Updated April 12, 2024 at 12:45 p.m. Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet Air Force pilot and cosmonaut became the first human ever to travel into outer space on this day in 1961. Get This Happened straight to your inbox ✉️ each day! Sign up here. How long was Yuri Gagarin’s space flight?Yuri Gagarin’s space flight on Vostok 1 lasted 108 minutes from launch to landing. During his flight, he orbited the Earth once, reaching a maximum altitude of about 200 miles (327 kilometers) above the Earth’s surface. How did Yuri Gagarin become the first human to travel into outer space?Yuri Gagarin was born on March 9, …