Yury Gagarin was born in 1934 near Smolensk in the Soviet Union. He graduated from vocational and technical schools and enrolled in the Soviet Air Force. He received pilot training in 1957 at the Orenburg facility in Russia. On April 12, 1961, Yury Gagarin became the first man to travel in space. Gagarin's flight was aboard the Russian satellite Vostok I. His trip consisted of one earth orbit at a height of 203 miles above the earth. His 1 hour and 48 minute trip took him at a speed of 17,000 miles per hour. Yury Gagarin died in an airplane crash in 1968.