Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –
Source: State University of Management – Official website of the State –
April 12 is Cosmonautics Day in Russia. It is difficult to imagine a person who does not know that this date is associated with the first human space flight, made by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in 1961. However, his legendary flight was not the first or last achievement of the national space program.
Let us briefly recall the main milestones of the practically endless journey into interstellar space, begun by Russian science.
The first theorist of astronautics, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, was born on September 17, 1857. It was he who put forward the ideas of “rocket trains” (prototypes of multi-stage rockets), a space elevator, life on orbital stations, and, in principle, voiced the need for human settlement in space.
The first artificial Earth satellite was launched on October 4, 1957. It was a sphere with a diameter of 58 cm and a weight of 83.6 kg with two radio transmitters. It was with it that the space era of mankind began.
The first hard landing on an extraterrestrial body – the Moon – took place on September 14, 1959. The automatic interplanetary station Luna-2 reached the Earth’s natural satellite.
The first image of the far side of the Moon was taken by the Luna-3 automatic interplanetary station on October 7, 1959.
The first animals to successfully complete an orbital space flight on the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 5 on August 19, 1960, were the mongrel dogs Belka and Strelka.
The first human flight into space was on April 12, 1961. Today is Cosmonautics Day.
The first female cosmonaut, Valentina Tereshkova, set off on her three-day flight on June 16, 1963.
The first human spacewalk was on March 19, 1965. It was done by Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who spent 16 minutes in airless space.
The first soft landing on the Moon and transmission of a panoramic photograph of the Moon to Earth was carried out by the automatic interplanetary station Luna-9 on February 3, 1966.
The first docking of the manned spacecraft Soyuz-4 and Soyuz-5 took place on January 16, 1969.
The first planetary rover, Lunokhod-1, began its work on November 17, 1970. In 11 lunar days, it traveled 10,540 km.
The first soft landing on Venus was made by the automatic interplanetary station Venera-7 on December 15, 1970.
The first soft landing on Mars was made by the automatic interplanetary station Mars-3 on December 2, 1971.
The first manned orbital station Salyut-1 was launched on April 19, 1971 and operated in orbit for 175 days.
The first multi-module orbital station Mir began its work on February 19, 1986. It spent 5,511 days in orbit, 4,594 of which were inhabited, and during this time it made 86,331 revolutions around the Earth. 28 expeditions with a total of 104 cosmonauts and astronauts from 12 countries conducted more than 23,000 scientific experiments at the station.
The first full-length feature film, scenes for which were shot in space by professional filmmakers – “Challenge”. Director Klim Shipenko and actress Yulia Peresild launched on October 5, 2021 and spent 12 days on the International Space Station, filming 30 hours of material, of which 35 minutes were included in the final running time of the film.
Russian science is still at the forefront of space exploration. On April 8, 2025, the “Victory Rocket”, dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany, sent Russian cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov, Alexei Zubritsky and NASA astronaut Jonathan Kim to the ISS, where they will spend 245 days in space.
The first management university in the country congratulates everyone on Cosmonautics Day and wishes to always be the first in everything!
Subscribe to the TG channel “Our GUU” Date of publication: 12.04.2025
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