Without any exaggeration, Yuri Gagarin's first flight into space on April 12, 1961 is one of the most important events in science in the entire history of mankind. He took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on the Vostok-1 spacecraft, made one orbit around the Earth, and stayed in space for 108 minutes. The first manned flight into space proved that outside the planet a person fully retains efficiency and clarity of thinking. We can say that Yuri Gagarin trod the path into space for all future cosmonauts and astronauts. He is a world famous person, but there are other domestic cosmonauts who made a great contribution to the development of science. Of course, their exploits are not as great as those of Yuri Gagarin, but everyone should still know their names.
In addition to Yuri Gagarin, there are many other cosmonauts who have accomplished important feats
Contents
- 1 Cosmonaut German Titov is the youngest person in space
- 2 Valentina Tereshkova is the first woman in space
- 3 Alexey Leonov – the first man in outer space
- 4 Svetlana Savitskaya – the first woman in outer space
- 5 Valery Polyakov – the longest mission in space
- 6 Anatoly Solovyov – the longest time in outer space
- 7 Oleg Kononenko – the longest time in space
Cosmonaut German Titov – the youngest person in space
The second most famous cosmonaut in the world is German Titov. He was Yuri Gagarin's backup, so it was he who was offered the second flight into space on August 6, 1961.
Soviet cosmonaut German Titov in 1961. Source: museum-cosmos.ru
German Titov went into space on the Vostok-2 spacecraft. He became the first person to spend more than one day in outer space – his flight lasted 1 day, 1 hour and 11 minutes. During this time, he managed to fly around the Earth 17 times and thereby covered more than 700 thousand kilometers.
German Titov is the first person to spend more than one day in space. Source: spacegid.com
While in flight, German Titov managed to do a lot. For example, he showed by his own example how the human body works during a long stay in space. He became the first person to try sleeping and eating outside of Earth. He also managed to take the first photographs of the Earth from space using a conventional camera.
A photograph of the Earth from space taken by German Titov. Source: gazeta.ru
If Yuri Gagarin trodden the first path in space, then German Titov made it even more noticeable and convenient for future researchers. What's impressive is that he is still the youngest person in space – at the time of the flight, German Titov was only 25 years old.
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Valentina Tereshkova – the first woman in space
Two years after the legendary flights of Yuri Gagarin and German Titov, the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova, went into space. Inside the Vostok-6 spacecraft on June 16, 1963, she entered Earth's orbit and spent 2 days, 22 hours and 51 minutes there.
During the flight into space, Valentina Tereshkova was 26 years old. Source: yar.life
During the flight, something bad happened to Valentina Tereshkova. Due to an error, her ship began to move away with each revolution around the Earth. Fortunately, together with mission control, she was able to solve the problem – if she had not been able to do this, the ship would not have returned back. For several decades this fact was kept secret.
Valentina Tereshkova is still the first woman to fly into space alone. Source: m24.ru
After Valentina Tereshkova, other women went into space, but they all flew together with other crew members. But our compatriot was alone, and no one has yet been able to repeat this feat. A year after returning from space, she gave birth to a healthy baby and proved that astronauts can have children.
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Alexey Leonov – the first man in outer space
The first manned spacewalk took place on March 18, 1965. Then the Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov reached the earth's orbit on the Voskhod-2 spacecraft, and then left it into infinite space for as much as 12 minutes.
Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov in 1965. Source: kp.ru
During the sortie, the Soviet cosmonaut almost died. Unexpectedly for everyone in space, his space suit swelled, and the man could not squeeze back into the hatch. This was done only after Alexey Leonov squeezed out the excess air from the suit. In addition to this, seven accidents occurred on the Voskhod-2 spacecraft, which could also have cost the astronaut his life.
Alexey Leonov is also known for leading the Soyuz-19 spacecraft in 1975. As part of this flight, Soviet cosmonauts docked with the American Apollo spacecraft. This was the first ever docking of spaceships from different countries.
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Svetlana Savitskaya is the first woman in open space
The first woman in space is Valentina Tereshkova, but the first woman in outer space is Svetlana Savitskaya.
In total, she flew into space twice. The first mission was completed in 1982, when, as one of the crew members of the Soyuz T-7 spacecraft, she flew to the Salyut space station and stayed there for a week.
Svetlana Savitskaya in 1984. Source: kosmos-memorial.ru
Svetlana Savitskaya made her second flight in July 1984. As part of a 12-day mission, she went into outer space together with Vladimir Dzhanibekov and set a record: a woman remained in outer space for 3 hours and 35 minutes. All this time, she and her colleague were conducting scientific experiments.
Svetlana Savitskaya, through her example, once again proved that women can do an excellent job as an astronaut.
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Valery Polyakov – the longest mission in space
In January 1994, Soviet cosmonaut Valery Polyakov went to the Soviet space station Mir. He was faced with a monumental task – to carry out a biological research program to improve the life support system for astronauts in the future.
Cosmonaut Valery Polyakov. Source: mk.ru
He did a great job, but it took a very long time. Valery Polyakov returned to Earth only in March 1995. So he became the world record holder for time spent in space – 437 days and 18 hours.
Valery Polyakov after returning to Earth. Source: habr.com
During his entire career, Valery Polyakov made two flights. If you add them up, he spent a total of 678 days and 16 hours in space. Despite his long stay in space, he lived for 80 years – death overtook him in September 2022.
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Anatoly Solovyov – the longest time in outer space
The record for being in outer space also belongs to our compatriot Anatoly Solovyov. He went beyond spaceships and stations as many as 16 times and spent a total of 82 hours and 21 minutes in star space.
Anatoly Solovyov holds the record for being in outer space. Source: cosmosplanet.ru
He, like no one else, knows what it’s like in outer space. In one of his interviews, he said that it was very quiet there. And this is even though the spacesuits, which are complex in structure, are equipped with powerful electronics that make different sounds.
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Oleg Kononenko – the longest time in space
There have been many record holders for total time in space in the history of astronautics. For example, for some time this record belonged to cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, who spent 878 days in space.
Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko. Source: yk24.ru
In February 2024, this record was broken by Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko. He made his first flight into space in 2008, as a member of the crew of the Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft. Relatively recently, on February 4 at 11:30:08 am, he broke the record for the duration of his stay in space – in total he spent more than 1000 days outside the Earth.
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As you already understand, domestic cosmonauts were the first in many ways and accomplished many feats. But at the same time, they never flew to the Moon – you can read more about this in our article “Why didn’t the USSR cosmonauts fly to the Moon?”