Looking back on six decades of humankind in space

This year will mark 60 years since the first human flew to space, after Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's pioneering space flight in April 1961.

Soviet cosmonaut and the first man to travel in space, Yury Alekseyvich Gagarin (1934 - 1968) arriving in London for a Russian trade fair. Source: Getty

Sixty years ago, on April the 12th, 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to fly to space.

Gagarin became a hero throughout the Soviet Union and a powerful symbol for the Soviet government.

In orbit for 100 minutes, newsreels of the day reported on how Gagarin described sights never before seen by man.

"The Earth looked a delicate blue, floating in a black sky. So said the first man in space after his fabulous journey of 108 minutes, Major Yuri Gagarin. A 27-year-old Soviet Air Force officer whose name will live in history." 

 

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