13. Among the most legendary scientific accomplishments of the twentieth century, the launch of Vostok 1 in April 1961 saw Yuri Gagarin become the first human to enter outer space
Competing with Project Mercury, the top-secret American manned space program, the Soviet Union desperately pursued its own rival project to achieve the landmark accomplishment of placing a human in outer space. Designing a capsule capable of carrying a single individual, its eventual pilot, the 27-year-old Yuri Gagarin, was only formally selected four days before the launch date to ensure absolute secrecy surrounding the project. Aware that the mission carried significant chances of fatal failure, Gagarin, registering a calm sixty-four beats per minute heart-rate, bravely boarded the Vostok 1 in the early hours of April 12, 1961.
Consisting of a single orbit around the Earth, during which time the spacecraft skimmed the upper atmosphere at an altitude of 169 kilometers, the total time between launch and landing was just 108 minutes. Parachuting to the ground after ejecting from his capsule at 23,000 feet, Gagarin safely returned to Earth a hero as the first man in space. Prompting immediate concern regarding the potential militarization of space, the reaction of the United States was that of quiet terror. President Kennedy acknowledged it would be “some time” before they could replicate the achievement, with the event serving as a major propaganda coup in the ongoing battle for hearts and minds.