12 Story Library 12 EPIC SPACE JOURNEYS by Marne Ventura
1 Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin Is First Person in Space this reason they ran Vostok 1 from the ground The spacecraft launched from a site in the Soviet Union Gagarin radioed Poyekhali Russian for The Soviet Union took a big lead in the space race on April 12 1961 At the time the United States and the Soviet Union were in a conflict called the Cold War They competed to show who had better technology and military strength The space race was a large part of the Cold War The Russians launched a spacecraft into orbit around Earth on April 12 1961 Yuri Gagarin was a 27-year old Russian Air Force pilot He rode inside Vostok 1 Objects in outer space experience weightlessness The engineers in charge of the mission did not know how this would affect Gagarin’s ability to control the spacecraft For 4 Gagarin beat the United States effort to send the first person in space by at least two weeks
Vostok 1 replica stands at the Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy in Moscow Off we go He flew over Siberia diagonally across the Pacific Ocean and over the Hawaiian Islands He flew around the southern tip of South Africa and northeast across the Atlantic After about one hour over Africa engines fired to slow Vostok 1 It began to descend over Egypt When the spacecraft reached the Soviet Union Gagarin ejected He landed with a parachute He completed one orbit around the Earth Gagarin became an international hero as the first person in space NASA The Soviet Union launched Sputnik on October 4 1957 It was the first human-made object to enter Earth’s orbit To compete with the Soviets US President Dwight D Eisenhower signed an order to create the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA NASA is the government agency in charge of space exploration 108 Length in minutes of flight by Vostok 1 Vostok 1 launched on April 12 1961 Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin rode inside the spacecraft Gagarin made one orbit of Earth 5
