56 years since Yuri Gagarin became first man to go to space
Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, making a 108-minute orbital flight, on April 12, 1961. He was launched aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft which reached a maximum height of about 300 kilometres. The craft carried provisions for ten days, in case the engines failed and Gagarin was required to wait for the orbit to decay naturally.