← Back to explore
Biography
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who became the first person to journey into outer space during the first successful crewed spaceflight. He was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh SSR. Travelling on Vostok 1, Gagarin completed one orbit of Earth on 12 April 1961. The flight took 108 minutes. By achieving this major milestone for the Soviet Union amidst the Space Race, he became an international celebrity and earned numerous accolades, including his country's highest distinction: Hero of the Soviet Union.
Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA
Awards & recognition
- International Space Hall of Fame · 1976
- Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" · 1968
- Medal "For Impeccable Service", 3rd class · 1966
- Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" · 1965
- Order of Karl Marx · 1963
Show all 29 awards →
- Hero of Labour · 1962
- Order of the Nile · 1962
- Order of the Star of Africa · 1962
- Gold Star medal · 1961
- Hero of Socialist Labour of Bulgaria · 1961
- Hero of Socialist Labour of Czechoslovakia · 1961
- Hero of the Soviet Union · 1961
- Medal "For the Development of Virgin Lands" · 1961
- Order of Georgi Dimitrov · 1961
- Order of Lenin · 1961
- Order of Playa Girón · 1961
- Order of the Cross of Grunwald, 1st class · 1961
- Order of the Flag of the People's Republic of Hungary · 1961
- Order of the Southern Cross · 1961
- Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR · 1961
- Star of the Republic of Indonesia · 1961
- Jubilee Medal "40 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" · 1958
- aircraft pilot qualification (class)
- honorary citizen of Sevastopol
- Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR
- Order of Aeronautical Merit
- Order of Klement Gottwald
- Order of the Cross of Grunwald
- Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union
