April 12 has been celebrated as Cosmonautics Day since 1961 when Yuri Gagarin became the first human being launched into outer space. 68 minutes spent by him in cosmos changed our life forever and opened the new era in mankind's history and development. The U.S. first launched a person into space with Alan Shepard's suborbital flight in Mercury-Redstone 3. Orbital flight was achieved by the United States when John Glenn's Mercury-Atlas 6 orbited the Earth on 20 February 1962.
