On 12nd April 1961, Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968), was an USSR’s astronaut, made history when he became the first human in space and the first person to orbit the Earth. The Vostok-1 spacecraft blasted off from the Baikonur launch site at 06:07 UTC* (09:07am Moscow time).
Gagarin's flight lasted 108 minutes, this including 89 minutes in space. He completed one orbit of the Earth, travelling at 27,400 kilometres per hour. At the highest point, Gagarin was 327km (203miles) above mean sea level.
When Gagarin came back, he was an international celebrity.
