Fifty years ago today, mankind took its first step off the planet.
Yuri Gagarin, the first cosmonaut, took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in what is now Kazakhstan on April 12, 1961. He launched at 06:07GMT, was in orbit by 06:17 and had circumnavigated the globe by 07:55. At five past eight in the morning UK time, Gagarin’s re-entry module landed with a thump in the Saratov region of western Russia, in front of a presumably terrified farmer and his daughter.Nationality-Russian Soviet Union
Born-9 March 1934
Klushino, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Died-27 March 1968 (aged 34)
Novosyolovo, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Other occupation-Pilot
Rank-Colonel (Polkovnik), Soviet Air Forces
Time in space-1 hour, 48 minutes
Selection-Air Force Group 1
Missions-Vostok 1
You don’t need me to tell you that it changed human history. Eight years later, Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon (as did Buzz Aldrin: second comes right after first!), propelled there by America’s wounded pride. The world got ready for transformation. This was the time of great speculative fiction, Arthur C Clarke and Isaac Azimov (and the Jetsons). Humanity genuinely believed that, just as the Wright Brothers and Bleriot heralded an age of conquering the air, Gagarin and those who followed were the first pioneers in the new way of life. When people joke now that the future wasn’t what it was supposed to be, that none of us are living in lunar colonies and flying jetpacks, it is because – half a century ago – we thought we’d seen it.
Yuri Gagarin statue in victory park