Human spaceflight began April 12, 1961 with the one-orbit flight of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. Join SPACE.com all this week as we celebrate 40 years of the human touch in space. Russia Rings in 40th Anniversary of Gagarin's Flight Collecting 40 Years of Human Spaceflight Stare into our crystal ball. Future Space Exploration - The Human Touch See these SPACE TV special anniversary features The Dream of 40 Centuries Looking back on how human spaceflight came to be. Godspeed, Yuri Yuri's Night visual-music tribute to our first space survivor. Party on comrades! Russian and the World Prepare to Celebrate a Space First An inside look at Star City. Touring the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center Museum Gagarin's flight as told by SPACE Illustrated Editor Andrew Chaikin. The First Human Spaceflight: Minute By Minute

The deorbit sequence of Yuri Gagarin's Vostok 1. Click to enlarge. Vostok 1 Graphic: A look at the first manned spacecraft. Click to enlarge.

More Space History from SPACE.com

Anniversary Week

Celebrate 20 years of the Space Shuttle right here.

Five Decades in Space
The 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s are remembered in this series of special reports that break down the history of the space program by decades.

Missions and Launches Collection
More recent space history is recalled on this page in a collection of links to shuttle missions that SPACE.com has covered so far. Links to other anniversary features also are available here.

List of Special Reports
A full collection of SPACE.com special reports covering a wide range of space-related topics are gathered here on a single page.