Breakthroughs
When Yuri Gagarin went into space, he was the first one, so obviously he must have had some breakthroughs. The obvious one being, the barrier of the skies. But, the rocket he went on was also revolutionary in its technology and design. It also showcased the Soviet's intuitiveness. Here are a few of those breakthough that made the difference between the other flights into space.
Yuri Gagarin's rocket model and design was actually quite different than other rockets to help make a successful flight. "Unlike later Russian space vehicles, such as the modern Soyuz capsule , Vostok 1 was not outfitted with thrusters to help slow it down as it headed back toward Earth, so Gagarin had to eject before reaching ground, at an altitude of around four miles." (Schupak) As said, the rocket had some different technology. Every other rocket at the time was thinking about landing the capsule, which wasnt reasonable with their tech. So, the Soviets came up with jumping out, which was intuitive (at the time) On the other end, the rocket's design change was made into more of a cannonball shape for maximum velocity. These two things resulted in sucess not only between other soviet rockets, but between other rockets from other nations, primarily the US.