Editing Soviet space program (section)

==Projects and accomplishments==
[[File:Gagarin Capsule.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Vostok 1]] capsule which carried Yuri Gagarin on the first crewed space flight, now on display at the [[RKK Energiya museum]] outside of Moscow]]

===Completed projects===
The Soviet space program's projects include:
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* [[Almaz]] space stations
* [[Cosmos (satellite)|Cosmos]] satellites
* [[Foton (space programs)|Foton]]
* [[Luna program|Luna]] – Moon flybys, orbiters, impacts, landers, rovers, sample returns
* [[Mars probe program]]
* [[Meteor (satellite)|Meteor meteorological satellites]]
* [[Molniya (satellite)|Molniya]] communications satellites
* [[Mir]] space station
* [[Proton satellite]]s
* [[Phobos program|Phobos]] Mars probes program
* [[Salyut]] space stations
* [[Soyuz program]] spacecraft
* [[Sputnik program|Sputnik]] satellites
* [[TKS spacecraft]]
* [[Venera]] – Venus probes program
* [[Vega program]] – Venus and comet Halley probes program
* [[Vostok program]] spacecraft
* [[Voskhod program]] spacecraft
* [[Zond program]]
{{div col end}}

===Notable firsts===
[[File:Luna 3 moon.jpg|right|thumb|The first image of the far side of the Moon returned by ''[[Luna 3]]''.]]
[[File:FP2A3620 (23497688248) (cropped).jpg|thumb|[[Mars 3]], the first spacecraft to land on [[Mars]]. Lander model at the [[Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics]] in Moscow.]]

Two days after the United States announced its intention to launch an [[artificial satellite]], on July 31, 1955, the Soviet Union announced its intention to do the same. [[Sputnik 1]] was launched on October 4, 1957, beating the United States and stunning people all over the world.<ref name="High Frontier">{{cite book|last=Launius|first=Roger|title=To Reach the High Frontier|date=2002|publisher=[[University Press of Kentucky]]|isbn=0-8131-2245-7|pages=7–10}}</ref>

The Soviet space program pioneered many aspects of space exploration:
* 1957: First intercontinental ballistic missile and orbital launch vehicle, the [[R-7 Semyorka]].
* 1957: First satellite, [[Sputnik 1]].
* 1957: First animal in Earth orbit, the dog [[Laika]] on [[Sputnik 2]].
* 1959: First rocket ignition in Earth orbit, first man-made object to escape Earth's gravity, [[Luna 1]].
* 1959: First data communications, or [[telemetry]], to and from [[outer space]], [[Luna 1]].
* 1959: First man-made object to pass near the [[Moon]], first man-made object in Heliocentric orbit, [[Luna 1]].
* 1959: First probe to impact the Moon, [[Luna 2]].
* 1959: First images of the Moon's [[far side (Moon)|far side]], [[Luna 3]].
* 1960: First animals to safely return from Earth orbit, the dogs [[Belka and Strelka]] on [[Korabl-Sputnik 2|Sputnik 5]].
* 1961: First probe launched to Venus, [[Venera 1]].
* 1961: First person in space (International definition) and in Earth orbit, [[Yuri Gagarin]] on [[Vostok 1]], [[Vostok programme|Vostok program]].
* 1961: First person to spend over 24 hours in space [[Gherman Titov]], [[Vostok 2]] (also first person to sleep in space).
* 1962: First dual crewed spaceflight, [[Vostok 3]] and [[Vostok 4]].
* 1962: First probe launched to Mars, [[Mars 1]].
* 1963: First woman in space, [[Valentina Tereshkova]], [[Vostok 6]].
* 1964: First multi-person crew (3), [[Voskhod 1]].
* 1965: First extra-vehicular activity ([[extra-vehicular activity|EVA]]), by [[Alexsei Leonov]],<ref name=First-Spacewalk>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/2014/newsspec_9035/index.html |title=The First Spacewalk How the first human to take steps in outer space nearly didn't return to Earth|last1=Rincon|first1=Paul|last2=Lachmann|first2=Michael|date=October 13, 2014|website=BBC News |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141014061848/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/2014/newsspec_9035/index.html|archive-date=2014-10-14|access-date=2014-10-19}}</ref> [[Voskhod 2]].
* 1965: First radio telescope in space, [[Zond 3]].
* 1965: First probe to hit another planet of the [[Solar System]] ([[Venus]]), [[Venera 3]].
* 1966: First probe to make a soft landing on and transmit from the surface of the Moon, [[Luna 9]].
* 1966: First probe in lunar orbit, [[Luna 10]].
* 1966: [[first images of Earth from space|First image of the whole Earth disk]], [[Molniya 1]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/achenblog/post/spaceship-earth-the-first-photos/2012/01/03/gIQAzXF5XP_blog.html|title=Spaceship Earth: The first photos|author=Joel Achenbach|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=3 January 2012|access-date=16 June 2020}}</ref>
* 1967: First uncrewed rendezvous and docking, [[Cosmos 186]]/[[Cosmos 188]].
* 1968: First living beings to reach the Moon (circumlunar flights) and return unharmed to Earth, [[Russian tortoise]]s and other lifeforms on [[Zond 5]].
* 1969: First docking between two crewed craft in Earth orbit and exchange of crews, [[Soyuz 4]] and [[Soyuz 5]].
* 1970: First soil samples automatically extracted and returned to Earth from another celestial body, [[Luna 16]].
* 1970: First robotic space rover, [[Lunokhod 1]] on the Moon.
* 1970: First full [[interplanetary travel]] with a soft landing and useful data transmission. Data received from the surface of another planet of the Solar System ([[Venus]]), [[Venera 7]]
* 1971: First space station, [[Salyut 1]].
* 1971: First probe to impact the surface of Mars, [[Mars 2]].
* 1971: First probe to land on Mars, [[Mars 3]].
* 1971: First armed space station, [[Almaz]].
* 1975: First probe to orbit Venus, to make a soft landing on Venus, first photos from the surface of Venus, [[Venera 9]].
* 1980: First Asian person in space, Vietnamese Cosmonaut [[Pham Tuan]] on [[Soyuz 37]]; and First [[Latin American]], [[Cuba]]n and person with African ancestry in space, [[Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez]] on [[Soyuz 38]]
* 1984: First [[India]]n Astronaut in space, [[Rakesh Sharma]] on [[Soyuz T-11]] ([[Salyut 7|Salyut-7]] space station).
* 1984: First woman to [[Extra-vehicular activity|walk in space]], [[Svetlana Savitskaya]] ([[Salyut 7]] space station).
* 1986: First crew to visit two separate space stations ([[Mir]] and [[Salyut 7]]).
* 1986: First probes to deploy robotic balloons into Venus atmosphere and to return pictures of a comet during close flyby [[Vega 1]], [[Vega 2]].
* 1986: First permanently crewed space station, [[Mir]], 1986–2001, with a permanent presence on board (1989–1999).
* 1987: First crew to spend over one year in space, [[Vladimir Titov (cosmonaut)|Vladimir Titov]] and [[Musa Manarov]] on board of [[Soyuz TM-4]] – [[Mir]].
* 1988: First fully automated flight of a spaceplane (''[[Buran (spacecraft)|Buran]]'').