Yuri Gagarin: The First Hero and the Flights Erased From History

On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin sat inside Vostok 1 at Baikonur. The spacecraft made one orbit of Earth in 108 minutes. The Soviet Union announced that Gagarin was the first human in space. His name immediately became the most powerful symbol in the race against the United States.

The Soviet Union hid an important part of that flight. Vostok 1 did not bring Gagarin down inside the capsule. At about 7 kilometres above the ground, the hatch opened, an ejection seat pushed him out, and he landed under his own parachute. The capsule landed somewhere else. NASA and ESA now state this clearly. The first Soviet announcement, however, described Gagarin as landing with his spacecraft because the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale then required the pilot to land inside the vehicle for a record to count.