1. By Katya Golovkin Cassar
THE FIRST MAN IN SPACE By
Katya Golovkin Cassar

2. 50 years ago a Russian man named Yuri Gagarin became the first man who ever went to space
In 1961 he orbited the Earth on board his Vostok spacecraft

3. He wore a special space suit to protect him from cold, lack of oxygen, and radiation.
He also wore special boots and a helmet, which had a radio and a microphone inside it so that he could communicate with the Earth.

4. The Americans and Russians were engaged in a space race.
The Americans were surprised that the Russians beat them with the first manned spaceflight.
Yuri Gagarin’s craft orbited the Earth once for 89 minutes at a height of about 301 km.
By comparison, the American astronaut Allan Shepard who flew to space after Yuri Gagarin only spent 15 minutes in space at an altitude of 185 km.

5. Yuri Gagarin was also a pilot

6. Unfortunately, in 1968 Yuri Gagarin died in a plane crush

7. People all over the world remember Yuri Gagarin as a hero, and the first man ever to go to space.