Who became the first man to travel into space in 1961?

Who became the first man to travel into space in 1961? Yuri Gagarin did, flying aboard the Soviet spacecraft Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961.

Gagarin completed one orbit of Earth during a flight lasting 108 minutes from launch to landing. The mission lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in what was then the Soviet Union. His radio call sign was “Kedr,” meaning cedar, and his reported launch phrase “Poyekhali!” became famous in Soviet space history.

Gagarin’s achievement was a major Cold War victory for the Soviet space program. The United States followed less than a month later, when Alan Shepard became the first American in space on a suborbital flight. Shepard did not orbit Earth; Gagarin was the first human to reach orbit. Another common mix-up is with Neil Armstrong, who became the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969.