Space travel is the reaching of the universe beyond the atmosphere of the earth. We can use the information gained from these travels to increase cosmos knowledge and benefit humanity. People referred it to the astronomy use and technology in space. The astronomers with telescopes are mainly carried out the journey through space. Here we are listing the top ten amazing facts about space travel.
10 Humans have traveled into space for over 50 years now
The 27-year-old Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin made the first human journey into space on April 12, 1961, and the spacecraft used for this voyage called Vostok 1. Yuri Gagarin also orbited around the planet before he was parachuting back down to earth safely. The entire flight of this journey took one hour and forty-eight minutes from launch to landing.
Ever since then, people worldwide celebrate ‘Yuri’s Night’ on April 12 to remember the beginning of human space exploration. Following the flight, he became a Soviet Union’s cultural hero. Even today, over six decades after his historic trip, Soviet cosmonaut celebrated widely in Russian space museums. Moreover, the celebration also includes several artifacts, busts, and statues displayed in his honor.
People buried Gagarin’s remains at the Kremlin in Moscow, and part of the spacecraft is on display at the RKK Energiya museum. The U.S and the Soviet Union challenged the space’s technological supremacy, and then his flight came at a time. The first artificial satellite of the Soviet Union, called Sputnik they had already sent it into space in October 1957.
Before Gagarin’s mission, the Soviets sent a test flight into space using the Vostok spacecraft’s prototype. They sent a life-size dummy, known as Ivan Ivanovich, and a dog named Zvezdochka into space during this flight. After this test flight, the Soviets considered the vessel fit to take a person into space. Thus, this is one of the amazing facts about space travel.
9 The first “space tourist” traveled to the International Space Station in 2001
It is one of the amazing facts about space travel. Space tourism is the traveling activity of humans into space for recreational purposes. We can also see lots of different kinds of space tourism, such as orbital, suborbital, and lunar space tourism here. Besides, Dennis Tito, a California millionaire and former NASA engineer paid for his trip to the International Space Station EP-1. So, he became the first paying space tourist in the world when the Russian Federal Space Agency launched two Russian cosmonauts and Dennis aboard a rocket.
He also spent almost eight days in orbit as an ISS EP-1’s crew member in mid- 2001, and this is the mission of visiting the International Space Station. The spacecraft Soyuz TM-32 launched this mission, and Soyuz TM-31 landed it. He circled Earth 128 times when he was a crew member. Dennis Tito is never a regular American tourist, though.
He also studied astronautics and aeronautics in school. Moreover, Dennis went on to work as a NASA in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s scientist. Officials said that he paid $20 million of his money to take the trip! Tito announced the intention of him to send a spaceflight of privately financed to Mars in 2018.
He was stating that the technology of travel is already in place. The issues that need to overcome are only the requirements of a 501-day trip rigor on a physical level and psychological for the human crew.
10 Rarest And Amazing Astronomical Events
8 The first person reached on the moon on July 20, 1969
It is also amazing facts about space travel. The American crews, commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin, were the first humans to reach the moon. They also return safely to earth. When these people arrive on the moon, then they went outside of the spacecraft and walked around! The spaceflight, Apollo 11, was first landed the humans on the moon.
On July 20, 1969, the two Americans landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle at 20:17 UTC. Neil was the first person to fall onto the lunar surface and took six hours and 39 minutes. Later, Aldrin joined him on July 21 in 19 minutes then. They together spent around two and a quarter-hour of spacecraft outside. They also collected lunar material, about 47.5 pounds, to bring back to earth. The trip was around 402,336 kilometers.
It is like the traveling of the equator of the planet around ten times! A Saturn V rocket launched Apollo ll from Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida. The first step of Armstrong onto the lunar surface was broadcast on live television to the audience worldwide.
The lunar module land on the moon’s Sea of Tranquility. It was a sizeable basaltic region. While on the surface, they set up many experiments. They collected lunar soil samples and rocks to bring home. Additionally, the astronauts erected the flag of the United States and took core samples from the crust.
7 Sputnik stunned the world
The Sputnik launch 60 years ago opened a space era. It also became a significant triumph for the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was showcasing the power of military and technological heroism. So, Sputnik discovery stunned the rest of the world. The Soviet Union’s first artificial satellite launched in October 1957, marking a new space exploration age.
This satellite, named Sputnik, was a beach ball size. It took ninety-eight minutes to complete an earth’s orbit successfully. Moreover, other continents were not expecting the Soviets to launch the satellite of them so soon. America did not start the first satellite until January 1958. Development details and the first artificial satellite launch hidden behind the secrecy veil surrounded the Soviet space program and became known decades later.
Sputnik orbited for three weeks before the batteries of it died. Then it silently circled for two more months before it dropped back into the atmosphere. It was a diameter of 23 inches. It polished metal sphere and four external radio antennas to broadcast radio pulses.
The Russian name of Sputnik is for spouse/traveling companion or satellite when interpreted in the context of an astronomical. It went at around 18,000 mph, taking 96.2 minutes to finish each orbit. Radio operators monitored Sputnik that transmitted on 20.005 and 40.002 MHz. It had a mass of 184 lb.
6 Many monkeys have sent into space
It has the sixth position in the list of amazing facts about space travel. Several brave astronauts participated and given their lives when they travel into space. But before those astronauts, there was a long line of other creatures like fruit flies paved the way for human spaceflight. Officials sent the first monkey on June 11, 1948, into space launched from New Mexico.
Albert, a male rhesus monkey, was aboard a V2 rocket. Also, it reached 39 miles of altitude during his trip. But it suffocated after a technical malfunction. The height of this monkey was 83 miles on June 14, 1949. Albert proceeded to Albert II. The fate of Albert II was not as lucky as that of the fruit flies.
Sadly, a problem in the parachute on the recovery capsule caused Albert II to die from the impact upon landing. His capsule only made it to a height on June 11, 1948. Also, Albert did not last long. He suffocated even before the capsule left the earth. Space officially starts at 100 km above the earth’s surface. People called this height as the Karman Line.
After Albert II made it into space, several other monkeys, such as Albert III, IV, and V, flew aboard rockets. But none of them survived the flight. Dying on impact as well as during the trip can occur. Able and Miss Baker were the two monkeys that survive the flight into space. They flew up to a height of 360 miles aboard a Jupiter rocket. This fantastic space travel facts also hold a position on this list.
5 The first pup to orbit the earth was a stray
It has the fifth position in the list of amazing facts about space travel. Just a month after the Russian satellite Sputnick 1 launch, the Soviets sent the first dog. The Soviets sent this dog named Laika into the space to orbit the Earth in November 1957. The first animal to leave the orbit of the planet, taking off 60 years ago.
The stray mutt was found in Moscow and landed a place in history on November 3. The first canine suffered from overheating just a few hours after the mission’s start and died in space. The officials selected Laika, from Moscow’s streets, as the occupant of the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2. People knew little about the spaceflight impact on living creatures at the time of Laika’s mission.
The technology was also not yet developed to de-orbit at that time. Therefore, we never expected the survival of Laika. Some scientists believed human beings would not be able to survive the launch or extreme space conditions. The engineers used animals as a necessary precursor for viewed flights to human missions.
The central R-7 sustainer failure to separate from the payload caused the Laika’s death. The real reason and her death time were not made public until 2002. The media widely reported that she died because the oxygen ran out on day six or, as the Soviet government initially claimed. Then she euthanized before the depletion of oxygen. Laika also appears on the Moscow’s Monument to the Conquerors of space.
4 The ashes of Pluto’s discoverer orbit the dwarf planet
Experts once considered that the Pluto was the ninth and most distant planet from the sun. But now it is the solar system’s most massive known dwarf planet. It is also among the largest known Kuiper Belt members. In 2006, officials reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet, and they widely thought that the change was a demotion. The question of the planet status of Pluto attracted controversy. Also, it stirred a debate in the scientific community and one of the general public.
A science group proposed a new planethood definition in 2017, based on “round objects in space smaller than stars.” This topic would make the planets’ number in our solar system expand from 8 to 100. In 1930, American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh made the striking Pluto discovery. He requested that, after the death of him, people kindly sent the ashes into space. The end of Tombaugh occurred on January 17, 1997.
The ashes of him were earlier this year sent into space on NASA’s spacecraft, New Horizons. Tombaugh’s remains are the first human remains that officials sent outside the solar system. In a small container attached to the probe’s upper deck that orbited Pluto recently. The ashes of Tombaugh affixed to the spacecraft with an inscription.
3 Unusual Insurance
The early astronauts were not able to get life insurance for such a risky venture. They would autograph their pictures to ensure the officials would take care of their families if they failed to return. Then the authorities auctioned off this autograph if needed. Luckily for heroes like Neil Armstrong, they never were.
While the successful mission of SpaceX, the officials created new space exploration enthusiasm. Global Aerospace companies have been giving space initiative insurance from the time of the first commercial satellites. They also launch vehicles needed financial support to cover the risk.
The insurance coverage contains liability of third party arising from launch activities and surrounding the property value established to space. The traditional market of space insurance ensures and launched the satellite value into orbit around the earth. While governmental and satellites of the military are usually self-insured, commercially owned satellites’ financial backers often wanted insurance to be in place.
People used commercial satellites for communications and television transmissions around the world. People also expanded to include satellite radio (SiriusXM), imaging satellites, and soon 5G networks. We can divide the Space insurance into four types of coverage. Prelaunch, Launch, In-orbit, Launch, plus Life are the leading insurance of space travel.
2 Astronaut food
Astronauts can eat the same food as they do on earth. But NASA said astronauts to reduce 40% of sodium content in their diet. They stored all the food in air-tight packaging, known as retort packaging. Officials not allowed cookies or bread on board. All the little crumbs of these foods go into the zero-gravity conditions of spacecraft when they fall.
Additionally, they can get stuck in the tiny space buttons. There is no diet of pre-flight that astronauts require to follow. Stay healthy is most important. Moreover, they may seem like superheroes, but they take only the supplement, Vitamin D. Since they are not getting more sun and are not eating many fresh fruits or vegetables, these people have a stay healthy.
Astronauts’ bones become weaker in space because they do not have to work so hard in zero-gravity. Therefore, every food they eat requires more and more calcium and vitamin D to keep them healthy and happy. One of the unique space foods is Space Ice cream that developed to satisfy an astronaut’s sweet tooth! The people do not need to freeze this ice cream but melt in our mouth just like the real thing.
When the officials first explored the travel through space, the astronauts who went into space had to have every food eaten out of toothpaste-like tubes! An American eaten apple sauce squeezed out of a tube was the first meal. These space travel facts also have all the rights to be on this list.
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1 The cost of space travel
It is also one of the amazing facts about space travel. The mission of the Space Shuttle cost too much and provided too little. Traditionally, space travel is an activity of government. So, it has never been cheap. But the stratospheric cost for putting persons and space payloads is finally starting to fall, due to the part to the rise of SpaceX and other private companies of spaceflight.
One of many reasons for the expensive Shuttles were because of some equipment like the external tank. People used it to launch. These non-reusable external tanks must replace with each launch. The machine was so ancient is another reason. People designed it in the 1970s and finished its work in the 1980s. Also, space travel had some modifications over the years.
We could set a ticket anywhere from $250,000 to tens of millions of dollars based on where we are going. We are looking to cross the 62-mile-high Karman line, and it will take us there for $250,000. This line is the boundary between the upper atmosphere and outer space. Before making a lifetime trip, travelers need to pass emotional health and training tests.
If travelers’ journey is a success, it must be the fastest and farthest people have gone into space in 45 years. SpaceX company is hoping to send two travelers into space for a vacation in 2018. Experts estimated that the Apollo 11 mission’s total cost that first put a man on the moon was $25.4 billion. Today this money is around $135 billion.
