Gagarin's orbit in Vostok 1. Orbital flightpath (red) marked on an image of the Earth, showing the path of the Vostok 1 spacecraft that carried Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968) around the globe on the first manned flight in space. Gagarin's historic flight took place on 12 April 1961 and lasted 1 hour and 48 minutes. It was launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, and landed in the Saratov region of Russia. The landing point was west of the launch point because of the eastwards rotation of the Earth.