On 12 April 1961, Russian Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (1934-1968) travelled into space for the first time, becoming the first cosmonaut in history. He completed the first orbital flight around the Earth in one hour and 48 minutes on board the Vostok 1 space capsule, 320 km above the Earth’s surface, covering some 41,000 km at a speed of 27,000 km/hour (a speed never before achieved by a man).