| The earth is enveloped by many gases. This area is | | | | to the height of 930 miles and its speed was 18,000 |
| called atmosphere. Beyond this area comes the area | | | | miles per hour. The dog returned to the earth alive. |
| of space or atmosphere in which there are no gases. | | | | In January 1958, the U.S.A. put into orbit its first |
| Generally there are three means of exploring the | | | | satellite called Explore 1. It was lighter but its speed |
| space. The first means is with the help of balloons. | | | | was greater than that of the Russia one. It traveled |
| But it cannot go very high. Rockets are one of the | | | | round the earth at the height of 1,000 miles with a |
| two modern ways of exploring the space. There are | | | | speed of 19,000 miles per hour. This was followed by |
| several stages or sections in each rocket so that | | | | the launching of a series of satellites by both the |
| each may be dropped off after its fuel has been | | | | Russians was the Americans. A Russian astronaut, |
| spent and thus reducing the total weight of the | | | | Yuri Gagarin, was the first man to get into space in |
| ascending rocket. The third modern method of | | | | April, 1961, and he came back to the earth safe and |
| exploring the space is through satellite. These are | | | | sound. |
| metallic spheres which contain various instruments. | | | | The story of success began with the landing of |
| They are thrown into the space with the help of | | | | Apollo 11 in space. It was on the 20th of July 1969, |
| rockets. These rockets put them into the desired | | | | Neil Armstrong, a citizen of the U.S.A., set foot upon |
| orbit. There are satellite begin to travel round the | | | | the moon. He planted a banner of his country with |
| earth like artificial planets. | | | | these words that it was the first step of U.S.A., and |
| In the race of space exploration, both Russia and | | | | a big leap of mankind. This heralded the victory of |
| America are competing partners. Russia was the first | | | | man over time and space and ushered a new era in |
| country to get a man-made satellite called Sputnik 1 | | | | the apace explorations. Since then several attempts |
| into orbit around the earth on 4th October, 1957, a | | | | have been made to orbit round other stars by the |
| date which may be said to mark the beginning of | | | | two powers. |
| space exploration. Russia launched on 3rd November, | | | | Space travel is one of the great wonders of science. |
| 1957, its second satellite in the space known as | | | | Man's highest aspiration of life appears to have been |
| Sputnik 11 which carried a dog named Laika. It went | | | | crowned with success. |