Nasa

Ever since the beginning of time, mankind has been fascinated with wonders of

space. Before the mid-1900s, all mankind could do was gaze at the stars from

Earth and wonder what it would be like to go into space. Man would look through

telescopes and make theories on how the universe worked. During the mid-1900s,

mankind finally was able to send a man into space and explore the wonders of

space first hand. So why do humans explore space? Well, it is our fascination

with the unknown. At first, all mankind did was look up and wonder how things

became what they are now. We started to think that all celestial bodies revolved

around the Earth, and the Earth was the center of the entire universe. Galileo

Galelie later disproved this theory. Even with growing knowledge in the field,

it was not until 1957 when the first Earth orbiter, the Soviet's Sputnik 1, was

sent into space and placed in orbit at an altitude of 1,370 miles and weighed

184 pounds. Later in that year, the Soviets sent Sputnik 2 into space with a

dog-named Laika. Laika was the first animal to venture into space. Then in 1985,

the United States successfully sent their very own satellite into space. In

1960, the Soviets launched to dogs into space and successfully returned them to

Earth. From this point started the space race. The space race was a challenge

between the USSR and the United States to see who could land a man on the moon

first. In 1961, the first man in space was cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin who was in