Sixty years ago there wasn’t any space program because people didn’t have the technology for space travel. Today there are space shuttles, space stations and even space tourists. So how did it all begin?
The race to space began in 1957 with the satellite Sputnik 1. Sputnik was less than 1 meter long, and was only in space for three weeks. Still, it was the first satellite to fly round the Earth. After the satellite, came the first man in space – Yuri Gagarin. His ship, Vostok 1, flew round the Earth just once. Other astronauts went into space the following year, but it took eight more years to make the next big step. On 20th July 1969 Apollo 11 arrived on the moon. Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. He stepped out of the space capsule and made his famous statement: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”. In 1971 people watched the first space station, Salyut 1, fly into space. In 1990-s space programs from different countries started to work together. The result was the International Space Station, a space city the size of a football pitch. The first part of the ISS was launched in November 1998. In 2001 Denis Tito became the first tourist in space, he paid $10 million to visit the space station. Two years later, the first man-made object, Mars Rover, landed on Mars. Scientists are already planning the first manned mission to Mars. Today we continue to watch other planets and look for new life. There aren’t many new places left to explore on Earth, so more and more people are interested in space. Space is the final frontier.
