Space Exploration
Soviet Exploration
The Soviet Union was actually the first country to put a spacecraft into outer space. They were also the first ones to put a man in outer space. The first Soviet craft was Sputnik 1. It was launched October 4, 1957. It orbited earth at a height of 160 miles. The first human to go into space was Yuri Gagarin. He was in the Vostok 1 spacecraft. This happened April 12, 1961. It was a 1 hour orbit around earth lasting 1 hour and 48 minutes.
Man On The Mon
Apollo 11 was the first space program to land a man on the moon. Neil Armstrong was the first human being to ever step foot on the moon, later followed by Buzz Aldrin. This all happened July 21st 1969. experiments were done and they brought home moon rocks and dirt. a flag and a sign were left on the moon.
Cost and extra info
The cost of the whole program costed about 25.4 billion dollars, very expensive. This time in age was when NASA started getting really big. The Apollo program only ran from 1961 to 1972. After the first moon landing there was six more and a total of 12 more men walked on the moon.