10 Space Firsts and the Minds Behind Them

"Poyekhali!" — "Let's go!" — said a 27-year-old Soviet pilot on the morning of 12 April 1961, and became the first human being in space. Every space "first" is a one-time record: it can be equalled, never taken. Here are the ten that mattered most, and the minds behind them.

Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space

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The firsts

First human in space — Yuri Gagarin, 1961. One 108-minute orbit in Vostok 1, ending with Gagarin parachuting into a potato field, where a startled farmer's family became the first people to greet a returned space traveller.

First woman in space — Valentina Tereshkova, 1963. A textile worker and amateur parachutist, she flew 48 orbits over three days — more flight time than all American astronauts combined at that point — and remains the only woman ever to fly to space solo, a first that still stands alone.

First spacewalk — Alexei Leonov, 1965. Twelve minutes outside Voskhod 2, until his suit ballooned so badly he could not fit back through the airlock and had to bleed air from it to squeeze inside — a near-disaster kept secret for decades. He was also an accomplished painter, and carried coloured pencils to orbit.

First American to orbit — John Glenn, 1962 — who returned to space aboard the shuttle in 1998 at 77, the oldest person to fly at that time, holding both ends of an astronaut's career record simultaneously.

First footprints on another world — Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, 20 July 1969. Armstrong took manual control to fly past a boulder field with about 25 seconds of fuel margin. Roughly 600 million people watched — the largest live audience in history to that date.

First American woman in space — Sally Ride, 1983, who spent her later life building science programmes for girls, and served on both shuttle-disaster investigation boards.

First African-American woman in space — Mae Jemison, 1992 — a physician and engineer who began her shifts aboard Endeavour with the words "hailing frequencies open," a salute to Star Trek's Lieutenant Uhura; she later appeared on the show.

The minds on the ground

Sergei Korolev — the anonymous "Chief Designer" behind Sputnik, Gagarin and Leonov. A Gulag survivor, his identity was a state secret until his death in 1966; the world learned the name of the Space Race's architect only from his obituary.

Katherine Johnson — the NASA mathematician whose trajectory calculations Glenn personally trusted over the new electronic computers: "Get the girl to check the numbers," he said, before his orbital flight. She calculated Apollo 11's return windows, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at 97.

First reusable-era firsts — the shuttle and station age turned firsts into routines: the record now reads 600-plus humans in orbit, seven nations' modules docked into one station, and continuous human presence in space since November 2000 — a "first" that renews itself every day.

"Orbiting Earth in the spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it!"

— Yuri Gagarin

Watch: Yuri Gagarin: First Human Flight In Space

The next blank page

Mars still has no footprints; the Moon has none newer than December 1972. The record book of space is unusual in human history: most of its pages are still empty, and every one will bear exactly one name, forever.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was the first human in space?

Yuri Gagarin, who completed one orbit of Earth aboard Vostok 1 on 12 April 1961.

Who was the first person to walk on the Moon?

Neil Armstrong, on 20 July 1969, followed minutes later by Buzz Aldrin, while roughly 600 million people watched live.

Who was Sergei Korolev?

The Soviet 'Chief Designer' behind Sputnik and Gagarin's flight, whose identity was a state secret until his death in 1966.