Who was the first human to travel into outer space, aboard Vostok 1 in 1961?

Yuri Gagarin was the first human to travel into outer space, aboard Vostok 1 in 1961.

Gagarin launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 12 April 1961 in the Soviet spacecraft Vostok 1. The flight lasted 108 minutes and completed one orbit of Earth. During the mission, Gagarin became the first person to see Earth from space and the first human to experience orbital spaceflight.

The flight was a major Soviet achievement during the Space Race with the United States. Gagarin’s call sign was “Cedar,” and his reported exclamation “Poyekhali!” is commonly translated as “Let’s go!” After landing, he became an international celebrity and symbol of Soviet space exploration.

The mission was highly automated because engineers were concerned about the effects of spaceflight on human performance. Gagarin was still able to take manual control using a sealed code. He died in 1968 during a routine training flight, aged 34.