On April 12, 1961, the Soviet Union astonished the world by sending its first man into space - 27-year-old Yuri Gagarin. It was also a spectacular victory in the Cold War race between the US and the USSR.
On this day at 9:22 American radars in the Aleutian Islands tracked radio signals emitted by a Soviet spacecraft. Five minutes later, the encrypted message that the Soviets had sent a man into orbit reached the Pentagon. This man on board the Vostok-1 spacecraft was senior lieutenant and pilot Yuri Gagarin, who took off from the Baikonur cosmodrome at 09:06, circled our planet, spent 108 minutes in orbit and landed.
A simple Soviet boy
The future cosmonaut was born on March 9, 1934 in the Smolensk region, in a family of kolkhozniks. His father was a carpenter and his mother worked on a farm. Yuri had two older brothers and a sister. The Gagarin family spent the Great Patriotic War in the territories occupied by the Germans. After the end of hostilities, they all moved to the city of Gżatsk, which was renamed Gagarin after Yuri's flight.
On April 12, 1961, the Soviet Union amazed the world by sending its first man into space - 27-year-old Yuri Gagarin.
In 1949, 15-year-old Jura entered a vocational school while attending evening school. He dreamed of flying, so he entered the Orenburg flight school, which he graduated in 1957 . He started his service in the Murmansk region. His MiG-15 flights took place in difficult conditions, because the far north was characterized by mountainous landscapes, polar nights and frequent snowstorms.
He dreamed of flying, so he entered the Orenburg aviation school and graduated in 1957.
Gagarin was greatly influenced by the launch of the Sputnik in October 1957 and the arrival of the Soviet ship Luna-2 on the moon in September 1959. Then Yuri said to his wife Valentina:“You have to start living differently, anew. There is so much going on and I think I avoid doing the most important things. At night, he wrote a report to his command:“Due to the development of space research (...) there may be a need for candidates for space flights. Please take into account my ardent desire to participate in these preparations ”.
Preparations for flight
Yuri did not suspect that his candidacy was already being taken into account by those responsible for the selection of future cosmonauts, because the entire procedure was top secret. The space program manager and designer of the Vostok-1 ship, Sergei Korolev, decided that fighter pilots would be the most appropriate candidates, because their profession required mastery, quick decisions and enduring enormous overloads during flights. Doctors also agreed with this choice as the pilots were in excellent health.
The authorities sent an order to the commanders of individual military garrisons to select the most promising fighter pilots. Then the doctors came to the military units to review the medical records of 3,500 selected military personnel. In the first stage, 2,800 candidates were rejected. For the second - talks - over 700 pilots. 300 of them dropped out because it took a few days to think if they really wanted to participate in the space project.
Yuri said to his wife Valentina:“You have to start living differently, in a new way. There is so much going on, and I think I avoid doing the most important things. ”
400 officers who underwent a 40-day examination at the Central Aviation Hospital reached the "final". The candidates were examined by doctors of all specialties - the military were tested in an overload centrifuge and a barocamera. The pilots were also watched by psychologists. They delivered the following verdict on Gagarin:
In team games, he takes on the role of captain and leader, and is willing to win (...). Favorite word is to work (…). Military exercises are a pleasure for him (…). Honest, open, courteous, considerate, tidy, punctual. He has a high intellectual level and (...) great memory. (...) Consistent. He doesn't hesitate to defend his point of view if he sees it right .
Gagarin successfully passed all tests and in January 1960 was among the group of 20 pilots preparing for a flight into space.
At the same time, the Cosmonaut Preparation Center, which still exists today, was established. There, the pilots underwent further tests. They had to train in a spacecraft model, endure high overload and long stay in isolation. During the year 14 candidates dropped out.
In January 1961, the remaining six took an exam before the state commission, which consisted of being in a spaceship simulator. During the flight, the men had to, among others, pilot the rocket in normal flight mode, react quickly to emergency situations, report to the command and describe the conditions inside and outside . Based on the tests, it was decided that Gagarin would be the first to fly into space. Why? As the military doctor Nikolai Gurowski recalled, this choice was influenced by the fact that Yuri had a better sense of observation.
Triumph and tragedy
The rocket was scheduled to launch on April 12 because, as reported by Soviet intelligence, the Americans intended to launch their ship on April 20. Two days before the flight, Gagarin and Korolev arrived at the Baikonur spaceport.
On April 12, after the cosmonaut had already put on the suit, one of the engineers noted that in Yuri's outfit did not indicate his nationality (and yet he could have landed abroad!). Then someone present brought a bucket of red paint and wrote on Gagarin's helmet "CCCP" (USSR).
An ovation greeting of Yuri Gagarin by the residents of Warsaw
The flight of the Vostok-1 ship went smoothly. Yuri landed as planned. Not only Soviet citizens, but the whole world was literally crazy about Gagarin. Actress Gina Lollobrigida, who was visiting Moscow, dreamed of meeting the cosmonaut. Her wish was fulfilled - Soviet newsreels immortalized a beautiful Italian woman kissing Yuri on the cheek.
In two years, the cosmonaut visited over 30 countries, incl. USA, Poland, Cuba, France, Canada and Bulgaria. Crowds of people greeted him everywhere. But Gagarin got tired of his representation duties and went back to his favorite activity - flying.
He died on March 27, 1968 during a training flight. He was only 34 years old. The USSR authorities announced national mourning. Yuri was buried on March 30 in the Kremlin Wall cemetery, where the most distinguished Soviet citizens are buried. The coffin with Gagarin's remains was carried by Leonid Brezhnev, Secretary General of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Several hundred thousand Muscovites gathered on the funeral procession.
Bibliography:
- Wiernicka V., Secrets of the Country of Soviets. Łódź, 2020.
- Первушин А.И. Юрий Гагарин. Первый полет в документах и воспоминаниях. Москва, 2014.
- Гагарин, Юрий Алексеевич, https://tass.ru/encyclopedia/person/gagarin-yuriy-alekseevich.