History
Gagarin’s flight
The flight of the world’s first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin stunned the planet and “set a new horizon for humanity.”
“All my life now appears to be one happy moment. Everything that was lived and done before was achieved for this moment alone,” Gagarin said in a speech which was delivered minutes before entering his spaceship. The speech was broadcast throughout the Soviet Union and retransmitted worldwide. A little later, when the rocket blasted off, the world’s first cosmonaut reportedly said “Poyekhali!" ("Here we go!").
In the USSR Gagarin’s flight was met with euphoria. The cosmonaut was treated like a true hero when he came to Moscow. "When we look at the response of the Muscovites, where everyone was in the streets, on the roofs of buildings and in the windows, I would compare this celebration with the May 9 Victory Day [the end of WWII for the Soviet Union]," said Sergei Khrushchev, the son of Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader at the time of Gagarin's achievement.
Gagarin’s flight after the Sputnik shock of 1957 put pressure on the U.S. leadership and boosted the Space Race, forcing President John F. Kennedy to announce plans to send an American to the Moon.