Editing Space Race (section)

===First humans in space===
====Vostok====
{{Main|Vostok programme}}

[[File:Vostok spacecraft replica.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Replica of the [[Zenit (satellite)|Zenit]] and [[Vostok (spacecraft)|Vostok]] spacecraft bus]]

The Soviets designed their first human [[space capsule]] using the same [[spacecraft bus]] as their [[Zenit spy satellite]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thespacereview.com/article/2844/1|title=Declassified documents offer a new perspective on Yuri Gagarin's flight|date=12 October 2015|author=[[Asif Siddiqi]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201213141408/https://www.thespacereview.com/article/2844/1|archive-date=13 December 2020|url-status=live}}</ref> forcing them to keep the details and true appearance secret until after the Vostok program was over. The craft consisted of a spherical descent module with a mass of {{convert|2.46|t|lb}} and a diameter of {{convert|2.3|m|ft|sp=us}}, with a cylindrical inner cabin housing the cosmonaut, instruments, and escape system; and a [[biconic]] instrument module with a mass of {{convert|2.27|t|lb}}, {{convert|2.25|m|ft|sp=us}} long and {{convert|2.43|m|ft|sp=us}} in diameter, containing the engine system and propellant. After reentry, the cosmonaut would eject at about {{convert|7000|m|ft|sp=us}} over the USSR and descend via parachute, while the capsule would land separately, because the descent module made an extremely rough landing that could have left a cosmonaut seriously injured.{{sfn|Hall|Shayler|2001|pp=149–57}} The "Vostok spaceship" was first displayed at the July 1961 [[Soviet air show|Tushino air show]], mounted on its launch vehicle's third stage, with the nose cone in place concealing the spherical capsule. A tail section with eight fins was added in an apparent attempt to confuse western observers. This also appeared on official commemorative stamps and a documentary.{{sfn|Gatland|1976|p=254}} The Soviets finally revealed the true appearance of their Vostok capsule at the April 1965 Moscow Economic Exhibition.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Soviet Space Deceptions - not so many after all! |url=http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/Fakes/Fakes.htm |access-date=2024-12-08 |website=www.svengrahn.pp.se}}</ref>

[[File:The Soviet Union 1964 CPA 3014 stamp (Space Exploration. Gagarin and Vostok 1) small resolution.jpg|thumb|left|A 1964 Stamp with [[Yuri Gagarin]], and an intentionally inaccurate Vostok]]

On April 12, 1961, the USSR surprised the world by launching [[Yuri Gagarin]] into a single, 108-minute orbit around the Earth in a craft called [[Vostok 1]].{{sfn|Hall|Shayler|2001|pp=149–57}} They dubbed Gagarin the first [[cosmonaut]], roughly translated from Russian and Greek as "sailor of the universe". Gagarin's capsule was flown in automatic mode, since doctors did not know what would happen to a human in the weightlessness of space; but Gagarin was given an envelope containing the code that would unlock manual control in an emergency.{{sfn|Hall|Shayler|2001|pp=149–57}}

Gagarin became a national hero of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, and a worldwide celebrity. Moscow and other cities in the USSR held mass demonstrations, the scale of which was second only to the [[Moscow Victory Parade of 1945|World War II Victory Parade of 1945]].<ref>Pervushin (2011), [https://books.google.com/books?id=kMGlvz53P3cC&dq=%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%BD%D1%81%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%86%D0%B8%D0%B8+%D0%B2+%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%8C+%D0%BA%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%B2%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B8&pg=PT488 7.1 Гражданин мира]</ref> April 12 was declared [[Cosmonautics Day]] in the USSR, and is celebrated today in Russia as one of the official "Commemorative Dates of Russia."<ref name="32FZ">{{Cite Russian law
|ru_entity=Государственная Дума
|ru_type=Федеральный закон
|ru_number=32-ФЗ
|ru_date=13 марта 1995 г.
|ru_title=О днях воинской славы и памятных датах России
|ru_effective_date=со дня официального опубликования
|ru_published_in="Российская Газета", No. 52
|ru_published_date=15 марта 1995 г
|ru_url=http://ntc.duma.gov.ru/duma_na/asozd/asozd_text.php?code=22479
|ru_amendment_type=Федерального закона
|ru_amendment_number=59-ФЗ
|ru_amendment_date=10 апреля 2009 г
|ru_amendment_title=О внесении изменения в статью 1.1 федерального закона "О днях воинской славы и памятных датах России"
|en_entity=[[State Duma]]
|en_type=Federal Law
|en_number=32-FZ
|en_date=March 13, 1995
|en_title=On the Days of Military Glory and the Commemorative Dates in Russia
|en_effective_date=the day of the official publication
|en_url
|en_amendment_type=Federal Law
|en_amendment_number=59-FZ
|en_amendment_date=April 10, 2009
|en_amendment_title=On Amending Article&nbsp;1.1 of the Federal Law "On the Days of Military Glory and the Commemorative Dates in Russia"
}}</ref> In 2011, it was declared the International Day of Human Space Flight by the [[United Nations]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.un.org/en/events/humanspaceflightday/ |title= UN Resolution A/RES/65/271, The International Day of Human Space Flight (12 April) |date=April 7, 2011 |access-date=January 19, 2015}}</ref>

The USSR demonstrated 24-hour launch pad turnaround and launched two piloted spacecraft, [[Vostok 3]] and [[Vostok 4]], in essentially identical orbits, on August 11 and 12, 1962.{{sfn|Hall|Shayler|2001|pp=183, 192}} The two spacecraft came within approximately {{convert|6.5|km|nmi|sp=us|abbr=off}} of one another, close enough for radio communication,{{sfn|Gatland|1976|pp=117–18}} but then drifted as far apart as {{convert|2850|km|nmi|sp=us|abbr=off}}. The Vostok had no maneuvering rockets to keep the two craft a controlled distance apart.{{sfn|Hall|Shayler|2001|pp=185–91}} Vostok 4 also set a record of nearly four days in space. The first woman, [[Valentina Tereshkova]], was launched into space on [[Vostok 6]] on June 16, 1963,{{sfn|Hall|Shayler|2001|pp=194–218}} as (possibly) a medical experiment. She was the only one to fly of a small group of female parachutist factory workers (unlike the male cosmonauts who were military test pilots),<ref>{{cite web|title=Kamanin diaries, April 16, 1965|url=http://www.astronautix.com/k/kamanindiaries.html|publisher=Astronautix.com|access-date=January 8, 2023}}</ref> chosen by the head of cosmonaut training because he read a tabloid article about the "[[Mercury 13]]" group of women wanting to become astronauts, and got the mistaken idea that NASA was actually entertaining this.{{sfn|Burgess|Hall|2009|p=229}}{{sfn|Hall|Shayler|2001|pp=194–218}} Five months after her flight, Tereshkova married [[Vostok 3]] cosmonaut [[Andriyan Nikolayev]],<ref>{{cite journal|first=Tamara|last=Eidelman|title=A Cosmic Wedding|journal=Russian Life|year=2013|volume=56|issue=6|pages=22–25}}</ref> and they had a daughter.<ref>{{cite book|title=The 'First Lady of Space': In Her Own Words|publisher=SpaceHistory101.com Press|year=2015|last1=Nikolaeva-Tereshkova|first1=Valentina Vladimirovna|isbn=978-1-887022-99-6|chapter=Preface|pages=4–7|location=Bethesda, MD|oclc=930799309|ref={{harvid|"Preface"|2003}}}}</ref>

====Mercury====
{{Main|Project Mercury}}

[[File:Mercury Spacecraft.png|thumb|left|Cutaway of the Mercury capsule]]

The US Air Force had been developing a program to launch the first man in space, named [[Man in Space Soonest]]. This program studied several different types of one-man space vehicles, settling on a [[space capsule|ballistic re-entry capsule]] launched on a derivative [[Atlas LV-3B|Atlas missile]], and selecting a group of nine candidate pilots. After NASA's creation, the program was transferred over to the civilian agency's [[Space Task Group]] and renamed Project Mercury on November 26, 1958. The Mercury spacecraft was designed by the STG's chief engineer [[Maxime Faget]]. NASA selected a new group of [[astronaut]] (from the Greek for "star sailor") candidates from [[United States Navy|Navy]], [[United States Air Force|Air Force]] and [[United States Marine Corps|Marine]] test pilots, and narrowed this down to [[Mercury Seven|a group of seven]] for the program. Capsule design and astronaut training began immediately, working toward preliminary suborbital flights on the [[Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle|Redstone missile]], followed by orbital flights on the Atlas. Each flight series would first start unpiloted, then carry a non-human primate, then finally humans.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2008-10-01 |title=In the Beginning: Project Mercury - NASA |url=https://www.nasa.gov/missions/project-mercury/in-the-beginning-project-mercury/ |access-date=2024-12-10 |language=en-US}}</ref>

The Mercury spacecraft's principal designer was [[Maxime Faget]], who started research for human spaceflight during the time of the NACA.{{sfn|Catchpole|2001|p=150}} It consisted of a conical capsule with a cylindrical pack of three solid-fuel [[retro-rocket]]s strapped over a [[beryllium]] or [[fiberglass]] [[heat shield]] on the blunt end. Base diameter at the blunt end was {{convert|6.0|ft}} and length was {{convert|10.8|ft}}; with the launch escape system added, the overall length was {{convert|25.9|ft}}.{{sfn|Catchpole|2001|p=131}} With {{convert|100|ft3|m3}} of habitable volume, the capsule was just large enough for a single astronaut.{{sfn|Swenson|Grimwood|Alexander|1966|p=47}} The first suborbital spacecraft weighed {{convert|3000|lb}}; the heaviest, Mercury-Atlas 9, weighed {{convert|3000|lb}} fully loaded.{{sfn|Swenson|Grimwood|Alexander|1966|p=490}} On reentry, the astronaut would stay in the craft through splashdown by parachute in the Atlantic Ocean.

[[File:Alan Shepard during Mercury-Redstone 3.jpg|thumb|right|[[Alan Shepard]], the first American in space, 1961]]

On May 5, 1961, [[Alan Shepard]] became the first American in space, launching in a [[sub-orbital spaceflight|ballistic trajectory]] on [[Mercury-Redstone 3]], in a spacecraft he named ''Freedom 7''.{{sfn|Schefter|1999|pp=138–43}} Though he did not achieve orbit like Gagarin, he was the first person to exercise manual control over his spacecraft's [[Orientation (geometry)|attitude]] and [[retro-rocket]] firing.{{sfn|Gatland|1976|pp=153–54}} After his successful return, Shepard was celebrated as a national hero, honored with parades in Washington, New York and Los Angeles, and received the [[NASA Distinguished Service Medal]] from [[President of the United States|President]] [[John F. Kennedy]].<ref>{{cite AV media |year=1961 |title=As World Watched. Spaceman Hailed After U.S. Triumph, 1961/05/08 (1961) |medium=Motion picture |url=https://archive.org/details/1961-05-08_As_World_Watched|access-date=February 20, 2012 |publisher=[[Universal Newsreel|Universal-International Newsreel]] |oclc=709678549}}</ref>

American [[Gus Grissom|Virgil "Gus" Grissom]] repeated Shepard's suborbital flight in ''[[Mercury-Redstone 4|Liberty Bell 7]]'' on July 21, 1961.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Neuman |first=Scott |date=2021-07-22 |title=A New Analysis May Have Just Solved A Decades-Old Mystery Of The Space Race |language=en |work=NPR |url=https://www.npr.org/2021/07/22/1019254674/gus-grissom-liberty-bell-mercury-the-right-stuff |access-date=2022-12-13}}</ref> Almost a year after the Soviet Union put a human into orbit, astronaut [[John Glenn]] became the first American to orbit the Earth, on February 20, 1962.{{sfn|Schefter|1999|pp=156–164}} His [[Mercury-Atlas 6]] mission completed three orbits in the ''Friendship 7'' spacecraft, and splashed down safely in the Atlantic Ocean, after a tense reentry, due to what falsely appeared from the telemetry data to be a loose heat-shield.{{sfn|Schefter|1999|pp=156–164}} On February 23, 1962, President Kennedy awarded Glenn with the [[NASA Distinguished Service Medal]] in a ceremony at [[Cape Canaveral Air Force Station]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/president-john-f-kennedy-pins-nasa-distinguished-service-medal-on-john-glenn|title=President John F. Kennedy Pins NASA Distinguished Service Medal on John Glenn|publisher=NASA|access-date=July 30, 2018 |date=May 13, 2015}}</ref> As the first American in orbit, Glenn became a national hero, and received a [[ticker-tape parade]] in New York City, reminiscent of that given for [[Charles Lindbergh]].

The United States launched three more Mercury flights after Glenn's: ''[[Aurora 7]]'' on May 24, 1962, duplicated Glenn's three orbits, ''[[Mercury-Atlas 8|Sigma 7]]'' on October 3, 1962, six orbits, and ''[[Faith 7]]'' on May 15, 1963, 22 orbits (32.4 hours), the maximum capability of the spacecraft. NASA at first intended to launch one more mission, extending the spacecraft's endurance to three days, but since this would not beat the Soviet record, it was decided instead to concentrate on developing Project Gemini.<ref>{{cite book|last=Catchpole|first=John|title=Project Mercury – NASA's First Manned Space Programme|date=2001|pages=385–386|publisher=Springer Praxis|location=Chichester, UK|isbn=1-85233-406-1|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/projectmercuryna0000catc}}</ref>