50th anniversary of the First Man in Space (12-04-2011)

Vostok 1 was the first spaceflight of the Vostok programme and the first manned spaceflight in history. The Vostok 3KA space capsule was launched on April 12, 1961 from Baikonur Cosmodrome with Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, making him the first human to cross into outer space. The orbital spaceflight consisted of a single orbit around Earth which skimmed the upper atmosphere at 169 kilometers (91 nautical miles) at its lowest point. The flight took 108 minutes from launch to landing. Gagarin parachuted to the ground separately from his capsule after ejecting at 7 km (23,000 ft) altitude.