Russian Space

The Russian dog, Laika, is the first animal to orbit the Earth. The first chimpanzee was named HAM. He survived his January 31, 1961, flight and paved the way to the stars for the first American Astronaut, Alan Shepherd. In October, 1963, the French launched a cat named Felix into space aboard one of their Veronique AGI sounding rockets. In November 1968, The Russians launched turtles aboard the Zond series of probes.

On April 12, 1961, Yury Gagarin became the first man to orbit the Earth in his ship, Vostok 1. (Vostok is the Russian word for "East.") Alan Shepherd was the first American man in space. I made up the name Yury Leonov. Vladimir Putin was the 2nd President of the Russian Federation (2000-2008) and current Prime Minister (2008-?).

On June 16, 1963, Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova piloted Vostok 6 and orbited the Earth a record 48 times. Maria Sharipova is a world-class Russian tennis player. Sally Ride was the first American woman in space. She flew onboard the Space Shuttle Challenger almost 20 years after Tereshkova on June 18, 1983. Svetlana Savitskaya was a Russian cosmonaut. She was the second woman in space (August 19, 1982)--the first woman to perform a spacewalk.

The Russian word for astronaut is cosmonaut. Luntik is the name of a Russian cartoon creature who was born on the moon and then came to Earth. Cheburashka is the name of a Russian cartoon creature who has been used as the unofficial mascot of the Russian Olympic teams.

Sputnik 1 is correct. On October 4, 1957, the USSR launched this satellite. Its name means "traveling companion." Luna 1 was a Russian moon probe. Luna means "moon." Vostok 1 was the name of Yury Gagarin's spaceship. Vostok means "East." Apollo is the name given to American missions to the moon. Apollo was the name of the Greek/Roman Sun God.

On July 1, 1075, the crews of the Soviet (Russian) spaceship Soyuz and the American spaceship, Apollo, rendezvouz in space for the first internation space docking. Apollo was the name for American misssions to the moon. Luna was the name of Russian missions to the moon. Venera is the Russian word for Venus. Zond is the Russian word for "probe."

MIR has two English translations. It can mean Peace or World. The Russian word for East is Vostok. The Russian word for Dawn is Voskhod. The Russian word for Union is Soyuz.

The Russian letter C sounds like "S." The Russian letter P sounds like "R." USSR is the abbreviation for the English name of the country that Russia was a part of from 1917-1991: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. I made KKKM and ZZZT up.

In July of 2000, the US and Russian began to build the ISS. Sputnik 1, the first man-made satellite to orbit the Earth was launched in October of 1957. The first International Rendezvous occurred with Apollo-Soyuz in July, 1975. The Russian Revolution took place in 1917. Space flight was not poassible for another 40 years.

On September 13, 1959, the Luna 2 spacecraft slammed into the moon's surface. It carried with it a copy of the Coat of Arms of the Soviet Union. The US flag was planted on the moon during the Apollo 11 moon landing by Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin on July 16, 1969. In 2007 the Eurpean Space Agency sent a beautiful edition of Jules Verne's novel, "From the Earth to the Moon" to the ISS aboard the very first Automated Transfer Vehicle. The ATV was named "Jules Verne." Lunokhod 1 was the first wheeled vehicle on the moon. It was carried there by Luna 17 on November 17, 1970, and driven by remote control.