On April 12, 1961, a human went to space for the first time! Yuri Gagarin was the first Soviet cosmonaut and the first person to orbit the Earth. 🚀 Catch up with space history daily! 👉 https://trib.al/tOCRRnh This was the Soviet Union's next big move in the "space race" after it launched the first satellite, Sputnik, in 1957. His mission was called Vostok 1, and it involved both a Vostok rocket and Vostok space capsule. He lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and reached an al

#OTD in 1961, Naval aviator Alan Shepard became the first American to travel into space. Graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1944, Shepard became one of the Mercury Seven astronauts in 1959. He would walk on the moon in 1971 as commander of Apollo 14. #NationalAstronautDay | U.S. Naval Institute

"What a beautiful view." 61 years ago #OTD, Alan Shepard was celebrated across the nation after launching in the Mercury capsule Freedom 7 to become the first American in space. Take a tour of our Mercury-Redstone 3 Flickr photo gallery with images from this historic day: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasacommons/albums/72157654005287426 | NASA History