To the 80th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin. The true story of the greatest breakthrough of the 20th century. Unknown details of the first flight into space: what problems were there during the orbital orbit and landing, who was the first to meet Gagarin on earth, where and how did he spend the first hours after returning from orbit? Everything about the birth of manned astronautics and its current state, about unfulfilled hopes and the reasons for stagnation and decline... But no matter what thorns block the path to the stars, nothing can cancel the fact that our compatriots stood at the origins of the “Space Odyssey” of humanity, Our country was the first in space, the 20th century will forever remain in human memory as the century of Gagarin and Korolev, and the Russian word “sputnik” has entered all major languages, like Gagarin’s legendary “Let’s GO!” The book was also published under the title “First in Space. How the USSR defeated the USA."