Soviet space program
The Soviet space program (СССР) was the designation for an early Human space exploration agency created by the Earth nation Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
History
- 1957 – the first artificial satellite Sputnik is launched into orbit. First signals from space. (ENT: "Carbon Creek")
- 1961 – Vostok 1 made a single successful orbit of Earth. (TOS-R: "The Cage")
- 1966 – the Soviet launched the Soyuz spacecraft. (TOS-R: "The Cage")
- 1968 – a nuclear warhead platforms were launched into orbit by all the major powers on Earth. The sabotage and subsequent detonation of the US suborbital warhead eventually led to a stronger international agreement to ban such weapons. (TOS: "Assignment: Earth")
Background information
The starship VK Yuri Gagarin, the USS Enterprise-D shuttlepod Tereshkova, and the USS Voyager shuttlecraft Tereshkova were named after famous Soviet cosmonauts.
According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia, 2nd ed., p. 457, the Soyuz-class was named after the Soyuz spacecraft of the Soviet space program.
The Korolev-class was named after the Soviet space pioneer Sergei Korolev.