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Article: The Space Program: Project Mercury
- Article from:
- American Decades
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 The Gale Group, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE SPACE PROGRAM: PROJECT MERCURY
The Trip
The early space travelers were almost all male and were all in the military. Americans called their spacemen astronauts; the Soviets called theirs cosmonauts. The United States called its first manned space flight program Project Mercury; the first Soviet program was called Project Vostok.
The First Men in Space
Yuri A. Gagarin, twenty-seven years old, was the first human in outer space. He was launched in the
Vostok 1
space vehicle aboard a modified SS-6 Sapwood ballistic missile. He reached a maximum altitude of 203 miles above Earth and orbited Earth once in his 108-minute flight. The Soviets proved that a man could withstand the forces of ...