It's been 65 years since humans went to space for the first time ever
Yesterday marked the 65th anniversary of the first crewed spaceflight, and today we look back at this incredible milestone.
On 12 April 1961, history was made when Cosmonaut Flight Major Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (Russia) took one large leap for mankind aboard the world’s first successful crewed spaceflight. Yuri entered the Vostok 1 space craft and prepared for take-off at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The space craft was launched at 6:07 a.m. GMT and was in the air for a whole 115 minutes, before making its descent and landing safely on the ground near Smelovka in the Saratov region of Russia.
On Oct. 4, 1957, the Soviets launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, into space. Four years later on April 12, 1961, Russian Lt. Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth in Vostok 1. His flight lasted 108 minutes, and Gagarin reached an altitude of 327… pic.twitter.com/9diBSftlbB
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Before the Vostok 1 landed on the ground, Gagarin made a separate landing himself by parachute as he ejected himself from his spacecraft as planned at around the 108th minute of the flight. He then also safely arrived on the ground 118 minutes after take-off.
Throughout the flight, the aircraft followed a path that measured 40,868.6 km (25,394.8 miles), a journey that successfully managed to orbit the Earth once. The Vostok 1 also reached a maximum altitude of 327 km (203 miles) which is a similar height to the orbit of the International Space Station. The journey also racked up an impressive maximum speed of 28,260 km/h (17,560 mph) which is around 20 times the speed of sound. Pretty fast, right?
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A boy shares the news of Yuri Gagarin's space flight with local shepherd (1961) pic.twitter.com/UDa7xWae4q
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Yuri was 27 years old when he completed his space journey, and due to his immense effort, bravery, and commitment to the space industry, he received many awards. This included being inducted as a national hero of the Soviet Union, and being awarded both the Order of Lenin, and the Gold Star Medal to name a few of his achievements.
On 27 March 1968, Gagarin tragically died when the plane he was on crashed during a training flight from Chkalovsky Air Base. He was laid to rest at the Moscow Kremlin Wall on Red Square in Russia.
65 years later, it is clear to see that Gagarin’s efforts in the Vostok 1 mission paved the way for many other space flights like it, and he will always be commemorated for his involvement in his record-setting spaceflight.
Header image: Yuri Gagarin, pilot of the Vostok 1, on the bus on the way to the launch. Credit: NASA