That’s what Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin yelled when his rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in what is now Kazakhstan. It means “Let’s go!” Despite American attempts to catch up to the ...

Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was apparently pretty relaxed about becoming the first person in space. Just minutes before his historic launch 50 years ago, he was joking about having enough sausages and ...

Fifty years ago this week, 27-year-old Soviet Air Force pilot Yuri Alekseyvich Gagarin exclaimed "Poyekhali!" ("Off we go!") and blasted off from the Russian steppes to become the first human in space ...

Crushed into the pilot's seat by heavy G-forces, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin saw flames outside his spacecraft and prepared to die. His voice broke the tense silence at ground control: “I’m burning.

It was the Soviet Union's own giant leap for mankind, one that would spur a humiliated United States to race for the moon. It happened 50 years ago Tuesday, when an air force pilot named Yuri Gagarin ...

MOSCOW, Russia — Crushed into the pilot's seat by heavy G-forces, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin saw flames outside his spacecraft and prepared to die. His voice broke the tense silence at ground ...