A Brief History
On March 2, 1978, space exploration history was made when Vladimír Remek, a pilot, politician, and diplomat from Czechoslovakia became the first person in space that was not Russian or American.
Digging Deeper
Remek lifted off aboard Soviet space craft Soyuz 28 for an 8-day trip to outer space, heading to the Soviet space station, Salyut 6. A former pilot in the Czechoslovakian Air Force, Remek was hailed a national hero and even was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union medal by the USSR. He parlayed his renown into a career in politics, serving as a member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2013, and as ambassador to Russia from 2014 to 2018.
The subject of numerous awards and accolades, an asteroid was named 2552 Remek in his honor. Since his historic flight, astronauts and cosmonauts from an astounding 44 different countries have made a trip into space!
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Clark, Phillip. The Soviet Manned Space Program. Crown, 1988.
Sparrow, Giles. Spaceflight, 2nd Edition: The Complete Story from Sputnik to Curiosity. DK, 2019.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by Barocco of a statue in Prague, is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
