rovers, sample returns Mars probe program Meteor meteorological satellites Molniya communications satellites Mir space station Proton satellites Phobos Mars probes program Salyut space stations Soyuz program spacecraft Sputnik satellites TKS spacecraft Venera Venus probes program Vega program Venus and comet Halley probes program Vostok program spacecraft Voskhod program spacecraft Zond program Notable firsts Two days after the United States announced its intention to launch an artificial satellite, on July 31, 1955, the Soviet Union announced its intention to do the same. Sputnik 1 was launched on October 4, 1957, beating the United States and stunning people all over the world. The Soviet space program pioneered many aspects of space exploration: 1957: First intercontinental ballistic missile and orbital launch vehicle, the R-7 Semyorka. 1957: First satellite, Sputnik 1. 1957: First animal in Earth orbit, the dog Laika on Sputnik 2. 1959: First rocket ignition in Earth orbit, first man-made object to escape Earth's gravity, Luna 1. 1959: First data communications, or telemetry, to and from outer space, Luna 1. 1959: First man-made object to pass near the Moon, first man-made object in Heliocentric orbit, Luna 1. 1959: First probe to impact the Moon, Luna 2. 1959: First images of the moon's far side, Luna 3. 1960: First animals to safely return from Earth orbit, the dogs Belka and Strelka on Sputnik 5. 1961: First probe launched to Venus, Venera 1. 1961: First person in space (International definition) and in Earth orbit, Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1, Vostok program. 1961: First person to spend over 24 hours in space Gherman Titov, Vostok 2 (also first person to sleep in space). 1962: First dual crewed spaceflight, Vostok 3 and Vostok 4. 1962: First probe launched to Mars, Mars 1. 1963: First woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, Vostok 6. 1964: First multi-person crew (3), Voskhod 1. 1965: First extra-vehicular activity (EVA), by Alexsei Leonov, Voskhod 2. 1965: First radio telescope in space, Zond 3. 1965: First probe to hit another planet of the Solar System (Venus), Venera 3. 1966: First probe to make a soft landing on and transmit from the surface of the Moon, Luna 9. 1966: First probe in lunar orbit, Luna 10. 1966: first image of the whole Earth disk, Molniya 1. 1967: First uncrewed rendezvous and docking, Cosmos 186/Cosmos 188. 1968: First living beings to reach the Moon (circumlunar flights) and return unharmed to Earth, Russian tortoises and other lifeforms