The United States of America was the first country to launch a man into space.

The story behind the answer

False. The first human in space was Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, launched aboard Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961. He completed one full orbit of Earth, beating the United States in this milestone of the Cold War’s Space Race. The U.S. followed weeks later: Alan Shepard made a suborbital flight on May 5, 1961, and John Glenn became the first American to orbit on February 20, 1962.

Context helps: the Soviet Union had already shocked the world with Sputnik in 1957, spurring intense U.S.–USSR competition that accelerated space technology and eventually led to the American Moon landing in 1969. Memory tip: “Gagarin goes around” (first orbit), “Shepard shoots straight up” (suborbital), and “Glenn goes around later” (first U.S. orbit).