Who became the first human to orbit the Earth on 12 April 1961?
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Yuri Gagarin
The flight aboard Vostok 1 lasted 108 minutes.
💡 Did you know? At lift-off he called out “Poyekhali!”, “Let’s go!”.
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Which Soviet cosmonaut became the first woman in space in 1963?
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Valentina Tereshkova
She orbited the Earth 48 times in almost three days; her call sign was “Chaika”, seagull.
💡 Did you know? Before that she was a textile worker and a parachutist.
Who became the first person to walk on the Moon in July 1969?
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Neil Armstrong
His words about “one small step for man” went around the world.
💡 Did you know? Around 600 million people watched the Moon landing live on television.
Who became the second person to step onto the Moon during Apollo 11?
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Buzz Aldrin
Most of the famous Moon landing photos show him, because his colleague held the camera.
💡 Did you know? His real first name is Edwin; “Buzz” came from his sister.
Who stayed alone in the command module in lunar orbit during Apollo 11 while the other two landed?
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Michael Collins
Behind the Moon he had no radio contact, the loneliest man since Adam, as newspapers wrote.
💡 Did you know? He later said he never felt lonely up there.
Who made the first spacewalk in history in 1965?
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Alexei Leonov
His suit ballooned so much that he had to let air out to get back into the capsule.
💡 Did you know? He was also a painter and took coloured pencils into space.
Who commanded Apollo 13, the mission that narrowly made it back to Earth after an explosion?
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Jim Lovell
Tom Hanks played him in the 1995 film “Apollo 13”.
💡 Did you know? The famous radio call was “Houston, we’ve had a problem”.
Which astronaut became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962 and flew into space again in 1998 at the age of 77?
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John Glenn
Between the flights he was a senator for Ohio for 24 years.
💡 Did you know? The Spaniard Pedro Duque was also on board his second flight.
Who became the first German in space in 1978, aboard a Soviet Soyuz?
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Sigmund Jähn
He came from East Germany and spent almost eight days on the Salyut 6 space station.
💡 Did you know? He took along a Sandmännchen doll, the figure from East German children’s TV.
Which physicist became the first American woman in space in 1983?
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Sally Ride
She flew on the Space Shuttle Challenger and operated its robotic arm.
💡 Did you know? Later she founded a company to get girls excited about science.
Which Italian astronaut drank the first espresso brewed in space on the ISS in 2015?
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Samantha Cristoforetti
She was the first Italian woman in space and in 2022 the first European woman to command the ISS.
💡 Did you know? The machine was called the ISSpresso.
Which Canadian astronaut recorded a music video of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” on the ISS in 2013?
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Chris Hadfield
In 2013 he was also the first Canadian to command the ISS.
💡 Did you know? Bowie called it the most poignant version of the song ever made.
Which Russian doctor and cosmonaut holds the record for the longest single spaceflight, 437 days on Mir?
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Valeri Polyakov
He wanted to prove that humans could survive a flight to Mars physically.
💡 Did you know? He returned in March 1995, after more than 14 months in space.
Who became the first Chinese astronaut in space in 2003?
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Yang Liwei
He flew aboard Shenzhou 5 and orbited the Earth 14 times.
💡 Did you know? China thus became the third country to launch people into space on its own.
Who became the first German commander of the International Space Station in 2018?
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Alexander Gerst
The geophysicist shared his photos of Earth under the nickname “Astro Alex”.
💡 Did you know? Across his missions in 2014 and 2018 he spent a total of 362 days in space.
Who became the first Spaniard in space in 1998?
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Pedro Duque
He flew on the Space Shuttle Discovery, on the same flight as 77-year-old John Glenn.
💡 Did you know? He later became Spain’s science minister.
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