October 14, 1959
Launch of the Luna-3 station that photographed the Moon's rear side, photographs are downlinked by radio channel.

May 15, 1960
Launch of an unmanned Vostok-type spacecraft.

August 19, 1960
Launch of Vostok-type spacecraft with dogs Belka and Strelka aboard. The animals were first returned to the Earth from an EAS orbit.

February 12, 1961
A four-stage rocket (R-7 + rocket modules I and L) put the Venera-1 unmanned interplanetary station into a flight trajectory to Venus.

April 12, 1961
World first manned flight around the Earth performed by cosmonaut Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin on the Vostok spacecraft.

August 6-7, 1961
Twenty-four hour manned flight around the Earth was first performed by cosmonaut German Stepanovich Titov on the Vostok-2 spacecraft.