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Into History.

com. It's April 19th, 1971 at the Bi-Konser Cosmodrome in the USSR.

At the launch pad, an engineer presses his hand against the cold smooth metal of the towering proton k rocket.

You can feel the hum of the rocket's power beneath his palm as pumps were and

machinery clicks.

It's not long now until lift off, so the engineer backs away from the magnificent machine and hurries down the gangway to his waiting truck.

Then he speeds away from the launch pad. The engineer must drive quickly, but he's used to this routine because this is the 30 second launch of a proton K rocket in the past five years.

Even so, there's more interest in this particular mission than usual.

Almost two years ago, the Soviet Union lost the race to put the first man on the moon

after American Neil Armstrong set foot on the lunar surface.

But the Soviet space program has always had other goals and is about to strike back against its American

rivals by sending up Salute 1, the world's first space station. The engineer's truck reaches a safe distance. First Space Station.

The engineer's truck reaches a safe distance just in time, because in a fiery flash the

rockets engines ignite.

Fire spews from underneath the rocket and the powerful exhaust blast a vast cloud of dust and debris across the launch pad.

After a moment, the rocket begins to ascend, moving slowly at first before gaining speed and then climbing into the sky.

The engineer squints against the glare of the sun, watching until the rocket and its revolutionary

cargo is no more than a speck in the sky.

The successful launch of Salute 1 marks a much needed victory for the USSR in the space race. Neil Armstrong may have been the first man to walk on the moon,

...