The whole world celebrates April 12 every year International Day of Human Space Flight. The date of the celebration was chosen in honor of the date of the first space flight, which took place on this day in 1961. The event was launched by the United Nations on April 7, 2011.

Yuri Gagarin, a cosmonaut from the USSR, was the first person to orbit the Earth. In total, the flight lasted 108 minutes, the name of the spacecraft was “Vostok-1”.

Spaceflight Day was established to remind humanity of where the history of world spaceflight began.

Interesting Facts

• Ukrainian Serhii Korolev became the general designer of the ship.
• Gagarin almost died during the trip.
• After the flight, Khrushchev awarded the cosmonaut the rank of major.