15 January
1969: On 15 January 1969, the first docking of two manned spacecraft took place between the Soviet Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5. The spacecraft formed what was termed 'the world's first space station' with a crew of four on board.
They remained docked for four and a half hours - three orbits of Earth. During that time, two cosmonauts 'space walked' from Soyuz 4 to Soyuz 5, becoming the first spacefarers to return to Earth in a different spacecraft from the one in which they went into space.
The docking manoeuvre had been practised twice before - in 1967 and 1968 when Soyuz craft had docked together under fully automatic control.
