First Human in Space
Recorded HistoryFirst Human in Space
On 12 April 1961 Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet Air Force pilot, flew once around the Earth aboard Vostok 1, becoming the first human in space. He lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and completed a single orbit in about 108 minutes.
Gagarin returned to the ground by parachute in the Saratov region of the Soviet Union. Alan Shepard became the first American in space on 5 May 1961, on a short suborbital flight, and John Glenn the first American to orbit the Earth, in February 1962. Gagarin’s flight is the date for the first human in space and the first human orbit.
12 April 1961, placed on the scale of its era on a line leading toward now.
- Period
- 12 April 1961
- Edition
- 1/1
- Status
- Reserved for a Future Release
Background artwork
Cinematic background showing a spherical capsule above the Earth at sunrise. An illustration generated with an AI image tool for TIME. It is an artistic depiction, not a photograph or a record of the moment. The capsule is drawn schematically.