There were five other crewed missions which used a Vostok spacecraft.
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The first crewed spacecraft was Vostok 1, which carried Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space in 1961, and completed a full Earth orbit. Spacecraft types Crewed spacecraft Īs of 2016, only three nations have flown crewed spacecraft: USSR/Russia, USA, and China. In particular, in the 1940s there were several test launches of the V-2 rocket, some of which reached altitudes well over 100 km. While Sputnik 1 was the first spacecraft to orbit the Earth, other man-made objects had previously reached an altitude of 100 km, which is the height required by the international organization Fédération Aéronautique Internationale to count as a spaceflight. The satellite traveled at 29,000 kilometres per hour (18,000 mph), taking 96.2 minutes to complete an orbit, and emitted radio signals at 20.005 and 40.002 MHz Sputnik 1 was launched during the International Geophysical Year from Site No.1/5, at the 5th Tyuratam range, in Kazakh SSR (now at the Baikonur Cosmodrome). Pressurized nitrogen in the satellite's false body provided the first opportunity for meteoroid detection. It also provided data on radio-signal distribution in the ionosphere. Apart from its value as a technological first, Sputnik 1 also helped to identify the upper atmospheric layer's density, through measuring the satellite's orbital changes. The launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments while the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the Space Age. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit (LEO) by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957.
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Sputnik 1 was the first artificial satellite. The first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, launched by the Soviet UnionĪ German V-2 became the first spacecraft when it reached an altitude of 189 km in June 1944 in Peenemünde, Germany. The most prominent examples of such companies are SpaceX and Blue Origin. In addition, several private companies have developed or are developing the technology for orbital launches independently from government agencies. Humanity has achieved space flight, but only a few nations have the technology for orbital launches: Russia ( RSA or "Roscosmos"), the United States ( NASA), the member states of the European Space Agency (ESA), Japan ( JAXA), China ( CNSA), India ( ISRO), Taiwan ( National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, Taiwan National Space Organization (NSPO), Israel ( ISA), Iran ( ISA), and North Korea ( NADA). In recent years, more space agencies are tending towards reusable spacecraft. Recoverable spacecraft may be reusable (can be launched again or several times, like the SpaceX Dragon and the Space Shuttle orbiters) or expendable (like the Soyuz). Recoverable spacecraft may be subdivided by a method of reentry to Earth into non-winged space capsules and winged spaceplanes. Orbital spacecraft may be recoverable or not. To date, only a handful of interstellar probes, such as Pioneer 10 and 11, Voyager 1 and 2, and New Horizons, are on trajectories that leave the Solar System. Robotic spacecraft that remain in orbit around a planetary body are artificial satellites. Robotic spacecraft used to support scientific research are space probes. Spacecraft used for human spaceflight carry people on board as crew or passengers from start or on orbit ( space stations) only, whereas those used for robotic space missions operate either autonomously or telerobotically. For orbital spaceflights, spacecraft enter closed orbits around the Earth or around other celestial bodies. On a sub-orbital spaceflight, a space vehicle enters space and then returns to the surface without having gained sufficient energy or velocity to make a full Earth orbit. All spacecraft except single-stage-to-orbit vehicles cannot get into space on their own, and require a launch vehicle (carrier rocket).
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A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, planetary exploration, and transportation of humans and cargo. A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space.