Gagarin witnessed the unimaginable vastness of space. He saw plasma engulfing his descent module, streams of molten metal flowing across the porthole. A weight miscalculation sent him to an unplanned higher orbit, closer to the stars. During reentry, his spacecraft tumbled violently as it remained connected to its service module by a cable until it burned away in the plasma. Back then, there was no such thing as soft landing while inside the descent module: Gagarin had to catapult himself and descend on a parachute. During his parachute descent, he almost suffocated—his breathing valve was malfunctioning…

In those 106 minutes of the first human spaceflight, Gagarin achieved what we now take for granted. His bravery paved humanity’s path to space exploration.

Today, we once again honor Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin and all those who made this feat possible—workers, engineers, scientists—those who dared to reach for the stars just 16 years after the devastation of the Great Patriotic War.

Happy Cosmonautics Day to the entire world!