12 space pioneers

On April 28, 2001, the flight of the first space tourist – an American multi-millionaire of Italian origin, Dennis Tito, took place. At the age of sixty, he orbited the Earth 128 times, paying twenty million dollars for it. And he does not regret the money spent at all.

Returning home from orbit, Tito said:: "This is the greatest adventure of my life. I have been to heaven and soared like an angel, looking down at the Earth. I knew it would be a risky adventure, and I prepared for the worst. However, I was euphoric for the entire six days." After that, Dennis Tito announced the start of funding for the project Inspiration Mars ("Inspiration – Mars"), which aims to fly non-stop to Mars, fly around Mars and return to Earth. 

On this day, we decided to remember some other space pioneers who wrote their names (and in some cases, nicknames or names) in history.

Sputnik 1. The first artificial Earth satellite launched into space, October 4, 1957.

Laika. The first dog-cosmonaut, November 3, 1957.

Ham. The first chimpanzee in space, January 31, 1961.

Yuri Gagarin. The first man in space, April 12, 1961.

Alan Shepard. The first American in space, May 5, 1961.

Valentina Tereshkova. First female astronaut, June 16, 1963.

Neil Armstrong. The first man on the moon, July 20, 1969.

Sally Ride. The first American female astronaut, June 18, 1983. 

Guyon Bluford. The first African-American in space, August 30, 1983.

May Jamison. The first African-American woman in space, September 12, 1992.

Columbia. First shuttle launch, April 12, 1981.

Dennis Tito (pictured left, with Talgat Musabayev and Yuri Baturin). The first space tourist, April 28, 2001.