Okay Herga.....Mr.Pedantic Spacenut can help you out. Gagarin's orbital flight took place on April 12, 1961, lifting off from the Baikonur(sp?) Flight Center. The U.S. followed with a sub-orbital "lob" of Alan Shepard from Cape Canaveral on May 5, 1961 but did not duplicate the Soviet orbital success until the third Mercury mission with John Glenn aboard Friendship 7 on September 13, 1961.

Spaw