Editing Human spaceflight (section)

=== Cold War era ===
{{Main|Space Race}}
[[File:Vostok spacecraft replica.jpg|thumb|180px|Replica of the [[Vostok programme|Vostok]] space capsule, which carried the first human into orbit, at [[Technik Museum Speyer]]]]
[[File:Sigma7-1.jpg|thumb|[[Project Mercury|Mercury]] space capsule, which carried the first Americans into orbit, on display at the [[Astronaut Hall of Fame]], Titusville, Florida]]
[[File:X-15 in flight.jpg|thumb|[[North American X-15]], hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft, which reached the edge of space]]
[[File:As11-40-5886.jpg|thumb|right|[[Neil Armstrong]], one of the first two people to land on the Moon and the first to walk on the lunar surface, July 1969]]

Human spaceflight capability was first developed during the [[Cold War]] between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR). These nations developed [[intercontinental ballistic missile]]s for the delivery of [[nuclear weapon]]s, producing rockets large enough to be adapted to carry the first [[artificial satellite]]s into [[low Earth orbit]].

After the first satellites were launched in 1957 and 1958 by the Soviet Union, the US began work on [[Project Mercury]], with the aim of launching men into orbit. The USSR was secretly pursuing the [[Vostok programme|Vostok program]] to accomplish the same thing, and launched the first human into space, the cosmonaut [[Yuri Gagarin]]. On 12 April 1961, Gagarin was launched aboard [[Vostok 1]] on a [[Vostok 3KA]] rocket and completed a single orbit. On 5 May 1961, the US launched its first [[astronaut]], [[Alan Shepard]], on a suborbital flight aboard ''[[Freedom 7]]'' on a [[Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle|Mercury-Redstone rocket]]. Unlike Gagarin, Shepard manually [[Spacecraft attitude control|controlled his spacecraft's attitude]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Furniss |first1=Tim |title=Praxis manned spaceflight log, 1961–2006 |date=2007 |publisher=Springer |location=New York |isbn=978-0387341750 |page=25}}</ref> On 20 February 1962, [[John Glenn]] became the first American in orbit, aboard ''[[Friendship 7]]'' on a [[Atlas LV-3B|Mercury-Atlas rocket]]. The USSR launched five more cosmonauts in Vostok [[space capsule|capsule]]s, including the first woman in space, [[Valentina Tereshkova]], aboard [[Vostok 6]] on 16 June 1963. Through 1963, the US launched a total of two astronauts in suborbital flights and four into orbit. The US also made two [[North American X-15]] flights ([[X-15 Flight 90|90]] and [[X-15 Flight 91|91]], piloted by [[Joseph A. Walker]]), that exceeded the [[Kármán line]], the {{convert|100|km}} altitude used by the [[Fédération Aéronautique Internationale]] (FAI) to denote the edge of space.

In 1961, US President [[John F. Kennedy]] raised the stakes of the Space Race by setting the goal of landing a man on the [[Moon]] and returning him safely to Earth by the end of the 1960s.<ref>{{cite AV media |people=Kennedy, John F. |date=25 May 1961 |title=Special Message to Congress on Urgent National Needs |medium=Motion picture (excerpt) |url=http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/xzw1gaeeTES6khED14P1Iw.aspx |access-date=1 August 2013 |publisher=John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum |location=Boston, MA |id=Accession Number: TNC:200; Digital Identifier: TNC-200-2}}</ref> That same year, the US began the [[Apollo program]] of launching three-man capsules atop the [[Saturn (rocket family)|Saturn family of launch vehicles]]. In 1962, the US began [[Project Gemini]], which flew 10 missions with two-man crews launched by [[Titan II GLV|Titan II rockets]] in 1965 and 1966. Gemini's objective was to support Apollo by developing American orbital spaceflight experience and techniques to be used during the Moon mission.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Loff  |first1=Sarah  |title=Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon |url=http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/gemini/#.VKi1GsaWt78 |website=Gemini: Bridge to the Moon |publisher=National Aeronautics and Space Administration |access-date=4 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141221151510/http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/gemini/ |archive-date=21 December 2014 |location=Washington, DC |date=21 October 2013 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all}}</ref>

Meanwhile, the USSR remained silent about their intentions to send humans to the Moon and proceeded to stretch the limits of their single-pilot Vostok capsule by adapting it to a two or three-person [[Voskhod programme|Voskhod]] capsule to compete with Gemini. They were able to launch two orbital flights in 1964 and 1965 and achieved the first [[spacewalk]], performed by [[Alexei Leonov]] on [[Voskhod 2]], on 8 March 1965. However, the Voskhod did not have Gemini's capability to maneuver in orbit, and the program was terminated. The US Gemini flights did not achieve the first spacewalk, but overcame the early Soviet lead by performing several spacewalks, solving the problem of astronaut fatigue caused by compensating for the lack of gravity, demonstrating the ability of humans to endure two weeks in space, and performing the first [[space rendezvous]] and [[docking and berthing of spacecraft|docking]] of spacecraft.

The US succeeded in developing the [[Saturn V]] rocket necessary to send the Apollo spacecraft to the Moon, and sent [[Frank Borman]], [[Jim Lovell|James Lovell]], and [[William Anders]] into 10 orbits around the Moon in [[Apollo 8]] in December 1968. In 1969, [[Apollo 11]] accomplished Kennedy's goal by landing [[Neil Armstrong]] and [[Buzz Aldrin]] on the Moon on 21 July and returning them safely on 24 July, along with Command Module pilot [[Michael Collins (astronaut)|Michael Collins]]. Through 1972, a total of six Apollo missions landed 12 men to walk on the Moon, half of which drove [[Lunar Roving Vehicle|electric powered vehicles]] on the surface. The crew of [[Apollo 13]]—[[Jim Lovell]], [[Jack Swigert]], and [[Fred Haise]]—survived an in-flight spacecraft failure, they flew by the Moon without landing, and returned safely to Earth.

[[File:Soyuz TMA-7 spacecraft2edit1.jpg|thumb|[[Soyuz spacecraft|Soyuz]], most serial spacecraft]]
[[File:Salyut 1 and Soyuz drawing.png|thumb|[[Salyut 1]], first crewed space station, with docked Soyuz spacecraft]]

During this time, the USSR secretly pursued [[Soviet crewed lunar programs|crewed lunar orbiting and landing programs]]. They successfully developed the three-person [[Soyuz spacecraft]] for use in the lunar programs, but failed to develop the [[N1 (rocket)|N1 rocket]] necessary for a human landing, and discontinued their lunar programs in 1974.<ref>{{cite book|title = Challenge To Apollo The Soviet Union and The Space Race, 1945–1974|last = Siddiqi|first = Asif|page = 832|publisher = NASA|url = https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?Ntk=all&Ntx=mode%20matchall&Ntt=SP-2000-4408}}</ref> Upon losing the Moon race they concentrated on the development of [[space station]]s, using the Soyuz as a ferry to take cosmonauts to and from the stations. They started with a series of [[Salyut program|Salyut]] sortie stations from 1971 to 1986.

==== Post-Apollo era ====
[[File:Apollo-Soyuz-Test-Program-artist-rendering.jpg|thumb|Artist's rendering of an [[Apollo CSM]] about to dock with a [[Soyuz spacecraft]]]]

In 1969, Nixon appointed his vice president, [[Spiro Agnew]], to head a Space Task Group to recommend follow-on human spaceflight programs after Apollo. The group proposed an ambitious [[Space Transportation System]] based on a [[Space Shuttle design process|reusable Space Shuttle]], which consisted of a winged, internally fueled orbiter stage burning liquid hydrogen, launched with a similar, but larger [[RP-1|kerosene]]-fueled booster stage, each equipped with airbreathing jet engines for powered return to a runway at the [[Kennedy Space Center]] launch site. Other components of the system included a permanent, modular space station; reusable [[space tug]]; and [[NERVA|nuclear]] interplanetary ferry, leading to a [[human mission to Mars|human expedition to Mars]] as early as 1986 or as late as 2000, depending on the level of funding allocated. However, Nixon knew the American political climate would not support congressional funding for such an ambition, and killed proposals for all but the Shuttle, possibly to be followed by the space station. [[Space Shuttle|Plans for the Shuttle were scaled back]] to reduce development risk, cost, and time, replacing the piloted fly-back booster with two reusable [[Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster|solid rocket booster]]s, and the smaller orbiter would use an expendable [[Space Shuttle external tank|external propellant tank]] to feed its hydrogen-fueled [[Space Shuttle main engine|main engine]]s. The orbiter would have to make unpowered landings.

[[File:Space Shuttle Atlantis landing at KSC following STS-122 (crop).jpg|thumb|[[Space Shuttle orbiter]], first crewed orbital spaceplane]]

In 1973, the US launched the [[Skylab]] sortie space station and inhabited it for 171 days with three crews ferried aboard an Apollo spacecraft. During that time, President [[Richard Nixon]] and Soviet general secretary [[Leonid Brezhnev]] were negotiating an easing of Cold War tensions known as [[détente]]. During the détente, they negotiated the [[Apollo–Soyuz]] program, in which an Apollo spacecraft carrying a special docking adapter module would rendezvous and dock with [[Soyuz 19]] in 1975. The American and Soviet crews shook hands in space, but the purpose of the flight was purely symbolic.

The two nations continued to compete rather than cooperate in space, as the US turned to developing the Space Shuttle and planning the space station, which was dubbed ''[[Space Station Freedom|Freedom]]''. The USSR launched three [[Almaz]] military sortie stations from 1973 to 1977, disguised as Salyuts. They followed Salyut with the development of ''[[Mir]]'', the first modular, semi-permanent space station, the construction of which took place from 1986 to 1996. ''Mir'' orbited at an altitude of {{convert|354|km|nmi|abbr=off|sp=us}}, at an [[orbital inclination]] of 51.6°. It was occupied for 4,592 days and made a controlled reentry in 2001.

The Space Shuttle started flying in 1981, but the US Congress failed to approve sufficient funds to make ''Space Station Freedom'' a reality. A fleet of four shuttles was built: ''[[Space Shuttle Columbia|Columbia]]'', ''[[Space Shuttle Challenger|Challenger]]'', ''[[Space Shuttle Discovery|Discovery]]'', and ''[[Space Shuttle Atlantis|Atlantis]]''. A fifth shuttle, ''[[Space Shuttle Endeavour|Endeavour]]'', was built to replace ''Challenger'', which was destroyed in [[Space Shuttle Challenger disaster|an accident during launch]] that killed 7 astronauts on 28 January 1986. From 1983 to 1998, twenty-two Shuttle flights carried components for a [[European Space Agency]] sortie space station called [[Spacelab]] in the Shuttle payload bay.<ref name=StoryShuttle>{{cite book |title=The Story of the Space Shuttle |author=David Michael Harland |publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]] Praxis |date=2004 |page=[https://archive.org/details/storyofspaceshut0000harl/page/444 444] |isbn=978-1-85233-793-3 |author-link=David M. Harland |url=https://archive.org/details/storyofspaceshut0000harl/page/444 }}</ref>

[[File:Buran on An-225 (Le Bourget 1989) (cropped).JPEG|thumb|''[[Buran programme|Buran]]''-class orbiter, Soviet equivalent of the Space Shuttle orbiter]]

The USSR copied the US's reusable [[Space Shuttle orbiter]], which they called ''[[Buran programme|Buran]]''-class orbiter or simply ''Buran'', which was designed to be launched into orbit by the expendable [[Energia (rocket)|Energia]] rocket, and was capable of robotic orbital flight and landing. Unlike the Space Shuttle, ''Buran'' had no main rocket engines, but like the Space Shuttle orbiter, it used smaller rocket engines to perform its final orbital insertion. A single uncrewed orbital test flight took place in November 1988. A second test flight was planned by 1993, but the program was canceled due to lack of funding and the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] in 1991. Two more orbiters were never completed, and the one that performed the uncrewed flight was destroyed in a hangar roof collapse in May 2002.