YURI GAGARIN BLASTED OFF FROM EARTH 55 YEARS AGO WITH AN EXTRAORDINARY DEVICE THAT LET HIM KNOW HIS LOCATION. 12 April 1961 – the first manned space flight It took less than an hour and a half to orbit the Earth, but Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made history as the first person in space aboard his Vostock spacecraft. And while the total mission only lasted 108 minutes, it was an extraordinary triumph of science – especially considering the technology that was…