LUNAR TICK

As NASA prepares for a new Moon mission, MARION MCMULLEN recalls those who checked off some trailblazing firsts in space

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An astronaut's footprint Apollo 11 blasts off

NASA is about to send astronauts around the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.

The launch window for the Artemis II mission opens in February, and the 10-day manned flight by three men and a woman is set to be the first to orbit the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. It’s part of NASA’s longer-term plan to achieve the first crewed missions to Mars.

Here we look at other significant firsts in space exploration.

Soviet satellite Sputnik blasted into space in 1957 on the 50th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. It contained a battery-powered radio which transmitted a “beep, beep” sound back to Earth. The transmitter batteries lasted for 22 days.

The dog Laika orbited the Earth in 1957, aboard the Soviet Sputnik II. She survived the orbit, but no provision had been made to bring her back to Earth and she died in space.

A squirrel monkey named Gordo was another furry casualty in 1957.

Gordo survived the launch as a passenger on the American PGM19 Jupiter rocket, eight minutes of weightlessness and reentry at 10,000 miles an hour. Sadly the parachute failed to open on reentry and the capsule sank in the South Atlantic.

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space in 1961, and also the first to chow down on space food.