jan 1, 1957 - 'Cosmonauts'

Description:

The Soviet Space Program, the only serious competition to the American space program in the "Space Race" of the 1950s and 1960s fielded many successful missions and astronauts, referred to as cosmonauts when in a Soviet or Russian context.

Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space in 1961 and Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space in 1963 were both Soviet cosmonauts, as was the first satellite; Sputnik in 1957.

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