In 1961 the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first man to fly into space and travel around the Earth in the Vostok spaceship. He was also the first to see what the Earth and sky looked like from space. Flying on ships named Vostok, Voskhod, Soyuz, Salyut, Gemini and Apollo, Soviet cosmonauts and American astronauts have since observed the Earth from distances of several hundreds and even several thousands of kilometers. On the Earth, as on a globe, greenish-brown land and blue bodies of water can be seen. Much of the Earth's surface is covered with clouds.
