Yuri Vostok 1 commemorative post. Russian postcard and postage stamp commemorating the Vostok 1 mission that carried Yuri Gagarin. Gagarin made the first manned space flight on 12th April 1961. He orbited the Earth once in the Vostok 1 spacecraft, a flight that lasted 1 hour and 48 minutes. He later returned to active service as a test pilot, dying in a crash during a training flight in 1968.