A few hundred years ago, traveling over the Earths surface was a risky adventure. Early explorers who set out to explore the New World went by boat, enduring fierce storms, disease and hunger, to reach their destinations. Today, astronauts exploring space face similar challenges.

All About Space Travel: One space shuttle launch costs $450 million

Space travel has become much safer as scientists have overcome potential problems, but its still dangerous. Its also very expensive. In order for a space shuttle to break free of Earths gravity, it has to travel at a speed of 15,000 miles per hour. Space shuttles need 1.9 million liters of fuel just to launch into space. Thats enough fuel to fill up 42,000 cars! Combine the high speed, heat and fuel needed for launching and youve got a very potentially dangerous situation.

In 1949, Albert II, a Rhesus monkey went to space.

Re-entering the atmosphere is dangerous too. When a space craft re-enters the atmosphere, it is moving very fast. As it moves through the air, friction causes it to heat up to a temperature of 2,691 degrees. The first spacecrafts were destroyed during re-entry. Todays space shuttles have special ceramic tiles that help absorb some of the heat, keeping the astronauts safe during re-entry.

In 1957, the Russian space dog, Laika, orbited the Earth.

In 1959, the Russian space craft, Luna 2, landed on the moon. It crashed at high speed.

Russian astronaut, Yuri Gagarin, was the first human in space. He orbited the Earth in 1961.

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon and return home safely a journey of 250,000 miles.

Check out this cool video all about space travel:

A video about the N.E.X.T. mission for space travel by NASA.

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Space Travel Facts for Kids