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4//10/25
World Space Week
On the 4th October every year World Space Week begins. It begins on the anniversary of the first ever space satellite being successfully launched into space. That satellite was called Sputnik 1.
The theme for this year’s Space Week is ‘Living in Space’, which is all about exploring our journey beyond Earth.
In 1960 no one had ever travelled beyond Earth. Now more than 700 people have flown past the 50 mile high mark that people thought of as ‘space’ when space travel first started.
The longest any astronaut has been in space for a single mission is 437 days and 18 hours! That record is held by a Russian called Valeri Polyakov who was on a Russian Space Station.
Astronauts have been out to space and orbited Earth, which means they have travelled around it. Some lucky astronauts have been to the Moon and twelve have even walked on the surface. Astronauts have also been out to space to work on space stations.
There is currently two space stations, the International Space Station and China’s Tianging Space Station. Over the years there have been twelve different space stations. The International Space Station has always had astronauts in it since 2000.
Current missions, like the Artemis program, are focusing on returning astronauts to the Moon and preparing for potential future missions to Mars!
Buzz Aldrin on the Moon in 1969.
International Space Station
A rocket launching into space.
The crew who will be heading to the Moon hopefully next year.
Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1 was the first satellite launched by the Soviet Union on 4th October 1957. It was the start of the ‘space race’, between America and the Soviet Union, which ended with America landing astronauts on the Moon.
Sputnik 1 was a small silver metal sphere that only measured 58 cm and had four external radio antennas sticking out from the sphere.
The main aim of Sputnik 1 was to test if it was possible to put a satellite into orbit. But it also provided scientific information while it was up there too. It orbited Earth every 96 minutes, transmitted a radio “beeping” signal for three weeks before its batteries died.
A model showing what Sputnik 1 would have looked like.
A larger than life model showing what the inside of Sputnik 1would have looked like.
The Space Race
Within a month of Sputnik 1, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2, which was also a satellite. It was significantly bigger than Sputnik 1 and actually carried the first living animal into space, a dog named Laika.
It took America until the end of January 1958, to successfully launched their own satellite, which was called Explorer 1. By the end of July 1958 America had set up the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. We know it as NASA.
The next major achievement was creating a satellite to not just orbit Earth, but to orbit the Sun. Luna 1 was launched by the Soviet Union on 2nd January 1959. It was the first object to leave Earth’s gravity, fly past the moon & enter orbit around the sun. It was then followed by Luna 2, which became the first man made object to impact the Moon.
On 12th April 1961, the Soviet Union put the first astronaut into space. His name was Yuri Gagarin. Very quickly afterwards, on the 5th May 1961 America got the second man into space. His name was Alan Shepard.
The Apollo missions also began in 1961. The first Apollo mission ended before it began, very sadly killing the three astronauts on board. The following Apollo missions were unmanned to ensure the safety of the missions. Apollo 6 was then the first crewed mission into space. It took till Apollo 11 to get astronauts onto the Moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first astronauts to walk on the Moon.
A photo of Buzz Aldrin on the Moon, taken by Neil Armstrong.
Buzz Aldrin on the Moon next to the American flag.
Photos and illustrations in this blog post are Whizzbots, Shutterstock and Public Domain Images.