Yuri Gagarin

Yuri Gagarin Yuri Gagarin was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who on April 12, 1961, became the first human to journey into outer space, completing one orbit of Earth in the Vostok 1 spacecraft in 108 minutes. His achievement was a major victory for the Soviet Union in the Space Race and made him an instant global celebrity. He died on March 27, 1968, in a MiG-15 training jet crash under circumstances that have never been fully explained.