Yuri Gagarin, Soviet postage stamp. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968) was the first human in space, orbiting the Earth in the Vostok 1 spacecraft on 12 April 1961. Following this historic spaceflight, Gagarin became a hero in the Soviet Union and famous worldwide. This commemorative stamp includes a portrait of Gagarin (centre), a depiction of a rocket (left), his award of Hero of the Soviet Union (star-shaped medal, right), the date of his historic spaceflight (lower left), and various texts in Cyrillic. Gagarin died in an aircraft training flight in 1968, and his ashes were interred with full military honours in the Kremlin Wall.