On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space when he orbited the earth in Vostok-I. "Poyekhali!" ("Here we go!"), he exclaimed as he blasted off. He flew into space and spent 108 minutes there. Gagarin became a Hero of our country. Tragically, Gagarin died in a 1968 plane crash while training for a second space flight, but people always remember the first Russian cosmonaut.