The first man to go to space

Pedro Marques

When we think about the sixties, we automatically remember the «Space Race» and generally get the idea that the USA was the country that won it. After all, they were the first ones to get to the moon, but that doesn´t mean they were the first to go to space.

Yuri Gagarin was the first person to fly in space. His flight, on April 12, 1961, lasted 108 minutes as he circled the Earth for a little more than one orbit in the Soviet Union's Vostok spacecraft. After the flight, Gagarin was treated like a hero in the Soviet Union, and even today his accomplishment is still celebrated in the Russian space museums with numerous artifacts, busts, and statues displayed in his honor. His remains are buried at the Kremlin in Moscow, and part of his spacecraft is on display at the RKK Energiya museum.

But getting into the space wasn´t easy as there were many steps to make in order to do it safely. Before Gagarin's mission, the Soviets sent a test flight into space using a prototype of the Vostok spacecraft. During this flight, they sent a life-size dummy called Ivan Ivanovich and a dog named Zvezdochka into space. After the test flight, the Soviets considered the vessel fit to take a human into space.

So now they needed an astronaut. More than 200 Russian Air Force fighter pilots were selected as cosmonaut candidates. Such pilots were considered optimal because they had exposure to the forces of acceleration and the ejection process, as well as experience with high-stress situations. Gagarin, a 27-year-old senior lieutenant at the time, was among the pilots selected.

In the end, Gagarin became a legend and someone to look up to for his courage and braveness of being the first man to ever take the risk to go beyond the skin.