Evening star., 1961-04-15
ASTRONAUT
Continued From First Page

rlOTeIlCe, 1Idly, Ills week CIldG
Maj. Gagarin had seen by "ra-
dio" - presumably meaning
television or some other elec-
tronic scanning device.
(In Italy on Saturday, Bla-
gonravov retracted his state
ment and said he did not
know how Maj. Gagarin
could see the colorful sights
he had described but he
could see."
-(Another question left I'M
answered concerned flight
times given earlier by Tass.
The Soviet news agency said
Maj. Gagarin took only Is
minutes of his 108-minute
flight to travel from Siberia
to South America but So
minutes to travel the next leg
from South America to At
rica)
Maj. Gagarin was asked
when photographs of the trip
would be available. There was
no Photographic apparatus
aboard so none can be pub
lished," he said.
Maj. Gagarin was introduced
at the news conference by
Alexander N. Nesmeyanov,
president of the Soviet Acade-
my of Sciences. Dressed in his
air force uniform and wearing
all his new medals, Mai. Ga
garin Shyly pulled his ear as
the audience applsuded him.
He then sat at a table behind
a battery of microphones.
There was a huge bust of Lenin
on the wall back of him, with
the inevitable potted palm on
either side of it.
The press conference was
broadcast and televised live
throughout the Soviet Union
and over the Eurovision net
work covering Western Europe.
1t was translated into English
sentence by sentence.
TakeOff Described
NeSmeyanov said that as Mai.
Gagarin sat in his cabin and
heard the command for the
rocket engines to start he ex-
claimed: We'll, here we CO."
Once he had passed through
the dense layers of the atmos-
phere and saw the earth's sur
face, Maj. Gagarin reported
back: MY. what a beauty"
The academy president said
the cosmonaut continued to re-
port both on the workings of
the spaceship's equipment and
on his own feelings as he ex-
perienced the effects of ac-
celeration. vibration and noise.
Nesmeyanov stressed that Ga
garin's spaceShip contained sew
eral systems duplicated for
safety. instruments in the
"Vostok" enabled the cosmo-
naut to determine his exact po-
sition in orbit at any given
moment. A two-way radio link
was maintained with Maj. Ga
garin from the start right
through the flight.
Maj. Gagarin slept soundly
the night before, Nesmeyanov
said, and awoke a few hours
before launching. His pulse
beat was TOTS a minute both
before and after the flight
started and he joked with tech
nicians at the site.
Modest Under Praise
The astronaut modestly low
cred his eyes as the dist,n-
guished scientist praised him.
told him his name had already
become legendary, and called
the flight "108 minutes that
shook the world"
DR.. Nesmeyanov threw his
arms around the astronaut and
kissed him towards the end of
his eulogy.
Maj. Gagarin opened his
part of the conference by read
ing a prepared statement.
Later, in answering written
questions from correspondents,
he said that many landing sys-
TENS had been worked out. He
did not say which one he used.
Maj. Gagarin also said that
during the flight his food was
special nourishment prepared
by the Academy of Sciences
and that when he ate it "the
sensation was the same as on
the ground"
Could Have Stayed Up Longer
Asked If he could have stayed
in orbit longer than he did
he was up in outer space /
hour and 48 minutes-he said,
my own experiences prompt
me to believe that a space pilot
could remain in orbit for a
much longer time"
Maj. Gagarin said he weighed
69.5 Kilograms (about 153
pounds) before the flight and
his weight is now about the
same"
Radio contact between his
space ship and the earth was
important, he said, ito receive
commands, and so that I could
feel in contact with my coun-
try, the people and the Com
munist Party"
Reporters handed in written
questions, and the 27-year-old
astronaut read them out with
out identifying the questioner.
There was no chance during
the two-hour-long televised
news conference to ask ques-
tions from the floor.
Got Orders Early
At one point he was asked
when he was told that he would
be the first man into space.
He answered simply, THE
notification was in good time"
He reiterated what he had