Human Space Flight day: 7 greatest milestones in manned space missions

Human Space Flight day: 7 greatest milestones in manned space missions

1. First man in space

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin orbited earth one time at an altitude of 187 3/4 miles (302 kilometers) for 108 minutes at 18,000 miles an hour on 12 April 1961 in the Vostok 1, the first human space flight, to become the first person in the worldto fly into space.

2. First woman in space

Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova became the first woman to have flown into space when she piloted the Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963 and spent 2 days, 22 hours, 50 minutes in space.

3. First spacewalk in cosmos

Tethered to Voskhod 2, a soviet space shuttle, with a five-metre (16-foot) long cord, Alexei Leonov became the first cosmonaut to have on March 18, 1965. The space walk lasted for 12 minutes and the complicated manoeuvres left him drenched in sweat and he lost six kilos.

4. Man on moon

US astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969. After setting foot he uttered the world famous quote, "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." Here is a video footage of Armstrong landing on the moon.

5. First time far away

On April 1970, the crew of NASA's Apollo 13 went 400,171 km away from Earth. It's the farthest humans have ever been from the blue planet.

6. First space tourist

Dennis Anthony Tito became the first space tourist when he boarded the Soyuz TM-32, a Russian spacecraft, on April 28, 2001.He spent 7 days, 22 hours, 4 minutes in space and orbited Earth 128 times.

7. Biggest space meeting

A total of 13 people met in the International space station on July 2009. This is thus far the biggest gathering of people in space at one time.

Bonus | When Rakesh Sharma flew into outerspace, aboard the soviet spacecraft Soyuz T-11, he became the first Indian citizen to do so.

(Photos from AFP)