59 years ago, Yuri Gagarin was the first person to go into space. It is impossible to forget this flight, which takes 108 minutes. It is the first time that a person has seen this blue ball, which is our home, from the outside. He saw how small, unique and fragile we are.

Yuri Gagarin showed great courage by taking part in this flight. We were just crawling like a baby. We knew almost nothing about space. All we knew was that the exterior of the vehicle was lethal.

Launch of Vostok 1, Baikonur Cosmodrome.

April 12, 1959. The Baikonur Base was preparing for something never seen before. A Russian would go to space and travel the world in 108 minutes. The danger was not yet understood. Maybe even Yuri couldn’t fully understand.

We were at the very beginning of everything that it was not known whether the spacecraft sat in orbit even 25 minutes after launch. It was not known how the human body would work in space. Was it able to withstand the pressure created? Could it keep up with the non-gravity environment?

We didn’t know anything.

Interior layout of Vostok 1

The spacecraft was aerodynamically unstable. Because the space race required everything to be done fast. Gagarin, who passed over America 41 minutes after the launch, was the first person to realize that the world was getting smaller for mankind.

At this point, Yuri looked down at mankind exactly. Maybe he dreamed of where humanity could go after that moment.

Vostok’s model in ‘Russia in Space’ exhibition

This exploration adventure led by Gagarin was the biggest step to make human beings a space civilization. Now the Earth will not be enough for us, we would always want to go further. Just like we do now. Nothing is enough for human beings. And we are still at the beginning of everything.

It has been just 84 years since the first radio signal we sent to space. This signal only reached approximately 42 stars. We were able to reach only 42 of the 400 billion stars in our galaxy.

Yuri Gagarin is moving to ramp

Can you imagine how much we were in the beginning?

Even the imagination of many of us is not enough, what we will see, what we will learn, what kind of culture shock we will experience.

It all started with the first courage Yuri Gagarin showed.

Rest in Peace, Yuri-ka.

Real capsule of Vostok 1, RKK Energiya Museum