The first spacecraft was the German V-2 rocket, launched from Peenemünde, East Prussia (now Poland) in June 1944. Although other flights reached higher altitudes, the V-2 rocket tests in the 1940s reached altitudes above 100 km, which is considered by the International Aviation Federation to be the beginning of spaceflight, and is known as the Karman line.
The second human space vehicle to be named Freedom 7 was launched on 5 May 1961 and carried American astronaut Alan Shepard to an altitude of about 187 km during a suborbital spaceflight. Five more manned space vehicles were launched using the Mercury spacecraft.



Ei vielä kommentteja