Who was the first person in space?

Yuri Gagarin was the first person in space when he orbited the Earth on April 12, 1961. He was only 25 years old at the time. Gagarin was a Russian cosmonaut. A cosmonaut is what the Russians call their astronauts. And for you really young readers, a Russian is what we used to call someone who was from what we used to call Russia, or the former Soviet Union.

Yuri’s orbit was made in the Vostok I and took just one hour and 48 minutes to complete. He became an international hero after his flight. For anyone interested, I encourage you to check out Wikipedia’s page on Yuri Gagarin. He was a very accomplished pilot and sadly, was killed in a jet crash when he was only 34 years old.

Yuri Gagarin in his cosmonaut suit

Image sources:

http://un-dx.ucoz.com/yuri-gagarin-news11.jpg

http://www.eliteoftheworld.com/images/gallery/1306195171yuri-gagarin-2.jpg