The first person in space: Yuri Gagarin (USSR)

The first person in space: Yuri Gagarin (USSR) On April 12, 1961 Yuri Gagarin became the first human to achieve spaceflight and orbit the Earth. His spacecraft, Vostok 1, circled Earth once in a flight that lasted 108 minutes.

The first woman in space: Valentina Tereshkova (USSR) On June 16,1963 Valentina Tereshkova was launched into space aboard Vostok 6. She became the first woman to travel in space, making 48 orbits of Earth and spending almost three days in space.

The first animal in space: Laika (USSR) Laika, the first animal ever sent to space, rode to orbit in Sputnik II on the 3rd of November, 1957

The first space walk: A. A. Leonov (USSR) On March 18 ,1965 cosmonaut Leonov in the spacecraft Voskhod-2 became the first person to venture outside a capsule in space.

Vostochny Vostochny Cosmodrome

The Mir Space Station spent fifteen years orbiting 390 kilometres above the Earth. It completed over 86,325 trips around our planet. The first element of the station, the Mir module , was launched on February 20,1986. On March 23,2001.the Mir Space Station completed its triumphant spaceflight and found its final resting place in the South Pacific Ocean.