Humanity's journey of space exploration from yesterday to today

By Seda Sevencan

ISTANBUL (AA) - As humanity entered the latter half of the 20th century, the commencement of crewed space travel marked the beginning of a new era in space exploration. In the 21st century, this legacy continues, pushing boundaries and reaching new horizons.

The Soviet Union's Oct. 4, 1957 launch of Sputnik 1, the world’s first artificial satellite to orbit Earth, ushered in the space age.

During the Cold War, one of the biggest areas of rivalry between the US-led Western bloc and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact was space. After the race between the US and the USSR to send satellites into space, the two countries started working on crewed space travel in orbit.

On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin cosmonaut became the first man to travel into space aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft. Gagarin's space flight lasted 108 minutes, and he reached an altitude of 200 miles (327 kilometers) above the Earth.

In 1962, US President John F. Kennedy pointed to the moon as the new target of the space race and promised to send humans there within 10 years.

On June 16, 1963, on board the Vostok 6, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in outer space.

In 1968, the Apollo 8 spacecraft, carrying astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders, succeeded in orbiting the moon 10 times. Then, on July 21, 1969, Apollo 11, carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, landed on the lunar surface. On this famous expedition, Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon.

China joined the space race and became one of the countries that achieved crewed space flight with the 2003l launch of the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft with astronaut Yang Liwei.

In 2020, SpaceX, a private company, became the first privately owned enterprise to travel to the International Space Station aboard the Crew Dragon capsule.