April 12, 1961. At a top secret rocket site in the USSR, a young Russian sits inside a tiny capsule on top of a powerful intercontinental ballistic missile—originally designed to carry a nuclear warhead—and blasts into the skies. His name is Yuri Gagarin, and he is about to make history as the first man in space. Drawing on extensive research and the testimony of eyewitnesses, Stephen Walker goes back to this pivotal moment in the Cold War, as the Soviets seized the lead in the space race.