A BRIEF HISTORY OF MANNED SPACE FLIGHT

COUNTRIES THAT HAVE SENT MANNED MISSIONS TO SPACE: Ê RUSSIA Ë USA Ì CHINA

First human in space Apr. 12, 1961:

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin is the first human in space onboard Vostok 1. He spends 108 minutes in space and orbits once around the Earth

First American in space May 5, 1961:

Project Mercury astronaut Alan B. Shepard is the first American in space aboard Freedom 7. He spends 15 minutes in sub-orbital flight

First woman in space

Jun. 16, 1963:

Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova is the first woman in space, aboard Vostok 6

First man to walk in space

Mar. 18, 1965:

Soviet Alexei Leonov is the first man to walk in space

First astronauts to land on the Moon Jul. 20, 1969:

Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin Jr are the first humans to land on the Moon and take the first steps

First reusable space shuttle Apr. 12, 1981

Columbia is the first space shuttle to orbit the earth (STS-1) and land back. The space shuttle programme achieves 135 missions before it is shut down in 2011

First Indian in space Apr. 2, 1984:

IAF pilot Sqn Ldr Rakesh Sharma orbits the Earth aboard a Soviet space craft

Oldest human in space Oct. 29, 1998:

77-year-old John Glenn becomes the oldest human ever to go into space, aboard the space shuttle Discovery

International Space Station 1998 to the present:

The International Space Station has hosted 92 missions, using US and Russian launchers with a total of 101 crew members flying it in turns so far, and a total of 227 visitors

First space tourist Apr. 28, 2001:

Dennis Tito becomes the first ‘space tourist’, paying $20 million to ride in a Russian rocket to the International Space Station

Feb. 1, 2003:

Space shuttle Columbia breaks up on re-entry during mission STS-107, killing all seven crew members, including Kalpana Chawla

First Chinese manned mission Oct. 15, 2003:

Yang Liwei is the first Chinese man in space aboard Shenzhou 5

First Indian manned mission announced Aug. 15, 2018:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announces that India will send a manned mission to space by 2022