Gagarin Yury Alekseyevich

Main article: Cosmonautics of Russia and the USSR

Biography

1961: First human flight into space

On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin made the first human flight into space. The flight of the single-seat Vostok-1 spacecraft with a man on board took place on April 12, 1961 from the Baikonur cosmodrome, making a complete revolution around the Earth.

Yuri Gagarin and German Titov go to the launch pad of the Baikonur cosmodrome, April 12, 1961

During the flight, the astronaut conducted basic tests in order to determine the feelings and sensations of a person in extraterrestrial space - eating and water, keeping records, performing simple mathematical calculations, and so on.

Previously, the influence of outer space on humans was known only in theory, according to the descriptions of the researcher Tsiolkovsky, which, in fact, Yu. Gagarin subsequently confirmed.

Even in those conditions, with 8-10 times overloads, tumbling of the ship, burning of the outer skin of the ship and melting of metal, with malfunctions of the spacecraft systems, a person was able to survive and not suffer.

According to the generally accepted version, he flew around the globe in 1 hour and 48 minutes. The space pioneer landed near the village of Smelovka in the Saratov region. However, as it became known from declassified documents later, the historical flight was two minutes shorter. And this is due to a number of dangerous situations that took place before and during the "star journey" of Gagarin. Some technical obstacles that arose during the landing of Gagarin in the descent vehicle are stated in the book-album "Cosmos": "Although the landing was successful, it was not without troubles, which were not reported then, so as not to spoil the overall picture. Only much later it became known that the separation of the ship's compartments was 10 minutes late, during which the instrument compartment literally dragged behind the descent vehicle. And that after the ejection of the ship in Gagarin's spacesuit, the breathing valve was squeezed. Fortunately, these were little things that could not replace the main thing - man broke into space. "

Yuri Gagarin's note, which he wrote after the flight around the Earth

Gagarin with a motorcade goes from the airport right to Red Square. Moscow, April 14, 1961

Since then, we celebrate the day of the first human flight into space as Cosmonautics Day. And in honor of Yuri Gagarin, streets are named in many cities of Russia and abroad.

Yuri Gagarin resting in Sochi, 1961

1962

Yuri Gagarin rests in a brewery Carlsberg. Denmark. September 21, 1962.

Pilot-cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin buys a movie camera in a store. USSR. 1960s. Photo by Alexander Mokletsov.

Yuri Gagarin with his gift from the French - Matra car, USSR 1960s

Yuri Gagarin with his wife and child

1968: Death during a training flight

March 27, 1968 - 18 days after his 34th birthday, Yuri Gagarin visited the sky for the last time. Not far from the village of Novosyolovo in the Vladimir region, he and his instructor Vladimir Seryogin died in a plane crash during a training flight on a MiG-15UTI plane.

1979

Yuri Korolev (1929-1999) - Gagarin Constellation (oil, canvas, 1979)