Profile of the Day: Yuri Gagarin

Today we remember Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on what would have been his 87th birthday. Gagarin made history in 1961 when he became the first person to fly into outer space.

Image: Yuri Gagarin / San Diego Air and Space Museum Archives, Flickr

Gagarin was born on March 9, 1934 in the village of Klushino near Gzhatsk in Smolensk, Oblast, Russia. He was the third for four children born to Alexey Ivanovich Gagarin, a carpenter, and Anna Timofeyevna Matveyeva, a dairy farmer. Fascinated with aircrafts from a young age, Gagarin joined a local flying club and learned to fly. He later joined the Soviet Air Force and was selected as one of twenty pilots for the Soviet space program in 1960.

On April 12, 1961, the Vostok 1 launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome with Gagarin onboard, making him the first person to fly into space. The groundbreaking flight took 108 minutes from launch to landing and made a single orbit around the Earth. The flight immediately made Gagarin a national hero and an international celebrity. Vostok 1 would be Gagarin’s only spaceflight. He died on March 27, 1968 at the age of 34 in a tragic plane crash. After his death, the town of Gzhatsk was renamed Gagarin in his honor.

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