History of the Soviet space flight - from Tsiolkovsky, early rockets of 1930's to detailed accounts of first manned flights, the Moon race, orbital space stations - and future plans of expedition to Mars.

History of the Soviet space flight. Early history of jet propulsion from Tsyolkovsky's theories to 1930's Russian and German pioneers of jet propulsion: Hermann Oberth, Wernher von Braun, Sergey Korolev. Test flights of Russian R-1 and R-7 rockets. Launch of Sputnik and flights with dogs on-board. Gagarin's flight and the following early flights with Leonov's first spacewalk. Unmanned probes to the Moon, Korolev and Chelomei's spacecraft designs for manned lunar missions. The Moon race and the tragic flight of Komarov aboard first Soyuz. Apollo 11 Moon landing and Soviet unmanned lunar robotic probes and rovers - Lunokhod 1 and 2. Flight of Soyuz 9 resulting in near-loss of lives. Early spacecraft designs for Mars expedition, orbital space stations. First Salyut and the death of three cosmonauts. Long-duration flights on space stations. American Space Shuttle program and Russian Buran. Mars exploration by US rovers and Russian plans for new spacecraft and expedition to Mars.—vvp_14