Since the launching of the first satellite – Sputnik 1 – to space in the Cold War era on October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union has achieved many of the “world’s first” records in the space race against the US.
The US was also working on its own satellite at the same time, and took no time to retaliate, establish the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) and allocate more budgets to propel space research – an act considered to be a tool for claiming supremacy in technological advancement.
The race lost pace – but did not stop – after the US’ first manned spacecraft, Apollo 11, landed on the Moon in 1969. Nonetheless, the fight was a blessing for the humans trying to know more about the mysterious outer space for centuries.
The triumphs of Soviet Russia include sending the first human and the first woman to space, the first animal to orbit the Earth, and the first probes to the Moon, the Sun, Venus and Mars.
Their race resumed in late ‘90s with Russia building the modular first space station, Mir, in 1986. Since then, Russia made way for astronauts from different countries including the US to work in cooperation in space.
Latest, astronaut Mark Vande Hei made a new US record for the most time, 355 days, spent at the International Space Station (ISS); he landed in a Soyuz capsule in Kazakhstan with two Russian cosmonauts, who also spent the past year in space, on March 30, 2022.
Russia has been a partner of the US-led ISS alongside Canada, Europe and Japan since November 2000, but China is blocked from participating in it due to US legislation passed in 2011.
But, on July 26, the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos said they might pull out of the ISS after 2024, a statement that casts doubts on the future of American-Russian space cooperation.
Only two weeks ago, Russia and the US signed a crew exchange agreement allowing US astronauts and Russian cosmonauts to share flights on each other's spacecraft to and from the ISS in the future.
Sent in 1998, the ISS will expire in 2024 and is likely to be tasked to orbit the Moon till 2030, when the US plans to launch a new station. Meanwhile, the US has announced the launch of its second lunar mission, and this time for a longer period.
Both Russia and China are considering missions to the Moon and Mars to establish base stations.
China became a major player in the space domain in the last two decades, building its own telescopes and space stations, and sending robots to the far side of the Moon and Mars. The Chinese space station, Tiangong or Heavenly Palace, was launched last year while Russia plans to send its second space station by 2028.
• July 1951: First Soviet rocket with two dogs reaches 101km in altitude.
• October 4, 1957: First intercontinental missile carries the first satellite Sputnik 1.
• November 3, 1957: First animal, dog Laika, sent to Earth’s orbit on Sputnik 2.
• January 1959: First probe Luna 1 orbits the Moon and the Sun.
• 1959: First computerized robotic mission Luna 2 impacts Moon's surface.
• 1959: First image of the far side of the Moon recorded.
• April 12, 1961: First human in space.
• 1962: First probe Mariner 2 sent to Venus.
• June 16, 1963: Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova first woman in space.
• 1965: Cosmonaut performs the first spacewalk.
• 1965: First Mars flyby by Mariner 4.
• 1970: First space rover extracts samples of lunar soil and brings it to Earth.
• 1971: First space station set up in low Earth orbit.
• February 20, 1986: First modular space station Mir launched.
• March 22, 1995: Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns to Earth after 437 days and 18 hours, setting a record for the longest single stay in space.
• 1998: Soviet cosmonaut Anatoly Yakovlevich Solovyov hits the record for the most time (651 days) spent on spacewalks.
• March 23, 2001: Space station Mir abandoned.
• 2020: Russia suspends ExoMars mission due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the need for more tests on the spacecraft; plans to launch it in 2024.