Who became the first human to travel into outer space?

Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel into outer space on 12 April 1961. The Soviet cosmonaut flew aboard Vostok 1, launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome. His flight lasted 108 minutes and completed one orbit of Earth.

Gagarin reached a maximum altitude of about 327 kilometres. Vostok 1 was largely automated, although Gagarin had a sealed code that allowed him to take manual control if necessary. Because the spacecraft could not land safely with its pilot inside, he ejected from the capsule at roughly seven kilometres above the ground and parachuted separately.

The achievement made Gagarin an international symbol of the early space age. Alan Shepard became the first American in space less than a month later, but his Mercury-Redstone 3 flight was suborbital. Gagarin later served as a cosmonaut trainer and died in a MiG-15UTI training flight in 1968.