Historical Development of Spacecraft: From Sputnik to Space Suits

Author / Editor: Eren Yalçın•12 October 2026

✓ Editorially Verified

The first spacecraft was the German V-2 rocket, launched in June 1944 from Peenemünde, East Prussia (now in Germany). Although other flights reached altitudes above 100 km, the V-2 rocket was the first to do so. In the 1940s, several test launches were made for the V-2 rocket, and some of these reached altitudes above 100 km. This altitude is considered to be the beginning of spaceflight by the International Aviation Federation and is known as the Karman line.

The second human spaceflight vehicle was named Freedom 7 and carried American astronaut Alan Shepard to an altitude of about 187 km during a suborbital flight in 1961. Five more manned space missions were carried out using the Mercury spacecraft.