1961年4月12日莫斯科时间上午9时零7分,加加林乘坐“东方”1号宇宙飞船从拜克努尔发射场起航,在最大高度为301公里的轨道上绕地球一周,历时1小时48分钟,于上午10时55分降落在苏联境内,完成了世界上首次载人宇宙飞行,实现了人类进入太空的愿望。人类载人太空飞行的历史50年,美国sts的时代就占了30年。
the iconic soul of america's space program for the past 30 years slipped gracefully into history on a dark runway this morning as the winged spaceship atlantis made a poignant touchdown to conclude the shuttle program. the five remarkable flying machines launched on 135 missions, traveled 542,398,878 miles that spanned 21,152 orbits of the planet, and carried 355 humans and 3.5 million pounds of payloads as the space transportation system.