12 space pioneers

On April 28, 2001, the first space tourist, an American multimillionaire of Italian origin, Dennis Tito, took off. At the age of sixty, he orbited the Earth 128 times, paying twenty million dollars for this. And he has no regrets about the money spent.

Returning home from orbit, Tito said: “This is the greatest adventure of my life. I've been to heaven and soared like an angel, looking down at the earth. Knew it was going to be a risky adventure and prepared for the worst. However, all six days I experienced euphoria. And in February of this year, Dennis Tito announced the start of funding for the Inspiration Mars project (“Inspiration - Mars”), the purpose of which is a non-stop flight to Mars, a flyby around Mars and a return to Earth. For this project, he is looking for a married couple who will recover on a 500-day flight in January 2018.

On this day, we decided to remember some other space pioneers who wrote their names (and in some cases nicknames or titles) in history.

(Total 12 photos)

1. Sputnik 1. The first artificial earth satellite launched into space, October 4, 1957.

2. Like. The first astronaut dog, November 3, 1957.

3. Ham. The first chimpanzee in space, January 31, 1961.

4. Yuri Gagarin. First man in space, April 12, 1961.

5. Alan Shepard. First American in space, May 5, 1961.

6. Valentina Tereshkova. First female astronaut, June 16, 1963.

7. Neil Armstrong First man on the moon, July 20, 1969.

8. Sally Ride. First American woman astronaut, June 18, 1983.

9. Guyon Bluford. First African American in space, August 30, 1983.

10 May Jemison First African American woman in space, September 12, 1992.

11. Colombia. First shuttle launch, April 12, 1981.

12. Dennis Tito (pictured left, along with Talgat Musabaev and Yuri Baturin). The first space tourist, April 28, 2001.