Soviet Space Exploration began in the early 1950s, driven by the Soviet Union's desire to demonstrate technological and scientific superiority during the Cold War. The launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957 marked the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth, igniting the space race with the United States. In 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel into space aboard Vostok 1, completing one orbit around Earth. The Soviet space program continued to achieve significant milestones, including the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, in 1963, and the development of space stations like Mir in the 1980s.