When asked who the first man to step on the moon was, a lot of people reply with Neil Armstrong, but when it comes to the first man to ever even reach space, very few people know the answer. It was Yuri Gagarin.

 

   On the 12th of April, 1961, 6:07A.M. UTC to be exact, Vostok 1 took off to space. He was the only person on board, so with no friends to support him on his journey, he left to where no man had went before. The flight lasted 1 hour and 48 minutes, going at around 27,400km/h, and involved 1 complete orbit of the Earth, in which he ‘saw how beautiful our planet is’.

 

   When landing, he ejected about 7km from the ground and parachuted down to safety. A nearby farmer and his daughter saw the capsule smash into the ground followed by a figure in orange who was slowly floating down. He was disallowed on any more space missions after he came back though, as the Soviet government feared that their space hero would die. He became the national figurehead of the Soviet Union.

 

   Even though he never went back to space, many people noted how going just once for such a short time altered his psyche greatly. He would frequently mention how fragile and awe-inspiring our home seemed and that it should therefore be our duty to protect that beauty. So if he had such a strong message to pass on and was the first of many to leave the planet, why is he so forgotten?

 

   Well, at the time, his achievement was considered as the biggest success for humankind, but as time went on and 8 years later Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, we have considered Gagarin’s achievement as more influential, and Armstrong’s landing to be more useful, especially in these times. His mission was also overshadowed by the Cold War and so it receives much less attention that it deserves.

 

   One, uncommonly known fact is that on the moon, Armstrong laid down one of Gagarin’s medals to pay tribute to him, regardless of their differences in the Cold War period. Sadly Gagarin died 1 year prior to this in a plane crash at the young age of 34, leaving his wife as a widow, and his 2 daughters fatherless at the ages of 7 and 8.

 

   I have written this article in hope that just like Neil Armstrong, Yuri Gagarin can be known to many and receive equal respect, especially seeing as he took a brave step into an unknown universe, and was the first to live to tell the tale of it.