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Laika the dog
was the first animal to go into space on the Society space mission
Sputnik 2
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The first human
space flight was the Vostok 1 which carried Yuri Gagarin on 12 April
1961
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NASA (The
National Aeronautics and space Administration) was set up in October
1958
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Dennis Tito, a
60 year of American multimillionaire became the first space tourist
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Neil Armstrong,
commander of Apollo 11 became the first man on the Moon in 1969.
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In 1967 Vladimir Komarov became the
first person to die in space when his spacecraft crashed on return
due to multiple failures. He was taking part in the Voskhod
mission. The most recent space accident was in 2003 when the
Columbia Space Shuttle broke up on re-entering Earth’s atmosphere
killing seven crew members.
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The first words
spoken on the moon were by Neil Armstrong who said ‘One small step
for man, a giant leap for mankind’. 'OK, let's get this mother out
of here' were the last words spoken on the Moon, by Eugene Cernan.
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The only sport to have been played on
the moon is golf. Alan Shepard hit a golf ball on 6 Feb 1971.
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To remember the
order of the planets use the phrase 'My Very Eager Mother Just
Served Us Nine Pizzas' - the capital letters give the order of
planets, beginning with closest to sun - Mercury, Venus,
Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,
Neptune, Pluto.
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The Moon's temperature ranges between
123C (253F) to 233C (-451F).
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The Moon orbits at about 2,300 miles
per hour.
