Humans have dreamed of going into space since the start of time. The moon has been a guide for many. It has also been the only celestial body that a human has walked on. Since the first person in space there have been over 500 people in space. The first person was Yuri Gagarin, a soviet pilot in the Vostok 1. He was the first in an Earth orbit on April 12th 1961. On March 18th 1965 the first human went for a walk in space. It was Alexi Leonov who spent 12 minutes outside of the voskhod 2. As more humans go into space we learn how we could improve. The effects of micro gravity were learned just like other things. Microgravity is an environment that is not found on Earth. It is important to understand it to understand the human body in space.
On July 20th 1969 the moon was in the trajectory of the Apollo 11. It was the first space mission to land the first humans on the moon. The two people were Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong. Before them there was a first American in space. That person was Alan Shepard in the Freedom 7 on May 5th 1961. Humans are not the only ones that have been into space, animals like monkeys, dogs, tortoises, mice and even different insects. During the year 1947 the first animal went into space and in 2007 an animal survived exposure to the space outside the ship.
Many other people have been in space but the first are the most important since they risked their life for exploration. For every mission and human that went or is going into space has a chance of disaster. With every type of exploration there are losses. For space exploration there have been 18 accidents and/or fatalities. The most famous one is the U.S.'s Challenger explosion with seven Americans on board. The first loss was a Soviet during a Soyuz 1 Mission. Space is a dangerous area to explore since there is not oxygen to breath and life can not be supported. Out of the 500+ people that went into space only 18 have died contributing to exploration.