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Yuri Gagarin: First Human in Space

Yuri Gagarin on his way to the launch pad.
April 9, 2018

On April 12, 1961, the era of human spaceflight began when the Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth in his Vostock I spacecraft. The flight lasted 108 minutes.

Front page of the Huntsville Times: Man Enters Space
Front page of the Huntsville, Ala., Times on April 12, 1961.