 At the same time, tensions with the United States heightened when the two rivals clashed over the deployment of the United States Jupiter missiles in Turkey and Soviet missiles in Cuba.In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite, "Sputnik 1", thus starting the Space Age.Russia's cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth, aboard the "Vostok 1" manned spacecraft on 12 April 1961.