Russian Space Program

by Jerry Coffey on January 10, 2007

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Russian Space Program

Sputnik

I have come across a lot of people who believe that the Russian space program ended with Yuri Gagarin’s orbital flight. There really has not been a great deal of news about the program. That means that people have forgotten about the Mir Space Station or do not realize that the Russian Space Agency flew its own space shuttle.

To help our readers realize the contributions of the Russian space program we have assembled a group of links to articles loaded with information about it. Here are a few interesting facts that you will find more information about in the linked articles.

The world’s largest airplane was created by a Russian company to support the Russian space program’s space shuttle program.

The Russian space program launched the first animal into space as well as the first human to reach Earth orbit.

Despite ‘losing’ the race to land on the lunar surface, The Russian space program did have a lunar probe in orbit at the same time as Apollo 11 and cooperated with the United Sates so that the two spacecrafts would not crash into each other.

Russia placed the first satellite into orbit in 1957, but its space program had been doing orbital research for nearly a decade before that using rockets that could not sustain orbital flight.

The first satellite in space only transmitted for 22 days.

The Russian space program has struggled through mediocrity and funding issues since the late 1960′s. Because of this it has been able to gain very little global credibility. Despite these problems, it is the sole reason that the United States ever attempted spaceflight. In that context, the Russian space agency is the impetus for all of the space based knowledge that we have acquired in the last 50 years. Hopefully, you will find the information that you need in the links below and, as always, enjoy your research.

Russian Space Program

Luna Program

Lunokhod Program

  • Lunokhod 2

Vega Program

  • Vega 2

Salyut Program

  • Salyut 1
  • Salyut 6
  • Salyut 7

Soyuz Mission

Vostok Program

Venera Program

  • Venera 1
  • Venera 7
  • Venera 8
  • Venera 9
  • Venera 10
  • Venera 11
  • Venera 12
  • Venera 13
  • Venera 15
  • Venera 15 Mission
  • Venera 16

Sputnik Mission

Mars Program

  • Mars 4

Phobos Program

  • Phobos 2

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