The Soviet Union launches Voskhod 1 into orbit around Earth, with cosmonauts Vladamir Komarov, Konstantin Feoktistov and Boris Yegorov aboard. Voskhod 1 was the first spacecraft to carry a multiperson crew, and the two-day mission was also the first flight performed without space suits.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the U.S. space program consistently trailed the Soviet program in space firsts, a pattern that drastically shifted with the triumph of the U.S. lunar program in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Ultimately, the Space Race led to transformative change in the United States as it introduced new technology and even new food.
