Yuri Gagarin

Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin (Russian: Юрий Алексеевич Гагарин, Klushino, March 9, 1934 - Kirzhach, Vladimir Oblast, Soviet Union, March 27, 1968) was a Soviet Air Force pilot and Soviet cosmonaut. He became the first man to travel in space on April 12, 1961, when he made one orbit around the Earth in the Vostok-1 spacecraft for 108 minutes; with this, the USSR took a big step forward in the Space Race. Immediately after the flight, Gagarin became an international star. He traveled all over the world and was awarded many awards and medals, including the honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union - the country's highest award.

He was born in the village of Klušino, near the town of Gžat, which was later renamed "Gagarin" in his honor. In his youth, he worked as a caster in a steel plant in the town of Ljuberca, and later he enlisted in the Soviet Air Force and served at an air base close to the Norwegian border, in the Murmansk region. He was later selected as the first cosmonaut class of the Soviet space program, along with five other pilots.

Vostok-1 remained Gagarin's only flight into space. He was a backup for the Soyuz-1 flight, during which cosmonaut (and his close friend) Vladimir Komarov was killed. The leadership of the USSR permanently banned Gagarin from flying into space, fearing for his safety.

He died during a routine flight with his flight instructor in a two-seater MiG-15 at the end of March 1968, at the age of 34.

## **BIOGRAPHY**

### Youth

Yuri Gagarin was born in the village of Klushino near Gzhat (today in the Smolensk region, Russia) on March 9, 1934. His parents, father Alexey Ivanovich Gagarin and mother Anna Timofeevna Gagarina, worked on a collective farm. Yuri was the third of four children, and his older sister Zoya taught him while his parents worked. When he was young, Yuri was interested in space and planets and fantasized about space travel.

By the end of 1942, the village was occupied by the Nazis, and a German officer hanged Yuri's younger brother Boris from a tree and left him to die, but his mother saved him. Boris did not fully recover from it, and a few years later he ended his life by hanging. Gagarin's mother Anna was seriously injured by a German soldier with a scythe, and his father Aleksey was beaten when he tried to sabotage the mill where he worked and was permanently disabled. The whole family was forced out of their home, so they had to dig themselves a primitive shelter to survive. Older brother Valentin and sister Zoya were sent to occupied Poland as a slave force and did not return until the end of the war

From 1949 to 1951, he went to school in Ljuberci near Moscow. His math and science teacher flew in the Soviet Air Force during the war, which may have made a strong impression on Gagarin. After that, he enrolled in a technical school in Saratov. While there, he joined the area aero club and learned to fly the Yak-18, a hobby that took up a lot of his time. After finishing high school, he enrolled in a military pilot school in Orenburg. There he met Valentina Gorjačeva, whom he married in 1957. After graduation, he became a MiG-15 pilot and was assigned to the Luostari military base in the Murmansk region.

As an adult, Gagarin was only 1.57 m tall, which was an advantage in the Vostok's small cockpit. He received the rank of lieutenant on November 5, 1957, and on November 6, 1959, he was promoted to senior lieutenant.

## **Career in the Soviet space program**

### **Selection and training**

Gagarin, after a great search and selection process, was selected in 1960 along with 19 other cosmonauts for the Soviet space program. Along with other potential cosmonauts, Gagarin was subjected to rigorous experiments aimed at testing his physical and psychological endurance. He also underwent intensive training for the upcoming flight. Of the 20 cosmonauts selected, only Gagarin and German Titov made the shortlist due to their excellent performance during training, as well as their physical attributes, as there was not much room in Vastok, and both were short.

The final decision, made at the highest levels of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, may have been made because of Gagarin's humble background and jovial personality, as opposed to Titov, who came from a middle-class background. This would show the Soviet authorities that in their country even an ordinary peasant could hope to fly into space. Sergei Korolev, head of the Soviet space program, also had an influence on the decision to select Gagarin for the Vostok-1 flight. Namely, when the choice was narrowed down to Gagarin and Titov, Korolev took them to see the capsule that was being prepared for flight.

On that occasion, Titov entered first, followed by Gagarin, who took off his shoes and blouse before entering so as not to damage any of the equipment, which left a strong impression on Korolev.

### **Cosmic flight**

On April 12, 1961, Gagarin became the first man to fly into space in Vostok 1. Since there was a high probability that the mission would fail and Gagarin die, three press releases were made, one in case of success and two in case of failure. The controllers on the ground only found out after 25 minutes that it had reached a stable orbit. Vostok 1 was piloted automatically, as the medical staff and spacecraft designers were unsure how a human would react to weightlessness, so the manual controls were locked to prevent Gagarin from piloting the spacecraft himself (a code to unlock the controls was placed in Vostok 1 in case for something unforeseen to happen).

An automatic system set the Vostok 1 into position to engage the return rockets after approximately 1 hour of flight.

The rockets turned on over the west coast of Africa, near Angola, about 8,000 km from the intended landing site, and burned for about 42 seconds. Due to mass limitations, there were no spare rockets. The capsule had 10 days' worth of supplies to allow for life and a natural orbital descent should the rockets fail to perform as planned.

After firing the return rockets, Vastok's equipment module unexpectedly remained tethered to the return capsule by a bundle of wires. The two halves of the spacecraft were supposed to separate 10 seconds after the reentry rockets shut down, but this did not happen even after 10 minutes. The craft was turning sharply before the wires burned out and the module settled into a suitable orientation for entry.

Gagarin jumped with a parachute at a height of 7 km and landed on the ground without any problems.

During the flight, Gagarin was promoted to the rank of major

### **After flight**

After the flight, Gagarin became an instant household name and celebrity around the world and traveled to Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and Japan to promote the Soviet success. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Force on June 12, 1962, and on November 6, 1963, he received the rank of colonel. He became a member of the Supreme Soviet in 1962. He later returned to Star City and worked on the design of a reusable spacecraft. He worked on those projects for 7 years.

## **Death**

Later, Gagarin became the deputy director of training in Star City. At the same time, he tried to retrain as a fighter pilot. On March 27, 1968, Gagarin and his instructor Vladimir Serjegin were killed in a MiG-15UTI on a routine flight near Kirzhach. It is not known what caused the crash, but a 1986 investigation found that turbulence created when the Su-11 interceptor used afterburner ("afterburn") may have caused Gagarin's plane to fly out of control. Weather conditions were also poor, which may have contributed to the inability of Gagarin and the instructor to right themselves before they fell.

In his book "Two Sides of the Moon", Alexei Leonov recounts that he was flying a helicopter in the area on the same day when he heard two loud bangs in the distance. His conclusion is that the Sukhoi aircraft (which he identified as the Sukhoi Su-15) was flying below the minimum permitted altitude, without knowing it due to bad weather conditions, passing within 10 to 20 meters of Yuri and Seryegin's aircraft while breaking the sound barrier . The resulting turbulence caused the MiG to spin uncontrollably. Leonov believes that the first bang he heard was from the plane breaking the sound barrier, and that the second was from the crash of Gagarin's plane.

Gagarin and Seryegin were buried next to each other in the wall of the Kremlin on Red Square.

## **Honors**

### **Bequest**

Apart from his short stature of 1.57 m, one of Gagarin's most noticeable features was his smile. Many have commented on how Gagarin's smile attracted the attention of audiences on the frequent tours he participated in during the months following the successful Vostok 1 mission.

Gagarin also earned a reputation as a capable public figure. When he visited Manchester, United Kingdom, it was pouring rain. However, Gagarin insisted that the convertible roof of the car remain down, so that the mass of fans could see him.

On that occasion, he stated: "If all these people came to greet me and can stand in the rain, so can I." Gagarin rejected the umbrella and continued to stand in his Bentley with the roof down so that the cheering procession could see him.

Sergei Korolev, one of the main organizers during the early years of the Soviet space program, later said that Gagarin possessed a smile "that brightened the Cold War

### **Acknowledgments**

The day of Gagarin's space flight, April 12, is marked as a special date. Since 1962, that day has been celebrated in the Soviet Union and later in Russia and other post-Soviet countries as Cosmonautics Day. Since 2011, the day has been declared by the United Nations as the International Day of Human Space Flight.

Since 2001, Yuri's Night has been held as an international celebration every April 12, to mark a milestone in space exploration.

Numerous buildings and other places on Earth are named after Gagarin. The Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia has been named after him since 1969. The launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, from which Sputnik 1 and Vostok 1 were launched, is now known as "Gagarin's Start". The Gagarin region and the city of Gagarin in Russia are named after him. One of the largest streets in New Belgrade bears his name. The Soviet Aviation Academy was renamed the Gagarin Aviation Academy in 1968.

Gagarin was honored on the moon by American astronauts. He was honored by the US space program during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left a commemorative plaque on the surface of the moon, inscribed with the names of all cosmonauts and astronauts who had lost their lives up to that point, including Gagarin and Vladimir Komarov

In 1971, Apollo 15 astronauts David Scott and James Irwin left a Fallen Astronaut at their landing site as a memorial to all American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts who died during the Space Race, with Yuri Gagarin listed among 14 others. A crater on the far side of the Moon, 265 km in diameter, was officially named after him.