Spaceship 5

Did You Know?

The first spacecraft, the Soviet Union’s Sputnik 1, was launched on October 4, 1957; it weighed 83.6 kg (184 pounds). It was soon followed by other unmanned Soviet and U.S. spacecraft and, within four years (April 12, 1961), by the first manned spacecraft, Vostok 1, which carried the Soviet cosmonaut Yury Gagarin.