The little boy Yuri Gagarin wanted very badly to be a pilot. When he grew up, he did much more than that. He joined the Soviet space program. On April 12, 1961, he became the first ever person in space!

Three weeks later, Alan Shephard became the first American in space. He stayed there for 15 minutes. Back then, space exploration was a race. The United States wanted to prove it had the best technology. The Soviet Union wanted the same thing.

But scientists haven’t always felt comfortable sending humans into space. At first, they sent monkeys. Several monkeys died in space. Then came a chimpanzee named Ham. Ham learned quickly how to pull levers. He responded to electric lights and sounds. In January 1961, he rocketed to space. Then it came time for Ham to come home. His ship crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. A rescue boat found him. And guess what? Except for a bruised nose, Ham was perfectly fine! The discovery gave scientists a hint. Maybe space would be safe for humans after all.

Since the first manned spaceflight, hundreds of people have gone to space. Some were professional astronauts. Others became “space tourists.” They paid to go to space.

But many people feel that manned spaceflight is a waste. Human life is valuable. Life in space is hostile to humans. Keeping them safe costs lots of money. Besides, some argue, robots can do better science in space than people can. Unmanned missions like the Mars Rover keep sending valuable data back to scientists on Earth. Why send a person to do what a machine could do just as well?