Yuri Gagarin was the first person ever to fly into space.
He rode a spaceship all the way around Earth long ago. He showed the world that people really could travel to space.
💡 Space Travel — Fun Facts
Fun “Did you know?” facts about Space Travel — tap through 10 at a time!
The Space Station flies all the way around Earth in about 90 minutes.
It travels super fast, high above the clouds. The astronauts inside see a sunrise about every hour and a half.
Astronauts eat from special pouches so food won't float away.
In space, loose crumbs would drift everywhere. So astronauts squeeze food from pouches and sip drinks through straws.
The Space Station is a home in space that circles Earth.
Astronauts live and work there high above our planet. They do experiments and watch Earth from their windows.
Astronauts wear special suits so they can breathe in space.
There is no air to breathe out in space. The suit carries air and keeps their body warm and safe.
Rockets need lots of fuel to blast up into space.
It takes a huge push to leave the ground and reach space. Rockets burn fuel to make big flames that shoot them upward.
Astronauts float around inside their spaceship.
In space there is nothing to hold them down, so they drift. They gently push off the walls to move from place to place.
The first animals in space were tiny fruit flies.
In 1947, before any people went up, scientists sent fruit flies on a rocket to see if living things could survive the trip. They came back safely.
Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the Moon.
He stepped onto the Moon in 1969. His footprints are still up there today, because there is no wind on the Moon to blow them away.
Light is the fastest thing in the whole universe.
Light travels about 300,000 km every second — fast enough to zip around the Earth more than seven times in one second.
Footprints left on the Moon can stay for millions of years.
The Moon has no wind and no rain to wear things away, so the footprints the Apollo astronauts left in the 1960s and 70s are still there — and could last for millions of years.
Space is completely silent because there is no air to carry sound.
Sound travels as vibrations through air, water, or solids. Space is almost a perfect vacuum with hardly any particles, so those vibrations have nothing to travel through — and no sound can be heard.