First Man in Space 1961
(Photo by: Sovfoto/UIG via Getty Images)
Russia scored yet another victory against the US when Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man on space on 12th April 1961. He was in a small craft, and his flight was 108 minutes. Yuri was only 27 years old at the time. He was one of more than 200 Russian Air Force fighter pilots selected for the mission. Since the craft known as “Vostok 1” had no engine to slow down its descent into the earth, Gagarin ejected and parachuted to earth. This fact wasn’t revealed until 1971. The first spacewalk was done four years later in 1965 by another Russian cosmonaut Alexey Leonov.