“And if I am still determined to make this flight, it is because I am a Communist, because I am following the example of the dauntless heroism of my compatriots—the Soviet people.” – Yuri Gagarin ( before the flight of Vostok)
The first manned space flight in history was accomplished on April 12, 1961, when the Soviet spaceship Vostok with a man on board, went up into space, and after orbiting the Earth, safely returned to earth. The first man in space was Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin. Gagarin’s flight marked a major milestone in human history and proved that it was possible for humans to survive and function in space. It was an unparalleled victory of man over the forces of Nature, an immense achievement of science and technology, and a triumph for the human mind. Later, Neil Armstrong, the first man to step onto the Moon said, “He (Yuri Gagarin) opened the way into space for us all”.
The Soviet Union was one of the pioneers in space science and technology, with several significant achievements that shaped the history of space exploration. From the launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, to Yuri Gagarin’s historic spaceflight, the Soviet Union made significant contributions to the development of space technology. Tsarist Russia was a backward country, science and technology were not developed, and most (> 80%)of the population was illiterate. When, in October 1917, the working class seized power, the revolutionary reconstruction of education made it accessible to all. In April 1918 Lenin wrote the famous “Outline of the plan for scientific-technological works”. The outline was followed by concrete measures, promoting the development of scientific activities in the country, helping to solve the basic problems of industrialization, socialistic reorganization of the rural economy, and carrying out the revolution in Science and Technology. Providing education to all, the Soviet Union created a scientific society with a culture of thinking that later appeared in the rapid advancement of the Soviet Union in Science and Technology, especially in Space research. Research into Space Science was given special state importance in the U.S.S.R. back in the early years of the Soviet republic and a laboratory for Space research was established in 1921. This made it possible, early in the thirties—long before similar work had begun in other countries—to conduct bench tests of rocket engines in the U.S.S.R. On August 18, 1933, the Group for the Study of Reactive Motion (GIRD), led by Sergei Korolev, launched the Soviet liquid-fuel rocket GIRD-09. In 1933, a rocket designed and built by M. K. Tikhonravov, for meteorological observations, was launched successfully. The Soviet Union was the first to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile, the first to put a man-made earth satellite into orbit, and the first to send a spaceship to the Moon. The Soviet space program pioneered many aspects of space exploration: the Space Age started with the flight of Sputnik-1, launched on October 4, 1957. It was the first artificial satellite. The Soviet Union followed up the success of Sputnik-1 with the launch of Sputnik-2, carrying the first animal, a dog named Laika, into orbit. In 1963, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to fly in space aboard Vostok-6. In 1965, Alexei Leonov became the first human to perform a spacewalk. In 1971, the Soviet Union launched the first space station, Salyut-1. In the 1980s, the Soviet Union developed the Buran spacecraft, the first space shuttle capable of autonomous flight and landing. The Soviet Union contributed to the exploration of the solar system, launching several missions to study the Moon, Venus, Mars, and other planets, which were the first study of these planets. The Luna program, which began in 1959, successfully landed several robotic probes on the Moon and returned soil samples to Earth, and it was the first program to study the Moon from space, Luna-1 was the first man-made object to escape Earth’s gravity and Luna-2 was the first spacecraft to impact the Moon. The Venera program, which began in 1961, sent several probes to study Venus and was the first mission to successfully land on another planet.
These Soviet successes raised a great deal of concern in the United States and the Western World. It created the so-called “Sputnik crisis” in America and the “Space Race” started. Bernard Baruch, an economist, wrote in an open letter titled “The Lessons of Defeat” to the New York Herald Tribune: “While we devote our industrial and technological power to producing new model automobiles and more gadgets, the Soviet Union is conquering space… It is Russia, not the United States, who has had the imagination to hitch its wagon to the stars and the skill to reach for the moon and all but grasp it. America is worried. It should be.” In a meeting of the Office of Defense Mobilization Science Advisory Committee (SAC) with president Eisenhower, Edward h. Land explained to the president the reasons for Soviet success: “the structure of Russian culture and thinking is such that they are learning to live the life of science and its application. . . Is there a way to tell the country that we should set out on a scientific adventure in which all can participate? If this can be done, with our concept of freedom and the independent, unfettered man, we can move far ahead. We need a scientific community in the American tradition.” The success of the Soviet Union in Space Science forced America and other developed nations to spend more on public education and science research. John Jefferies, a scientist at the High Altitude Observatory, in 1957 said: “The week after Sputnik went up, we were digging ourselves out of this avalanche of money that suddenly descended.”
