See What Yuri Gagarin Saw, in Stunning High-Definition Film

Wondering what the trip was like for Yuri Gagarin, who became the first man in space exactly 50 years ago? Look no further than YouTube.

First Orbit

a screenshot from First Orbit, a new film that seeks to replicate the experience of Yuri Gagarin's famous first flight in space by combining archival audio with new footage from space.

On April 12, 1961, the Russian cosmonaut became the first person in space, ushering in the era of human spaceflight. The rocket carrying Gagarin's Vostok 1 spacecraft blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Soviet Union, reaching unprecedented speeds for human travel at the time before it broke free of the Earth's gravitational pull and entered orbit around the planet, circling once before re-entering the atmosphere and landing back on Soviet soil.

And a new movie shot entirely from the International Space Station and released to YouTube seeks to recreate exactly the experience of Gagarin's groundbreaking 108-minute orbit around the planet, combining the historic audio tapes of the event with brand new footage. 

The film, shot in collaboration with the European Space Agency and the astronauts onboard the International Space Station, captures the magnificence of Gagarin’s original orbit with breath-taking high-definition views of the Earth from above. It matches the orbital path of the International Space Station as closely as possible to that of Gagarin's original route, allowing viewers to see incredible vistas of the Earth through the Space Station’s new giant cupola window.

“We have woven historic Vostok I mission recordings of Gagarin (subtitled in English) with new shots captured by Paolo Nespoli, and edited them to an original score by composer Philip Sheppard," explained director Chris Riley. 

As he edited together the film, Riley made an unusual discovery: Gagarin's short bursts of communication from the cockpit were very much akin to modern Twitter chatter. In addition to being the first man in space, Riley called him the first man on Twitter.

“It’s clear Yuri spoke in 'tweets’ -- as communications to the mission controllers were always brief and to the point," he said. " Today a text-based tweet is composed of up to no more than 140 characters, so in essence Yuri was the first perfect tweeter."