Vostok 1 spacecraft in orbit. Computer artwork of the Vostok 1 capsule that carried Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968) on the first manned flight in space, in orbit around the Earth. Vostok-1 was launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on 12 April 1961. The flight lasted 1 hour and 48 minutes from lift-off to touch-down, and made one orbit of Earth. Gagarin died on 27th March 1968 in a plane crash while training for another space mission. The writing is a quote from Gagarin, and reads: \When I flew around the Earth with the spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet looks. Mankind, let us save the beauty, enlarge and not destroy. Yuri Gagarin, April 20th, 1961.\""