The name of the man behind Sputnik and Gagarin's spacecraft was a state secret.
Sergei Korolev was known only as the 'Chief Designer'; the public learned who he was from his obituary in January 1966.
The events
- Sputnik 1, the first satellite1957 · Baikonur. On 4 October 1957 the Soviet Union put the first artificial Earth satellite into orbit, its radio beeps picked up around the world. The launch opened the Space Age and started the space race between the USSR and the United States.
- Gagarin's flight1961 · Baikonur. On 12 April 1961 Yuri Gagarin aboard Vostok 1 became the first human in space. Circling the Earth once in 108 minutes, he landed safely in the Saratov region. The flight was a triumph for the Soviet space programme.
More amazing facts
- 1956 In autumn 1956 the world watched two crises at once: the Anglo-French landing at the Suez Canal and Soviet tanks in Budapest.
- 1957 1957: the USSR launched the first satellite, and six countries signed the Treaty of Rome, the seed of the future EU.
- 1957 1957: Ghana became one of the first countries in sub-Saharan Africa to throw off colonial rule, and the USSR launched the first satellite.
- 1957 · 1958 The first Sputnik beeped for only three weeks, until its batteries died, then circled the Earth silently for over two more months.
- 1957 The Soviets recruited space dogs from the streets, reasoning that Moscow strays were already used to cold and hunger.
- 1957 · 1960 Brazil's capital is younger than the first satellite.