First in Space

First Spacecraft in Space

Name of the Spacecraft	Mission
Luna 2	Luna 2 was first spacecraft to make a landing on the moon. Launched by the USSR on 12 Sep 1959 it impacted the surface of the moon on 14.09.1959
Luna 3	Luna 3 was first space probe to photograph the far side or the dark side of the moon. It was launched by the USSR on 04 Oct 1959
Apollo 11	Apollo 11 was first spacecraft which landed the first humans, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon.
Mariner 4	Mariner 4 was the first spacecraft to flyby Mars and also the first to return images of another planet. It was launched by the USA on 28.11.1964
Mariner 9	It was the first spacecraft to orbit another planet - Mars. It was launched by the USA on 30.05.1971
Mars 3	It was the first spacecraft to land successfully on Mars. It was launched by the USSR on 28.05.1971
Pioneer 10	Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to reach the planet Jupiter. It was launched by the USA on 02.03.1972 and reached closest to Jupiter on 04.12.1973. In 1983, Pioneer 10 became the first spacecraft to travel past the orbit of the most distant planet, Neptune.
Galileo	Galileo launched by the USA on 18.10.1989 was the first spacecraft to flyby an asteroid, 951 Gaspra. It also discovered Dactyl, a moon of the asteroid Ida. The spacecraft was the first to orbit Jupiter in December 1995.
Mariner 10	Launched on 03.11.1973, Mariner 10 was the first spacecraft to flyby Mercury.
Messenger	Messenger was the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. It was launched by the USA on 03.08.2004, it entered the orbit of Mercury on 18.03.2011
Helios 2	Helios 2 launched on 15.01.1976 was a joint venture of the United States and West Germany. It set the record for being closest spacecraft to the Sun, at a distance of 43.432 million kilometers on 17 April 1976.
Voyager 1	Voyager 1 launched on 05.09.1977 by NASA, to study solar system and interstellar medium, became the first man-made object to enter the interstellar space on 25 August 2012. (This was confirmed by NASA in Sep 2013).
Philae	Philae, a lander which accompanied Rosetta spacecraft of the European Space Agency is the first spacecraft to land on a comet on 12 Nov 2014. The comet was 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
Chang'e 4	A Chinese lunar exploration mission that achieved the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon, on 3 January 2019.

First in Space - Human Beings/Animals

Event	Name of the Person	Vehicle Date
First animal in space	Laika, the dog	Sputnik-2 03 Nov 1957
First primate in space	Albert II, a rhesus monkey	V-2 14 Jun 1949
First man in space	Maj Yuri Gagarin	Vostok 1 12 Apr 1961
First woman in space	Valentina Tereshkova	Vostok 6 16 Jun 1963
First person to walk in space	Alexei Leonov	Voskhod 2 18 Mar 1965
First woman to walk in space	Svetlana Savitskaya	Salyut 7 25 Jul 1984
First American in space	Allan Shepard	MR-3 (Freedom 7) 05 May 1961
First American to orbit the earth	John Glenn	Friendship 7 20 Feb 1962
First man on moon	Neil Armstrong	Apollo 11 20 Jul 1969
First Indian in space	Sqn Ldr Rakesh Sharma	Soyuz T-11 02 Apr 1984
First US woman in space	Sally Ride	STS-7 (Challenger) 18 Jun 1983
First space tourist	Dennis Tito	Soyuz TM32/31 28 Apr 2001
First woman space tourist	Anousheh Ansari	Soyuz TMA9 18 Sep 2006
First Indian (American) Woman in space	Kalpana Chawla	Spaceship Columbia 19 Nov 1997
First Chinese in space	Lt Col Yang Liwei	Shenzou V 15 Oct 2003
First Chinese woman in space	Liu Yang	Shenzou 9 16 Jun 2012
First female commander of a space shuttle	Eileen Collins	Discovery 03 Feb 1995
First female commander of International Space Station	Peggy Whitson -	October 2007

First Satellites - Countrywise

Event	Name of the Satellite	Date
First Satellite	Sputnik by USSR	04 Oct 1957
First American Satellite	Explorer 1	01 Feb 1958
First British Satellite	Ariel 1*	26 April 1962
First Canadian Satellite	Alouette 1#	01 Sep 1962
First Italian Satellite	San Marco 1@	15 Dec 1964
First French Satellite	Asterix	26 Nov 1965
First Japanese Satellite	Oshumi	11 Feb 1970
First Chinese Satellite	Dong Fang Hong I	24 Apr 1970
First Indian satellite	Aryabhatta**	19 Apr 1975
First Israeli satellite	Ofeq 1	19 Sep 1988
First Pakistani satellite	Badr-1@@	16 July 1990
First Iranian satellite	Sina 1##	28 Oct 2005
Ariel 1 was made and launched by the USA. #Alouette 1 was constructed by Canada but launched by the USA. @San Marco 1 was built by Italy but launched by the USA. *Aryabhatta was made by India (ISRO) and launched by the USSR. ## Sina 1 was made by Iran and launched by Russia. @@Badr-1 was made by Pakistan and launched by China.

Space Agencies of Countries

Country	Space Agency	Acronym	Headquaters
China	China National Space Administration	CNSA	Beijing
Japan	Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency	JAXA	Tokyo
Russia	Russian Fedral Space Agency	ROSCOSMOS	Moscow
Israel	Israeli Space Agency	ISA	Tel Aviv
Australia	Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation	CSIRO	Canberra
France	National Centre of Space Research	CNES	Paris
U.K	U.K Space Agency	UKSA	Swindon, Wiltshire
U.S.A.	National Aeronautics and Space Administration	NASA	Washington, D.C.
S. Korea	Korea Aerospace Research Institute	KARI	Daejeon
Brazil	Brazilian Space Agency	AEB	Brasilia
Pakistan	Pakistan Space and upper Atmosphere Research Commission	SUPARCO	Karachi
Iran	Iranian Space Agency	ISA	Tehran
Malaysia	Malaysian National Space Agency	ANGKASA	Banting
Canada	Canadian Space Agency	CSA	Longueuil, Quebec
Germany	German Aero Space Center	DLR	Cologne (Koln)
Indonesia	National Institute of Aeronautics and Space	LAPAN	Jakarta

TEST YOURSELF

www.leadthecompetition.in

Select the right answer

1. In which year did Maj Yuri Gagarin 1st go into space in the year?

2. What was the name of the space flight which launched Neil Armstrong on his journey to moon?

3. Who was the first woman to go into space?

4. In which year did Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma become the first Indian to go into space?

5. What kind of animal was the first to be sent into space?

6. Which space shuttle which carried Kalpana Chawla into space for the first time?

7. Who was the first American to go into space?

8. What was the name of the first satellite launched by the USSR?

9. What was the name of the first Indian satellite?

10. In which year was the first satellite launched into space?

11. What was the name of the first space shuttle launched by NASA?

12. What was the name of the lander which became the first to land on a comet?

13. Which was the first spacecraft to make a landing on the moon?

14. In which year did Neil Armstrong land on the moon?

15. Which was the first spacecraft to enter the interstellar space?