12 April

1961: On 12 April 1961, at just after 09:00 Moscow time, Russian test pilot Yuri Gagarin was launched into space from the Soviet Union's top-secret rocket base in Baikonur.

After one orbit, Gagarin re-entered Earth's atmosphere and parachuted to safety, landing just before 11:00 that same morning. He proudly introduced himself to startled villagers as 'the first spaceman in the world.' His 108-minute flight captivated the world.

In 1961, the Cold War was at its height. The United States and Soviet Union each feared that the other would gain an advantage and try to attack. Each worried about its prestige in the eyes of the world. The fact that the Soviets had put a man in space - only four years after launching Sputnik, the first man-made satellite - alarmed many Americans.

Meanwhile, the Soviets were proud of Gagarin's flight. But many scientists working on the Soviet programme did not realise that the first manned space flight would create such international attention.

On 25 May 1961, without a single American astronaut having yet orbited the Earth, President John F. Kennedy said to the world: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth."