On April 12, 1961-exactly 60 years ago-the Vostok launch vehicle launched the Vostok-1 spacecraft into orbit.
On board was the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin. At the start, he uttered the now-famous "Let's go!"
Then there was one orbit around the Earth. And on the same day, the lander landed near a village in the Saratov region. Gagarin was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for his space flight.