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Yuri Gagarin

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Yuri Gagarin, the first human to travel into space, pictured in 1961.

Yuri Gagarin

Yuri Gagarin was a brave man from the Soviet Union. He loved flying and became a pilot. In 1961, he did something amazing: he was the first person ever to travel into outer space! He flew in a special spacecraft called Vostok 1 and went around the whole Earth in just 108 minutes.

Yuri grew up in a small village called Klushino. As a boy, he liked to build model airplanes and dream about the sky. Later, he worked at a steel plant and learned to fly planes. He was very good at it and joined the Soviet Air Forces.

Because he was such a good pilot, Yuri was chosen to be a cosmonaut. He trained very hard and then made history on April 12, 1961. After his flight, people all over the world celebrated him. He became very famous and was given many important awards, like the Hero of the Soviet Union.

Yuri liked to meet people and talk about space. He traveled to many countries and helped train other space travelers. Even though he wanted to fly in space again, he was asked to help from the ground instead. Yuri always stayed curious and loved learning new things.

Images

Yuri Gagarin's parents at their home in Klushino, Russia.
The Vostok I space capsule, used by Yuri Gagarin for the first human spaceflight, now displayed in a museum.
Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space, is welcomed by a crowd in Warsaw in 1961.
Yuri Gagarin with Egyptian leaders Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar El Sadat in Cairo, 1962.
Valentina Tereshkova and Yuri Gagarin, famous Soviet pilot-cosmonauts, at a youth forum in Moscow in 1964.
Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin shakes hands with NASA's Gemini 4 astronauts, Edward H. White II and James A. McDivitt, at the Paris International Air Show in 1965.
Yuri Gagarin, the famous astronaut, with a Swedish bandy player at a stadium in Stockholm in 1964.
Yuri Gagarin and his wife celebrating at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, 1964.
A Mig-15 aircraft, an important historical plane from the mid-20th century.
A statue of Yuri Gagarin, the first human to travel into space, standing in front of the Planetarium at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.
A special 10 ruble coin celebrating the 40th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's spaceflight, showing Gagarin and his signature.
Yuri Gagarin as a flight cadet in Saratov, learning to fly in the 1950s.

Related articles

Soviet Union
Outer space
Vostok 1
Klushino
Soviet Air Forces
Cosmonaut

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Yuri Gagarin, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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