The book by the well-known Russian writer Anton Perwushin tells about the preparation for the first human flight into space. Why did the USSR manage to launch the first satellite and a man into space first, despite technological lag behind the United States? For the first time in this book, a truthful description of the flight—made by Gagarin himself—will be published, along with a carefully verified, historically accurate record of the flight with explanations of what was happening.