"We wish you good flight." -- Sergei Korolev to Yuri Gagarin as Vostok 1 left the launch pad on April 12th, 1961. It was the dawn of human exploration in space; Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to travel to space and the first person to successfully complete an orbit of Earth and safe atmospheric reentry. Gargain did not land with his spacecraft but instead ejected and parachuted safely to the ground after reentry. The flight continued Soviet dominance over the U.S. in the ongoing Space Race. Gagarin was chosen for the mission just four days before liftoff. The entire flight was controlled by computer or from ground stations as no one was certain if Yuri would be able to operate switches during flight. Yuri asked for music to be played to him during the countdown, a tradition still used to this day on all Russian human launches. The flight is celebrated around the world each year as Yuri's Night on the Saturday closest to the actual anniversary. The launch pad for this mission is called "Gagarin's Start" and was used for human launches until 2019.