Launching Of The First Space Flight!

Mankind has been gazing at the cosmos for thousands of years.  In fact, many cultures and civilizations have used the wonder for cosmos for invention of many things like solar calendars, compass and even navigation of the sea.

People have looked at the northern star and the moon for centuries and have wondered about what it all means.

They have looked at Mars and have wondered whether there is any life over there or whether mankind is alone.

However, in the 20th century, the dreams of the mankind had been realized as the first flight into space has taken place.   It was a beginning of an era where mankind was testing his dominion over the land, the sea and finally, the space.

The first real space flight:

However, the first real flight into space occurred on October 4, 1957 when the Russian Space Agency launched the first satellite in the world by launching Sputnik I.  It was a monumental event as it was the first time in the thousands of years of the history of mankind that an artificial device was orbiting the Earth in outer space.  Although the life of Sputnik I was very short, still it was a monumental step in the history of space flight.

However, the first space flight to carry a living thing to the outer orbit of the Earth came with the launching of Sputnik II.  It was performed in November 1957 when the dog named “Laika” was launched along with Sputnik II.

Laika became the first living thing and the first dog to orbit in space.  It was actually shocking, as no one was waiting for such potential so soon after the launching of Sputnik I.  Although Laika died in the first day of space, the adventure of this heroic dog paved the way for the mankind to go in to space. (As a dip not, it should be mentioned that at the time, The Russians stated that Laika had survived for almost a week on the orbital space flight.  However, this was not the case as it turned out just recently in fact that the dog had died in the first 4 hours of the flight in distress due to overheating. )

First manned space flight:

On April 12, 1961, the first manned space flight took place and the modern Space Age officially started.  It was a monumental event as the Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made an orbital trip around the world in the Vostok I spacecraft.

Of course, it was a huge beginning.  It was the first time that mankind was able to go out in to space.  At last the dreams of the mankind were being realized albeit slowly. After Yuri Gagarin’s flight into space there have been many first flights, like the first flight to have a spacewalk, the first space flight to have a woman on board and the first flight to the moon and the first flight of the space shuttle.

Nevertheless, none can carry the significance of the first flight of Sputnik I, which signaled a new space age coming.  Since that day, hundreds of satellites and hundreds of space missions and space craft have been launched all over the world.

Now in year 2007 it has been exactly 50 years since the launching of the first space flight.  In the 50 years, mankind have come a long way and men has shown its dominion over space by landing on the moon and sending probes to the far reaches of the solar system with the Voyager Project.

Popularity: 1% [?]