Yuri Gagarin - First Human to Orbit Earth

Yuri A. Gagarin was born on a collective farm in a region west of Moscow, Russia on March 9, 1934, the son of a carpenter. He joined the Russian Air Force in 1955 and graduated with honors from the Soviet Air Force Academy in 1957. Yuri Gagarin flew only one space mission. On April 12, 1961 he became the first human to orbit Earth.

Read more about this space pioneer, Yuri Gagarin.

Colonel Yuri Gagarin died on March 27, 1968 when the MiG-15 he was piloting crashed near Moscow.

• Read about the first space disaster, Soyuz 1.
• Unfortunately, the USSR had another tragedy strike their space program with Soyuz 11.
• Visit the Astronaut - Cosmonaut Memorial.