On April 12, 1961 at 9:06 am, the ground began shake in the
small mining town of Tyuratam in Kazakhstan. The
shaking faded away as the rocket carrying the Vostok 1
spacecraft rushed upward into the morning sky.
Inside the small spacecraft on top of the rocket sat
Yuri Gagarin. Gagarin experienced 89 minutes
of weightlessness as his spacecraft travelled around the
world, returning him to the Soviet Union 108
minutes after the liftoff.
In less than 10 years after Gagarin's short flight, the
United States landed two men on the moon.