First Humans in Space

Young Astronomers Blog, Volume 29, Number 7.

Sixty years ago, humans from the planet Earth left their world for the first time and journeyed above the atmosphere.

On the morning of October 5, 1957, the world awoke to something new. For the first time in human history an artificial satellite was orbiting the Earth. The satellite was Sputnik 1, and it was launched not by the perceived technologically dominate United States, but by the Soviet Union. The western world was in shock. We had been beaten and a communist satellite was travelling over the United States.

On November 3, 1957, the Soviets followed with Sputnik 2. This time, it carried a passenger, the dog Laika. Things were not looking well for the United States and their infant space program.

President Eisenhower decided the U.S. had to respond. He turned to the Navy and project Vanguard. On December 6, 1957, Vanguard TV-3 roared into life. It rose a few feet, fell back to the launch pad, and exploded. All of this was on live TV in front of the world. Soon, Vanguard was referred to as “Flopnik”, “Kaputnik”, “Puffnik”, and “Stayputnik”.

The U.S. then turned to the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama and on January 31, 1958, Explorer 1 was launched into orbit by a Jupiter C rocket. With this, the United States joined the space race. However, it wasn’t long before both the United States and the Soviet Union started to think about sending a human into space.

In the beginning, the U.S. efforts in space were led by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). But efforts were spread out among the Army, Navy, and Air Force. Eisenhower preferred a civilian agency to lead the charge, and on October 1, 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was formed.

Around the same time, Project Mercury was created and on April 9, 1959, the first seven U.S. astronauts were introduced to the public. They were Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Deke Slayton, and Alan Shepard. Three of the seven were later “officially” chosen for the first manned mission, a suborbital flight. Unknown to the public, Alan Shepard was the actual choice with Gus Grissom scheduled for the second flight and John Glenn the backup for both.

Before they could fly into space, the spacecraft and rocket booster had to be thoroughly tested.

The first few tests used a rocket booster called Little Joe launched from Wallops Island off the coast of Virginia. Little Joe 1 was first. On August 21, 1959, as the countdown was proceeding. People were slowing moving to safe locations for the launch. Then around a ½ hour before launch, the escape tower ignited. This sent the spectators scrambling for safety. The escape tower worked as planned, although it was supposed to fire after the spacecraft launched, not before. Little Joe 2 and Little Joe 1B were more successful sending two rhesus monkeys (Sam and Miss Sam) on short test flights.

The next test flights were with a Mercury capsule launched by a Redstone booster. MR-1 was scheduled to take off on November 21, 1960. The Redstone engine ignited. The vehicle rose a few inches and settled back down on the pad. The escape tower fired and landed 400 yards away, which is what it is supposed to do. However, it did so without taking the spacecraft with it. With the escape tower gone, the capsule’s parachutes all deployed, and the green die marker used when landing was released. All this is, of course, while it was still attached to the launch vehicle and sitting on the pad. MR-1A followed on December 19, 1960. It was more successful, reaching a height of 130 miles and a weightless period of over 5 minutes.

On January 31, 1961, NASA launched the first Mercury Redstone crewed flight (MR-2). The “pilot” was Ham, a chimpanzee. The flight had a few problems. It flew higher and landed farther down range than expected. Despite the problems, the mission was successful, and the path was now open for a human to go next. Alan Shepard could become the first man in space.

On the other side of the world, the Soviet Union was developing its own space program. The man at the helm was Sergei Korolev. At the time, little was known about Korolev. Fearing for his safety, he was referred to only as the “Chief Designer”. Korolev had a very rocky road before becoming the head of the Russian space program. He fell out of favor with Soviet leaders and spent several years in a Russian gulag. However, at the end of World War 2, his engineering prowess was recognized, and he began working on Russian rocketry while still confined in the gulag. After his release, he led the design of the first Russian ICBMs, including the R-7, which was the rocket that launched Sputnik.

Korolev and the Soviets soon directed their attention toward human spaceflight. The first group of twenty cosmonauts were selected on February 25, 1960. Unlike the Americans, who were instant celebrities, the Russian selection was kept secret. Three months later, six cosmonauts were chosen for the upcoming Vostok program, although two were eventually replaced. Finally, in January 1961, three, Yuri Gagarin, Gherman Titov, and Grigori Nelyubov, were selected as finalists for the first flight. The remaining three (of the six) were Andriyan Nikolayev, Pavel Popovich, and Valery Bykovsky. Nelyubov later left the program, but the other five flew Vostok missions. A few years later, a second group of cosmonauts were selected including five women.

The Russians were also going through a series of unmanned flights designed to test the rocket and spacecraft. These test flights were known as Korabai-Sputnik missions. The first four met with partial success. Korabi-Sputnik 2 carried two dogs, who became the first animals to fly in orbit and land successfully. The last two unmanned missions in March 1961 (Korabit-Sputnik 4 and 5) were the final test of the human rated Vostok. Both were sent up with a dog and mannequin for a single orbit. Both landed successfully. This opened the door for a Soviet manned mission, possibly in early April.

After Ham’s MR-2 flight, Wernher Von Braun, the head of the Marshall Space Flight Center, felt that one more test flight was needed. MR-BD (“Booster Development”) took off on March 24, 1961 and reached an altitude of 113 miles. Everything went well. Now the door was open for the first manned Mercury Redstone flight in late April or early May.

If MR-BD had been a manned mission, Alan Shepard would have been the first human in space. It was, however, not to be. On April 12, 1961, Vostok 1 launched from what would become known as the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on board. He landed after one orbit becoming the first human in space. Although he did eject from the spacecraft and parachuted to the ground.

Alan Shepard (Freedom 7) followed Gagarin into space with a short 15-minute suborbital flight on May 5, 1961. He reached an altitude of 116.5 miles and landed 303 miles down range from Cape Canaveral. However, just as the Russians were first with Sputnik, they were first putting a man into space and into orbit.

Gus Grissom (Liberty Bell 7) repeated Shepard’s short flight on July 21, 1961. His flight was successful; however, his post landing experience was not. As Grissom was waiting for a helicopter to pick him up, the hatch on his spacecraft blew open while the craft was floating in the ocean. Water poured in and the spacecraft sank to the bottom of the ocean. Grissom was, fortunately, rescued.

Not to be outdone, on August 6, 1961, Gherman Titov rode Vostok 2 into orbit and stayed there for a full day completing 17 orbits of the Earth.

The United States caught up to the Soviet Union, to some extent, with their first orbital mission on February 20, 1962. John Glenn (Friendship 7) completed three orbits of the Earth before returning safely. This was followed by three more missions: Scott Carpenter (Aurora 7 for three orbits in May 1962), Wally Schirra (Sigma 7 for six orbits in October 1962), and Gordon Cooper (Faith 7 for 22 orbits in May 1963).

The Soviets continued their dominance of long duration spaceflights and completed four more Vostok missions ranging in duration from 3 to 5 days. Andriyan Nikolayev (Vostok 3) and Pavel Popovich (Vostok 4) flew simultaneously in August 1962. Valery Bykovsky (Vostok 5) and Valentina Tereshkova (Vostok 6) repeated with a similar mission in June 1963.

Valentina Tereshkova was the first cosmonaut from the Soviet’s second group to fly in space and the first woman in space. It would, however, be many years before another woman would fly beyond the atmosphere.

Sadly, Yuri Gagarin, who became a national hero in the Soviet Union, died when a plane he was piloting crashed on March 27, 1968.

Selected Sources and Further Reading (Articles)

Roger D. Launius. “Sputnik and the Origins of the Space Age.” NASA History Division. Updated February 2, 2005. https://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/sputorig.html

Stephen C. Smith. “Vanguard Revisited (Part I). Space KSC. January 1, 2011. https://spaceksc.blogspot.com/2011/01/vanguard-revisited.html

Robin McKie. “Sergei Korolev: the rocket genius behind Yuri Gagarin.” The Guardian. March 12, 2011. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2011/mar/13/yuri-gagarin-first-space-korolev

“Sergei P. Korolev.” NASA. September 22, 2010. https://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/rocketry/home/sergei-korolev.html

Ethan Siegel. “This is Why The Soviet Union Lost ‘The Space Race’ To The USA.” Forbes. July 11, 2019. https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2019/07/11/this-is-why-the-soviet-union-lost-the-space-race-to-the-usa/?sh=541109be4192

John Uri. “60 Years Ago: Soviets Select Their First Cosmonauts.” NASA History. February 25, 2020. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/60-years-ago-soviets-select-their-first-cosmonauts

Roman Colas “In Russia, the legend of cosmonaut Gagarin lives on.” Phys.org. April 7, 2021. https://phys.org/news/2021-04-russia-legend-cosmonaut-gagarin.html

“Yuri Gagarin: First Man in Space.” NASA, Space Shuttle. (Accessed April 20, 2021). https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/sts1/gagarin_anniversary.html

Uliana Malashenko. “The First Group of Female Cosmonauts Were Trained to Conquer the Final Frontier.” Smithsonian Magazine. April 12, 2019. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/first-group-female-cosmonauts-trained-conquer-final-frontier-180971900/

Selected Sources and Further Reading (Books)

Loyd S. Swenson Jr., James M. Grimwood, and Charles C. Alexander. This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury. NASA Special Publication-4201 in the NASA History Series. 1989. https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4201/toc.htm & https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4201.pdf

• “MR-2: Ham Paves the Way.” https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4201/ch10-3.htm
• “MR-BD Is not MR-3.” https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4201/ch10-7.htm
• “Last-Minute Qualms.” https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4201/ch11-3.htm
• “Vostok Wins the First Lap.” https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4201/ch10-8.htm
• “Shepard’s Ride.” https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4201/ch11-4.htm
• “Second Suborbital Trial.” https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4201/ch11-7.htm
• “Titov Widens the Gap.” https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4201/ch11-9.htm

Matt Blitz. “The Mysterious Death of the First Man in Space.” Popular Mechanics. April 12, 2016. https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a20350/yuri-gagarin-death/

James E. Oberg. Red Star in Orbit, The Inside Story of Soviet Failures and Triumphs in Space. Random House. New York. 1981.

James Schefter. The Race. The uncensored Story of How America Beat Russia to the Moon. Doubleday. New York. 1999.

Christopher Kraft with James L. Schefter. Flight, My Life in Mission Control. Penguin Books. New York. 2001.

Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton with Jay Barbree and Howard Benedict. Moon Shot, The Inside Story of America’s Race to the Moon. Turner Publishing, Inc. Atlanta. 1994.