WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.114 --> 00:00:03.282
Fifty years ago today, humans reached new heights. 

2
00:00:03.676 --> 00:00:10.148
On April 12, 1961 Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space. 

3
00:00:10.660 --> 00:00:14.322
Gagarin had no idea what would happen as he boarded Vostok I. 

4
00:00:14.870 --> 00:00:17.543
What would he see, and would he come back alive? 

5
00:00:17.600 --> 00:00:20.231
And still he seemed eager to attempt the trip.

6
00:00:20.330 --> 00:00:24.408
Now his last words before liftoff were said to be, "Let's go."

7
00:00:24.835 --> 00:00:28.807
As you now, Gagarin's successful journey ended with a safe parachute landing. 

8
00:00:29.075 --> 00:00:32.599
But the 108-minute flight did more than carry him once around the Earth, 

9
00:00:33.085 --> 00:00:36.061
it launched a new era of human spaceflight.

10
00:00:36.868 --> 00:00:41.633
It was perhaps the greatest journey one man has ever taken. 

11
00:00:43.775 --> 00:00:51.511
Propelled 50 years ago into space on a Soviet rocket, Yuri Gagarin made the first ever orbit of the Earth. 

12
00:00:51.833 --> 00:00:56.087
For 108 minutes, he was crammed inside his tiny capsule, 

13
00:00:56.218 --> 00:01:00.958
giving the world a vivid commentary of the planet far below.

14
00:01:03.498 --> 00:01:05.311
I am continuing the flight. 

15
00:01:05.563 --> 00:01:09.438
The overload is somewhat increasing, as well as the vibration. 

16
00:01:09.885 --> 00:01:12.907
But I am feeling well, and I'm in great spirits. 

17
00:01:13.167 --> 00:01:16.942
I can see the Earth and can distinguish the features of its terrain.

18
00:01:18.348 --> 00:01:25.828
Well this is just a replica of the actual Vostok capsule in which Yuri Gagarin made that first historic flight. 

19
00:01:25.863 --> 00:01:32.595
For some reason the original is kept in the museum of a state corporation and isn't on general public view.

20
00:01:33.188 --> 00:01:37.129
But this space exhibition in Moscow is filled with originals, 

21
00:01:37.149 --> 00:01:41.041
including a number of contemporaries of Yuri Gagarin himself.

22
00:01:41.635 --> 00:01:47.416
Men like Alexei Leonov, the first Soviet cosmonaut to conduct a spacewalk, 

23
00:01:47.657 --> 00:01:50.779
here to celebrate the achievements of 50 years ago.

24
00:01:52.965 --> 00:01:59.122
In the past, we used to make a point of whether he or she was an American or a Russian or whatnot. 

25
00:01:59.548 --> 00:02:02.796
In my view, if we don't remember what happened 50 years ago, 

26
00:02:03.071 --> 00:02:05.561
we will forget everything in 100 years.

27
00:02:07.089 --> 00:02:13.119
At the height of the Cold War, Gagarin's success was a high profile victory over the United States, 

28
00:02:13.211 --> 00:02:16.845
seen as evidence of Soviet domination in the space race. 

29
00:02:17.683 --> 00:02:21.380
He was dispatched overseas in what the Kremlin called missions of peace. 

30
00:02:21.751 --> 00:02:23.620
It made him a global icon. 

31
00:02:24.226 --> 00:02:27.019
And his flight on April 12, 1961 

32
00:02:27.204 --> 00:02:33.254
also led President John F. Kennedy to declare that America would put a man on the Moon by 1970.

33
00:02:34.214 --> 00:02:39.320
Today, American astronauts are ready to acknowledge Gagarin's pioneering mission.

34
00:02:40.075 --> 00:02:43.281
Well, there always has to be a first that follows on. 

35
00:02:43.778 --> 00:02:46.584
And at the time, you know, there was a big competition. 

36
00:02:49.089 --> 00:02:54.338
I always say here today, without Yuri Gagarin flying, I probably would not have flown to the Moon.

37
00:02:54.657 --> 00:02:56.230
Everybody's friends now.

38
00:02:56.522 --> 00:02:57.058
Oh, yes.

39
00:02:57.874 --> 00:03:03.268
Gagarin didn't live to witness the hundreds who've journeyed to space since his first flight. 

40
00:03:03.314 --> 00:03:06.870
He was killed in 1968 in a plane crash. 

41
00:03:07.227 --> 00:03:13.626
But an untimely death has only added to the mythical status of the first man in space.