
  • First Human in Space
    Yuri Gagarin, Vostok 1, R-7 (USSR), April 12, 1961
  • First Manually Controlled Human Spaceflight
    Alan Sheperd, Freedom 7, Mercury-Atlas (USA), May 5, 1961
  • First Woman in Space
    Valentina Tereshkova, Vostok 6, R-7 (USSR), June 16, 1963
  • Learning Point
  • The history of rockets and their use in space was something that took a lot of inspiration from the writings of science-fiction writers, such as Jules Verne, which inspired the first generation of rockets to space, and helped fuel the Space Race.
  • Project
  • Research the first flights by humans.
  • Location
  • Located in
    Kazakhstan
  • Fun Facts
  • The first living thing in space was actually fruit flies, launched by the USA in 1947 on a V-2 rocket.
  • The USSR launched the first satellite and first living animal into space, Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2 (with Laika the dog onboard)
  • Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space, on April 12, 1961. He later died in a plane crash, and many memorials and locations have been named after him since.
  • Though Yuri was the first person in space, he wasn't in control of his spacecraft, it was controlled from the ground. Alan Shepherd was the first to manually control a rocket in space and return it to Earth.