The First Outer Space Flight

12 April 1961 was the date of the first human space flight, carried out by Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet citizen. This historic event opened the way for space exploration for the benefit of all humanity.

Gagarin’s mission aboard the capsule Vostok 1 won the space race for the Soviets when it orbited the Earth on this day in 1961. Gagarin was just 27 years old when he grabbed the headlines around the world. The son of collective farm workers and a devoted family man with a wholesome sense of humour and movie star looks, he quickly captured the imagination of a generation. His flight, which lasted just one hour and eight minutes, was a milestone in the space race that developed between the competing superpowers and one which demonstrated in no uncertain terms that the then USSR was a force to be reckoned with.

In his youth, Gagarin became interested in space and planets. After studying for one year at a vocational technical school in Lyubertsy, he was selected for further training at a technical high school in Saratov. While there, he joined the "AeroClub", and learned to fly a light aircraft, a hobby that would take up an increasing portion of his time.

In 1955, after completing his technical schooling, he entered military flight training at the Orenburg Pilot's School. While there he gained his pilot's wings in a MiG-15. Post-graduation, he was assigned to Luostari airbase in Murmansk Oblast, close to the Norwegian border, where terrible weather made flying risky. He became a Lieutenant in the Soviet Air Force on 5 November 1957 and on 6 November 1959 he received the rank of Senior Lieutenant.

In 1960, after the search and selection process, Yuri Gagarin was chosen with 19 other pilots for the Soviet space program. Gagarin was further selected for an elite training group known as the Sochi Six from which the first cosmonauts of the Vostok programme would be chosen.

Gagarin also garnered a reputation as an adept public figure. When he visited Manchester in the United Kingdom, it was pouring with rain; however, Gagarin insisted that the car hood remain back so that the cheering crowds could catch a glimpse of him. Gagarin stated, "If all these people have turned out to welcome me and can stand in the rain, so can I." Gagarin refused an umbrella and remained standing in his open-top Bentley so that the cheering crowds could still see him.

Sergei Korolev, one of the masterminds behind the early years of the Soviet space program, later said that Gagarin possessed a smile "that lit up the Cold War".

The General Assembly, in its resolution of 7 April 2011, declared 12 April as the International Day of Human Space Flight “to celebrate each year at the international level the beginning of the space era for mankind, reaffirming the important contribution of space science and technology in achieving sustainable development goals and increasing the well-being of States and peoples, as well as ensuring the realization of their aspiration to maintain outer space for peaceful purposes.”

We would like to celebrate this day with you. There is much in common between astronautics and aeronautics – after all the first astronauts were military pilots.

Blast away!