Soviet Space Achievements

Beyond Gagarin, the Soviets racked up firsts. Alexei Leonov made the first spacewalk in 1965, floating outside his capsule for 12 minutes before his ballooning suit nearly trapped him outside. They launched the first space station, Salyut 1, in 1971.

The Luna program scored the first soft landing on the Moon, the first lunar rover (Lunokhod 1), and the first automated sample return. While the US won the crewed race, Soviet robots quietly achieved remarkable feats. Their N1 rocket, the rival to Saturn V, failed at launch four times and was secretly abandoned.