He went up a test pilot and came down a legend of all humanity.

One Man, One Orbit: Gagarin Becomes the First Human in Space

Soviet cosmonaut circles Earth in 108 minutes

On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, completing one orbit of Earth in 108 minutes and accelerating the Space Race.

On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin climbed into a sphere of aluminum barely larger than a car and was launched into orbit atop an intercontinental ballistic missile. He completed one orbit of Earth in 108 minutes, then parachuted out of the capsule at 7,000 meters and landed in a field near Saratov, Russia.

The 27-year-old Gagarin had been selected from a pool of 3,000 candidates, chosen partly for his technical ability and partly because Nikita Khrushchev thought his face would photograph well. The mission was so dangerous that the Soviets prepared three TASS announcements: one for success, one for an emergency landing, and one for Gagarin's death.

His voice during the flight was calm and professional. "The Earth is blue," he reported — an observation that became one of history's most quoted sentences, though he likely said "The Earth is blue... how wonderful. It is amazing."

The achievement was a propaganda triumph for the Soviet Union and a profound shock to the Americans, who were publicly committed to winning the Space Race. President Kennedy's response was to announce, six weeks later, the commitment to land a man on the Moon before the decade's…

💡 Gagarin was so beloved after the flight that the Soviet government seriously considered giving him the title 'Hero of the Soviet Union' before even landing.