Sputnik I
Sputnik I was the first satellite to be sent out in history. The Soviet Union sent it out to gather further information about space and what it holds. It was launched on October 4, 1957. It was the size of a beachball and weighed only 183.9 pounds. It took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth. That launch inspired new political, technological, military, and scientific advances. It was the beginning of the Space Age.
Sputnik II
November 3, 1957 was the date that the Soviet Union launched Sputnik II carrying the dog Laika. It was the first spacecraft to send out a living thing. It was launched less than a month later than the first Sputnik. Sputnik II weighed 1,120.8 pounds. The dog Laika died during the flight because of the extensive amount of heat coming into the spacecraft.
Sputnik III
On May 15, 1958 Sputnik III was launched by the Soviet Union to study the upper layers of the Atmosphere and cosmic space. It weighed 1,327 kilogrammes. Instruments were installed to it to collect research. Sputnik III was destroyed by natural decay and frictional heating.
Luna 1
Luna 1 was launched on January 2, 1959 a sphere with external sensors to detect radiation and magnetic fields. The satellite weighed 1,472 kilogrammes. Luna 1 became the first artificial planet when it passed the moon on January 4, 1959 and started it's orbit around the sun. It takes 45o days to complete one orbit.
Luna 2
On September 12, 1959 Luna 2 was launched. It was the first satellite to land on the moon. It took about 36 hours to reach the moon from Earth. It made a crater on the moon from the impact.
Vostok 1
On April 12, 1961 Yuri Gagarin was aboard the Vostok 1 and became the first man into space. He made a 108 minute orbital path around the Earth before returning back to Earth. He was the first human cooperative space flight, it was a test for future man flown space launches.
Luna 9
Luna 9 was launched on January 1, 1966. On February 3, 1966, Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to soft-land on the moon. It was also the first to send pictures to Earth from the Moon's surface. Luna 9 proved to us that a satellite could land on the moon's surface without sinking.
Luna 10
Luna 10 was the first spacecraft to orbit the moon. The primary objective of it was to make the firt lunar orbit. Luna 10 was launched on March 31, 1966. It completed it's first orbit on April 4 Moscow time.
Zond 5
On September 14, 1968, Zond 5 was launched. Inside, the spacecraft contained bacteria, meal worms, wine flies, and other living organisms such as turtles. Zond 5 flew around the moon on September 18, 1968 and had a closest distance of 1,950 kilometers to the moon itself. Zond 5 took grade A photos of Earth at 90,000 kilometers away from earth. Zond 5 was back on Earth on September 21, 1968 and was successfully recovered.