Launch of Vostok 1 spacecraft. Close-up of the exhaust flames of the rocket launching Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968) into orbit from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on 12 April 1961. During this historic spaceflight, Gagarin became the first human in space. He circled the Earth once in a flight that lasted 1 hour and 48 minutes. The Vostok 1 capsule (not seen) was located on top of this rocket, the Vostok-K, the booster stage of which is seen here. This initial booster stage used four engines that burnt a mixture of rocket fuel and liquid oxygen for 118 seconds before later stages took over and completed the process of boosting Vostok 1 and Gagarin into orbit.