Space: the final frontier. From the great space race between the USSR and the United States to Elon Musk’s SpaceX program, we have always been fascinated with what lies beyond our atmosphere.
Since the first spaceflight in 1961, we’ve put 556 people in space. In today’s infographic, we will explore the flights of these 556 space explorers as well as some notable achievements in the history of space travel. USSR’s Yuri Gagarin was the first man sent into space in 1961. Two years later in 1963, Valentina Tereshkova, also from the USSR, was the first woman to go into space.
Though the USSR beat the United States to space, it would be an American who first stepped foot on the moon. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first person to ever walk on the moon. “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Armstrong is one of 12 people who has walked the moon.
Nowadays, we spend less time on the moon and more time in our own orbit, constructing the International Space Station and devising space vacations. Dennis Tito became the first person to ever become a space tourist in 2001, funding his own trip into space, and the first piece of the International Space Station was sent into space in 1998.
In a galaxy far far away, space travel is much more technologically advanced, and interplanetary travel is a piece of cake. Wars are even fought in space! To learn about the ships of the Star Wars universe, check out our link here.