Astronauts

Astronauts fly into space in spaceships. Yuri Gagarin from Russia went into space first in 1961. He went round the Earth in 108 minutes. His spaceship was Vostok 1.

In 1969, two American astronauts went to the moon. Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon. Lots of people saw him on television. They were very excited.

Today astronauts fly into space in a space shuttle. Astronauts can go outside their space shuttles but they must wear a spacesuit with shoes, gloves and a helmet. The spacesuit is very heavy There are tubes inside the spacesuit. There is water in the tubes to keep the astronaut cool. There is no air in space, so astronauts carry packs on their backs. There is air in these backpacks.

Astronauts use this air to breathe. Astronauts do not need to carry backpacks or wear spacesuits in the space shuttle, because it has air inside. A space shuttle can fly into space many times. Two rockets lift the shuttle high into space. Then the rockets fall into the sea and a ship picks them up. The shuttle flies in space. Then it returns to the Earth. It lands

like an aeroplane.