Around the world in 108 MINUTES
1961. Less than four years after it had launched the satellite Sputnik, the Soviet Union was locked in a tense race with the US. The Soviets had bagged every major milestone to this point – first satellite, first living creature, first lunar impact – but they knew that if they could launch a human before the US, it would cement their reputation as the space superpower.
It was the most closely run leg of the entire Space Race. Though the Soviets gave away little in public, the US were ensuring the entire world knew that their astronaut, Alan Shephard, was on course to triumph over their Space Race competitors.
On 12 April 1961, Shepard’s flight was just three short weeks away when the announcement sounded out across the Soviet Union – at 9:07am that morning, Yuri Gagarin had blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in a Vostok-1 rocket and had become the first human in space. For 108 minutes, he circled the Earth before arriving back on the ground safely.
