Earth & Cosmos / Space & Astronomy

First human in space

Yuri Gagarin orbited Earth once on 12 April 1961 in Vostok 1, proving that humans can survive spaceflight.

Alan Shepard became the first American in space on 5 May 1961, and Valentina Tereshkova the first woman in 1963. Human spaceflight drove advances in life support, miniaturised electronics and the medicine of weightlessness.