Who was the first person in space?

Who was the first person in space? Yuri Gagarin was the first human to travel into space.

On April 12, 1961, the Soviet cosmonaut launched aboard Vostok 1 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in what is now Kazakhstan. His spacecraft completed one orbit of Earth, reaching spaceflight milestones that had never been achieved by a human before. The flight lasted 108 minutes from launch to landing.

Gagarin’s mission was part of the Cold War-era Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States. He was 27 years old and had previously trained as a military pilot before being selected for the Soviet cosmonaut program. During the flight, he reportedly radioed “Poyekhali!”—often translated as “Let’s go!”—before liftoff.

A common mix-up is Alan Shepard, who became the first American in space on May 5, 1961. Shepard’s flight was suborbital, while Gagarin’s Vostok 1 mission completed a full orbit. Gagarin later became an international symbol of human space exploration, though he died in a 1968 aircraft crash before making another spaceflight.