On This Day: Yury Gagarin Orbits Earth on Vostok 1
On this day in 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yury Gagarin became the first human to travel into outer space. On board the “Vostok 1,” Gagarin successfully orbited earth in his space capsule. During the journey, which lasted 1 hour and 48 minutes, Gagarin said little. The only known statement recorded from him: “Flight is proceeding normally.…