... Credit Copyright: ISS Expedition 7 Crew, EOL , NASA Explanation: On April 12th, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alexseyevich Gagarin became the first human in space. ... His view could have resembled this image taken in 2003 from the International Space Station. Alan Shepard , the first US astronaut, would not be launched until almost a month later and then on a comparatively short suborbital flight. ... Twenty years later, on yet another April 12th, in 1981, NASA launched the first space shuttle . ...