50th Anniversary of First Manned Space Flight

Yuri Gagarin's 108-minute trip around the world was a first for humanity, and raised the stakes of the superpowers' space race.

Fifty years ago today, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to go to space and return safely. The single-orbit flight on April 12, 1961, kicked the already-brewing space race between the Soviet Union and the United States into high gear as the two superpowers would battle for space superiority for the next three decades. Gagarin returned to Earth as a Soviet hero, and 23 days later the U.S. sent Alan Shepherd into orbit. Gagarin proved that humans could survive space travel, and while he died in a plane crash seven years later (a year before man would walk on the moon), his legacy as pioneer of the final frontier will live on.