In this excerpt, he writes of Yuri Gagarin, the first Russian cosmonaut ... In 1959, lead Soviet rocket engineer Sergei Pavlovich Korolev cannily offered to build a space vehicle that could ...

On launch day, April 12, 1961, Chief Designer Sergei Korolev radios his best wishes as Gagarin takes off. After his 108-minute flight, Gagarin becomes an international sensation, with parades and ...

The R-7, designed by Korolev, was Russia’s first intercontinental ballistic missile. It was used to launch the first Sputnik in 1957. An improved version of it launched Yuri Gagarin into space.

Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968), a Soviet Air Force lieutenant, was chosen to be the first human to travel into outer space. His spacecraft launched and landed on April 12, 1961, in an extremely risky ...