2. Who was the first man to orbit the Earth?
- Neil Armstrong
- Alan Shepard
- Louis Armstrong
- Yuri Gagarin
- Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was a Soviet pilot and astronaut. On April 12, 1961, he became the first human to orbit the Earth on the Vostok 1 spacecraft. This was a significant victory for the Soviets in the space race with the US. American cosmonaut Alan Shepard was second to make it to space less than a month later.