Embark on a cosmic journey with Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space! From his humble beginnings to the historic Vostok 1 mission, discover the man who took us to the stars!

The inside of Vostok, in which Yuri Gagarin circled the globe in on April 12th, 1961. The Globus IMP can be seen beneath the label '2.' Getty Images ...

On April 12, 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin sat alone in the Vostok 1 spacecraft, hoping to become the first person to travel into space. "Poyekhali!" Gagarin said as liftoff began, an informal ...

On April 12, 1961, Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin stepped into his Vostok 1 spacecraft, started the pre-flight checks, and waited for countdown. Hours later, he muttered one of the most beautiful, yet ...

A Vostok rocket similar to the one that carried Yuri Gagarin on his flight to space is displayed in Moscow, Russia, Friday, April 9, 2021. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko) ...

Gagarin didn’t know that the blazing inferno he observed through a porthole was a cloud of plasma engulfing Vostok 1 during its re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, and he was still on track ...

Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin Became First Human in Space 60 Years Ago Today The April 12, 1961, mission encountered glitches and emergencies — from a capsule hatch failing to shut properly just ...

Russian cosmonaut — the astronaut version for the Russian Space Agency — Yuri Gagarin was only 27 when he made his historic 108-minute orbital flight in the Vostok 1 spacecraft on April 12, 1961.

Gagarin's historic launch on Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961 kicked off the era of human spaceflight that continues to this day. To celebrate, " World of Tanks " developer Wargaming has launched its ...

There aren’t any photos of the Earth from Gagarin’s Vostok 1 mission, so this photo taken on the International Space Station back in 2003 will have to serve as a proxy. For his part, Gagarin ...

The life and times of Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who became the first man in space on April 12, 1961. See the full slideshow at Life.