On 5 May 1961, Alan B. Shepard became the first American in space, breaking two FAI records for highest altitude and greatest mass lifted to altitude for his suborbital spaceflight.
Shepard’s achievement came just 23 days after Yuri A. Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth.
On 19 April 1971, 50 years ago, the world’s first space station – Salyut 1 – was launched.
Its debut success for the Soviet Salyut program paved the way for the future of space exploration, allowing astronauts to spend extended periods of time in space and conduct the scientific experiments and make the observations that have shaped human history, as well as breaking numerous space records, all ratified by the FAI.
