1961

First Humans in Space

Yuri Gagarin (1934–1968), Alan Shepard (1923–1998)

The Soviet Union’s successful launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957 marked the beginning of the Space Age, as well as the beginning of an epic geopolitical race for technological, military, and moral superiority with the United States. The Russians had launched the first animal into space—a dog named Laika onboard Sputnik 2—and the US was launching monkeys and chimpanzees, but both governments knew that the next big victory in the space race could only be claimed by launching a person into space.

The Soviet human spaceflight program was called Vostok, and, like the original Sputnik effort, it was based on adapting existing intercontinental ballistic missile rockets to accommodate a small passenger capsule. About 20 Soviet Air Force pilots were secretly screened for the privilege of becoming the first cosmonauts (“space sailors” in Russian); the man chosen to be first was Senior Lieutenant Yuri Gagarin. At the same time, the US human spaceflight program, called Project Mercury, was on a parallel track, modifying the Redstone missile to accommodate its small single-passenger capsule. Seven test pilots, from the air force, navy, and marines, were ultimately selected and became instant celebrities, even before their flights. Navy test pilot Alan Shepard was chosen to fly the first Mercury mission.

Both Vostok and Mercury had early (unmanned) launch failures; both teams had to demonstrate that their rockets would work with an empty capsule before government leaders would authorize a human-piloted flight. Both teams were neck and neck in the race to launch a person first in early 1961, and once again the Soviets scored an enormous international victory by successfully sending Gagarin into space first, for one orbit of Earth in Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961. Three weeks later, Shepard became the second person—and first American—launched into space with his successful suborbital flight in the Freedom 7 capsule.

The Russians had again taken the lead. But America upped the ante shortly after Shepard’s flight, when president John F. Kennedy, in an address to Congress, called for NASA to land a man on the moon before the decade was out.

Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin preparing to board his Vostok 1 spacecraft on the morning of April 12, 1961. Seated behind him was his backup, cosmonaut German Titov, who eventually piloted Vostok 2 in August 1961, becoming the second person to orbit the Earth.