Which country was the first to send a human into space?

The Soviet Union was the first country to send a human into space.

On 12 April 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin launched aboard Vostok 1 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. His spacecraft completed one orbit of Earth in a flight lasting 108 minutes, making Gagarin the first human to travel into outer space and return alive.

Gagarin’s mission was a major achievement in the Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States. Vostok 1 was largely automated because engineers were concerned about how a person would react to weightlessness, although Gagarin received a code that allowed him to take manual control.

The United States followed with Alan Shepard’s suborbital Freedom 7 flight on 5 May 1961. Shepard reached space but did not complete an orbit, unlike Gagarin.