Wednesday, April 12, 1961: The first man in space

Perched atop the Vostok 1 spacecraft, cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, 27, is launched into outer space at 9:07 a.m. (local time at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic). His voyage takes him around the Earth once, traveling at 18,000 miles per hour, reaching an altitude of 203 miles and lasting 108 minutes. Gagarin ejects from the capsule as planned, but only after a dangerous re-entry. He parachutes safely to the ground, two miles away from Vostok 1. He is instantly a hero the world over.

-- Resources

* Photo from Science Photo Library. Website: @

* Anniversary website (yurigagarin50.org): @

* Flight summary and events leading up to flight (from Encylopedia Astronautica): @

* Flight information (from russianspaceweb.com): @

* Flight timeline (from yurigagarin50.org): @

* Flight analysis (from Space History Notes): @

* Infographic (from space.com): @

* Photo gallery (from Russian Archives Online): @

* Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (includes flight information): @

* Anniversary party website (yurisnight.net): @

* More links (from firstorbit.org; several sites are in Russian): @

-- Magazines and newspapers

* Time magazine: April 21 cover @

* Life magazine: April 21 edition @

* Newsweek: April 24 cover @

* Front page of Pravda: (scroll down): @

* Front page of The Daily Worker: @

* Front page of New York Times: @

* Front page of Huntsville (Alabama) Times: @ and @

* "How Yuri Gagarin's historic flight was nearly grounded" (from The Guardian newspaper): @

* More Gagarin stories from The Guardian: @

* "Soviet Radio and Newspaper Reports on the Flight of the Spaceship Vostok" (translation from Jet Propulsion Laboratory): @

-- Books

* "The First Soviet Cosmonaut Team -- Their Lives, Legacy and Historical Impact": @

* "Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945-1974" (from NASA; in PDF format): @ and @

* 1977 booklet published in Soviet Union (from www.kosmonaut.se): @

* "Yuri's Day -- The Road to the Stars" (graphic novel): @

-- Videos from britishpathe.com

* Pre-flight footage and liftoff: @

* British newsreel: @

* "With Gagarin to the Stars" (Soviet documentary, narrated in English): @ and @ and @

-- More videos

* "First Orbit" (real-time re-creation, using footage shot from International Space Station): @

* Flight simulation using Orbiter computer program: @ and @

* Videos from criticalpast.com: @

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