Vostok and Mercury Programs.

The USSR was first into space with a man, cosmonaut Yury A. Gagarin, who made one orbit of the earth in Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961. During his flight time of 1 hr 48 min he reached an apogee of 327 km (203 mi) and a perigee of 180 km (112 mi). He landed safely in Siberia. In the next two years five more Vostok flights were made. The pilot of Vostok 6 was Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to fly in space. Launched on June 16, 1963, she orbited the earth 48 times. Meanwhile, a similar U.S. program, called Mercury, was taking shape. On May 5, 1961, Comdr. Alan B. Shepard, Jr., of the U.S. Navy became the first American in space. The Mercury spacecraft, named Freedom 7, flew a ballistic trajectory and made a 15-min suborbital flight. A similar flight followed on July 21, flown by Capt. Virgil I. Grissom (1926-67) of the U.S. Air Force. On Feb. 20, 1962, Lt. Col. John H. Glenn, Jr., of the U.S. Marine Corps became the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the earth, in a flight of three orbits. Three additional Mercury flights were made in 1962 and 1963 by Lt. Col. M. Scott Carpenter (1925- ) of the navy, Comdr. Walter M. Schirra, Jr. (1923- ), also of the navy, and Maj. Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr. (1927- ) of the air force.