Vostok 1 — The First Human in Space
On 12 April 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human in history to orbit the Earth. The flight lasted 108 minutes and permanently changed our understanding of the limits of human capability.
◉ REÁLNÉ FOTO · Alan Wilson from Stilton, Peterborough, Cambs, UKContents
living encyclopedia entryOn the morning of 12 April 1961, an R-7 launch vehicle lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome carrying the Vostok 1 spacecraft and its sole cosmonaut — Yuri Gagarin. In 108 minutes he completed a single orbit of the Earth and landed safely near the village of Smelovka.
The Vostok cabin was designed as an almost fully automated system: the cosmonaut's manual controls were locked behind a code, to be used only if the automatic landing system failed. This reflected a characteristic feature of the Soviet approach to the first crewed flights — an emphasis on redundancy and automation in areas where experience with the human factor in weightlessness was still lacking.
Soviet military pilot and cosmonaut. Selected from more than 3,000 candidates, in part for his short stature (157 cm), which suited the cramped Vostok cabin. On 12 April 1961 he became the first human in history to travel into space.
open person →At 06:07 UTC (09:07 Moscow time), a Vostok-K rocket carrying the Vostok 1 spacecraft lifted off from the launch complex at the…
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Vostok 1 reached an orbit between 169 and 327 kilometers above the Earth and set out on a single circuit of the planet at a speed…
číst kapitolu →After 108 minutes of flight, the braking engine fired automatically over Africa and Vostok 1 began its descent back to Earth.…
číst kapitolu →At an altitude of about 7 kilometers, Gagarin ejected from the capsule and completed the rest of the descent on his own parachute…
číst kapitolu →THE FLIGHT IN NUMBERS
- Gagarin's height of 157 cm and weight of around 69 kg were among the selection criteria — the cramped Vostok cabin offered only limited space.
- The code to unlock the manual controls, sealed in an envelope for emergency use, was reportedly already known to Gagarin before launch — according to some accounts, colleagues had revealed it to him.
- The Soviet Union kept secret for almost ten years the fact that Gagarin had ejected and landed separately from the cabin — because of FAI rules governing the recognition of aviation records.
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FULL TIMELINE →Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space and in orbit around the Earth.
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