Yuri Gagarin — first human in space
On 12 April 1961 Yuri Gagarin, a 27-year-old Soviet pilot, circled the Earth once in 108 minutes aboard Vostok 1 and became the first person to travel into space.
The story
At 9:07 a.m. Moscow time on 12 April 1961, Vostok 1 lifted off from the Soviet launch site at Baikonur. Inside the cramped spacecraft sat Yuri Gagarin, a 27-year-old air force pilot. As the rocket began to move he called out ‘Poyekhali!’, Russian for ‘Let’s go!’. The phrase is still remembered as a symbol of the space age.
Vostok 1 took about 108 minutes to circle the Earth once, and at its highest point it was about 327 km up. Almost the whole flight was automatic. At the time nobody was even sure whether a person could keep a clear mind while weightless. For Gagarin to fly the craft himself he would have had to open a sealed envelope containing a code, which was meant for emergencies only.
The way he came home was very different from today. Landing in the Vostok capsule would have been too hard a jolt for a person inside. So when the capsule had passed through the atmosphere and dropped to about 7 km, Gagarin was thrown clear in his ejection seat, opened a parachute and came down separately. He landed in a field near the Volga River, where he is said to have told a farmer and her family that he was a Soviet citizen and needed to contact Moscow.
The young pilot from a country village became a world hero almost overnight. The United Nations has named 12 April the International Day of Human Space Flight, and it is still marked every year. Turning on satellites in the sky view reproduces the International Space Station (ISS) circling in the same kind of low orbit Gagarin flew, going round the Earth about every 93 minutes.
Mission goals
The question this flight answered was whether a person could stay alive in space at all. Nobody knew for certain whether a weightless person could swallow food, whether the heart would beat normally, or whether thinking and judgement would stay clear. Without that answer, no plan to send people into space could be made. Gagarin’s 108 minutes showed for the first time that a person could go to space and come back safely.
It was a major political event as well. After Sputnik, the Soviet Union was ahead of the United States in sending a person into space too. Three weeks later the American Alan Shepard went up into space and came down again in about 15 minutes, but his flight did not go around the Earth. On 25 May 1961 President Kennedy declared that the United States would land a person on the Moon and return them safely within ten years. Gagarin’s flight was part of the background to the Apollo programme.
On the engineering side, it was the first test of bringing a person back through the atmosphere. Vostok’s return capsule was shaped like a ball, so it could enter the atmosphere safely whichever way it happened to be tilted. Keeping the design that simple helped reduce the risks of the first flight. Sending the pilot out of the capsule instead of landing inside it was part of the same cautious approach.
Mission chronology and background
Gagarin was among the six finalists from the 20 pilots chosen in 1960. He was fairly short, about 157 cm, which suited the cramped capsule, and his calm nature is said to have counted in his favour. His backup, Gherman Titov, flew Vostok 2 four months later, staying in space for more than a day and circling the Earth 17 times.
The fact that Gagarin left the capsule and landed by parachute was not officially revealed for some years. The international rules for recognising flight records at the time required the pilot to land together with the craft. The Soviet Union only admitted the fact in 1971. The first American orbital flight came on 20 February 1962, when John Glenn circled the Earth three times in Friendship 7.
The Soviet Union kept its lead for a while, with the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, in 1963 and the first spacewalk by Alexei Leonov in 1965, but the United States reached the Moon first. Gagarin died at 34 in a training-flight crash in March 1968. The Apollo 11 crew left a medal honouring him on the Moon, and a crater on the far side of the Moon and a launch pad at Baikonur both carry his name.
Where to see it — sky and simulator
Vostok 1’s flight lasted one orbit, and there is no spacecraft left to follow. Turning on satellites in the sky view instead draws the ISS and other satellites in the same kind of low orbit from real orbital data. Gagarin’s orbit was about 169 km at its lowest and about 327 km at its highest, lower than the ISS, which circles at about 420 km today.
The ISS is a bright point that is easy to see with the naked eye. It can only be seen, though, in the hour or two after sunset or before sunrise, when the ground is dark but sunlight still reaches the station high overhead. Searching for the ISS in the sky view works out when it passes highest over your location and in which direction.
Records of Gagarin’s flight and recordings of his radio calls are kept in museums and archives. His voice calling ‘Poyekhali!’ at lift-off can still be heard in recordings. Space museums in Russia display many objects linked to the Vostok programme and Gagarin’s flight. These records give a vivid sense of how tense the first spaceflight was.
FAQ
How long was the flight?
About 108 minutes, going once around the Earth. At its highest it was about 327 km up.
Did he land inside the capsule?
No. At about 7 km he was thrown clear in his ejection seat and came down separately by parachute, because the capsule hit the ground too hard for a person inside.
Did Gagarin fly the spacecraft himself?
The flight was almost entirely automatic. Manual control needed a code kept in a sealed envelope, meant for emergencies only.
When was the first American orbital flight?
John Glenn’s flight on 20 February 1962. Alan Shepard’s flight in May 1961 went up and came down without circling the Earth.
Related
- Sputnik 1
- Apollo 11 landing
- Artemis II — crewed lunar flight after half a century
- Earth — object index
- The Moon — object index
Times and figures are approximate — verify with official sources when planning travel. Simulation uses J2000 mean elements.