Soviet Space Program (english)

The Soviet space program comprised the rocketry and space exploration programs conducted by the former Soviet Union (USSR) from the 1930s until its dissolution in 1991. Over its sixty-year history, this primarily classified military program was responsible for a number of pioneering accomplishments in space flight, including the first intercontinental ballistic missile (R-7), first satellite (Sputnik-1), first animal in Earth orbit (the dog Laika on Sputnik 2), first human in space and Earth orbit (cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1), first woman in space and Earth orbit (cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova on Vostok 6), first spacewalk (cosmonaut Alexey Leonov on Voskhod 2), first Moon impact (Luna 2), first image of the far side of the moon (Luna 3) and unmanned lunar soft landing (Luna 9), first space rover (Lunokhod 1), first sample of lunar soil automatically extracted and brought to Earth (Luna 16), and first space station (Salyut 1). Further notable records included the first interplanetary probes: Venera 1 and Mars 1 to fly by Venus and Mars, respectively, Venera 3 and Mars 2 to impact the respective planet surface, and Venera 7 and Mars 3 to make soft landings on these planets.

Completed projects

The Soviet space program has undertaken a number of projects, including:

Almaz space stations

Buran program

Cosmos satellites

Energia

Foton

N1-L3 Manned Moon landing program

Luna Moon flybys, orbiters, impacts, landers, rovers, sample returns

Mars probe program

Meteor meteorological satellites

Molniya communications

Mir space station

Proton satellite satellites

Phobos Mars probes program

Salyut space stations

Soyuz program spacecraft

Sputnik satellites

TKS spacecraft

Venera Venus probes program

Vega program Venus and comet Halley probes program

Vostok program spacecraft

Voskhod program spacecraft

Zond program

Notable firsts

Two days after the United States announced its intention to launch an artificial satellite, on July 31, 1956, the Soviet Union announced its intention to do the same. Sputnik 1 was launched on October 4, 1957, beating the United States and stunning people all over the world.

The Soviet space program pioneered many aspects of space exploration:

1957: First intercontinental ballistic missile and orbital launch vehicle, the R-7 Semyorka

1957: First satellite, Sputnik 1

1957: First animal in Earth orbit, the dog Laika on Sputnik 2

1959: First rocket ignition in Earth orbit, first man-made object to escape Earth's gravity, Luna 1

1959: First data communications, or telemetry, to and from outer space, Luna 1.

1959: First man-made object to pass near the Moon, first man-made object in Heliocentric orbit, Luna 1

1959: First probe to impact the Moon, Luna 2

1959: First images of the moon's far side, Luna 3

1960: First animals to safely return from Earth orbit, the dogs Belka and Strelka on Sputnik 5.

1961: First probe launched to Venus, Venera 1

1961: First person in space (International definition) and in Earth orbit, Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1, Vostok programme

1961: First person to spend over 24 hours in space Gherman Titov, Vostok 2 (also first person to sleep in space).

1962: First dual manned spaceflight, Vostok 3 and Vostok 4

1962: First probe launched to Mars, Mars 1

1963: First woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, Vostok 6

1964: First multi-person crew (3), Voskhod 1

1965: First extra-vehicular activity (EVA), by Aleksei Leonov,[18] Voskhod 2

1965: First probe to hit another planet of the Solar system (Venus), Venera 3

1966: First probe to make a soft landing on and transmit from the surface of the moon, Luna 9

1966: First probe in lunar orbit, Luna 10

1967: First unmanned rendezvous and docking, Cosmos 186/Cosmos 188.

1968: First living beings to reach the Moon (circumlunar flights) and return unharmed to Earth, Russian tortoises on Zond 5

1969: First docking between two manned craft in Earth orbit and exchange of crews, Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5

1970: First soil samples automatically extracted and returned to Earth from another celestial body, Luna 16

1970: First robotic space rover, Lunokhod 1 on the Moon.

1970: First data received from the surface of another planet of the Solar system (Venus), Venera 7

1971: First space station, Salyut 1

1971: First probe to impact the surface of Mars, Mars 2

1971: First probe to land on Mars, Mars 3

1975: First probe to orbit Venus, to make soft landing on Venus, first photos from surface of Venus, Venera 9

1980: First Hispanic and Black person in space, Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez on Soyuz 38

1984: First woman to walk in space, Svetlana Savitskaya (Salyut 7 space station)

1986: First crew to visit two separate space stations (Mir and Salyut 7)

1986: First probes to deploy robotic balloons into Venus atmosphere and to return pictures of a comet during close flyby Vega 1, Vega 2

1986: First permanently manned space station, Mir, 1986–2001, with permanent presence on board (1989–1999)

1987: First crew to spend over one year in space, Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov on board of Soyuz TM-4 - Mir