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Encyclopedia Astronautica
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ExplorationIn 1968 a Soviet cosmonaut got within 200 metres of an empty Soyuz and burned almost all his fuel trying to dock, because it was upside down relative to him.
Sky & EarthThe Moon looks bright white in the night sky, but its surface is actually about as dark as worn asphalt, reflecting only around 12 percent of the sunlight that hits it, and it only seems dazzling because it hangs against the total blackness of space
ExplorationBefore Yuri Gagarin flew in 1961, the Soviet Union sent a life-size mannequin into orbit with a sign under his visor reading “dummy”, and so radio listeners wouldn’t mistake him for a real cosmonaut, he played a recording of a choir and a recipe for beetroot soup
ExplorationOn 24 October 1946 a camera mounted on a captured German V-2 rocket took the first photograph of Earth from space, from about 105 km over New Mexico