The First Man in Space

Yuri Gagarin

Happy New Year!


On 12th April 1961 history was made when Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (9th March 1934-27th March 1968)  became the first man in space with a 108 minute flight orbiting the earth once.


In 1960 he was shortlisted for the Vostok 1 space programme in an attempt to build on the success of the Sputnik 1 programme just three years earlier. Rivalling German Titov, Gagarin managed to impress the space programme director more so and was selected for the space programme in 1961.

Shortly following his resounding success with the mission he became an instant worldwide celebrity, he visited several countries including Britain in 1961. Unfortunatley he diedin a military training flight on the 27th March 1968 aged just 34.

Although he was awarded many medals and titles, including Hero of the Soviet Union, the nation's highest honour. Vostok 1 was his only space flight but he did serve as backup crew to the Soyuz 1 mission.

Less than a month later an American astronaut, Alan Shepard became the first American in space.

First news headlines following the mission

 The U.S and Soviet Union since this have carried out cooperative missions, the first of which happened in 1975. The mission was called "The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project" and it was designed to test the capability of docking systems for future American and Soviet spacecraft, something which later opened doors into future joint manned flights.