Vostok 1 (Russian: Восток-1, meaning Orient-1 or East-1) was the first human spaceflight. The Vostok 3KA spacecraft was launche on April 12, 1961, taking into space Yuri Gagarin, a cosmonaut from the Soviet Union. The Vostok 1 mission was the first time anyone had journeyed into outer space and the first time anyone had entered into orbit. The Vostok 1 was launched by the Soviet space program and designed by the Soviet rocket scientists Sergey Korolyov and Kerim Kerimov.