Yuri Alekseevich was born on March 9, 1934, and on April 12, 1961, at the age of twenty-seven, Gagarin first flew into space. He flew around the Earth on the Vostok-1 ship and saw for the first time our planet from outer space. What was the astronaut's path to before Gagarin flew into space, how his life after the flight turned out - this is the next article.
Biography
An ordinary boy was born and raised in an ordinary Soviet family in the village of Klushino, Gzhatsky district. His father is a carpenter, and his mother worked at a dairy farm.
Cloudless childhood was disrupted by war. For about two years, the village was occupied by fascist troops. But in 1943 the village was liberated, and little Jura began to study. After the war, the family moved to the city of Gzhatsk, later renamed Gagarin.
First, Jura graduated from seven classes, and by 1951 he graduated from a vocational school with a specialty in moulder-foundry. In the same year he entered the industrial college of Saratov, and in 1954 he first came to the flying club, where he subsequently made one hundred and ninety-six flights, flying almost forty-two and a half hours in the air. Seven years later, Yuri Gagarin flew into space, but could he even think about it then?
In 1955, the young man was drafted into the army at the First Military Aviation Pilot School named after K.E. Voroshilov. After graduating with honors, he served two years near Murmansk in the fighter aviation regiment of the Northern Fleet division, flying two hundred and sixty-five hours.
Astronaut's choice
In 1959, by a decision of the CPSU Central Committee , a decision was made to select astronauts in flight. A group of experts approved twenty candidates, among whom was Yu. A. Gagarin. With them, the preparation began.
All candidates were absolutely healthy. These were professionally and physically trained, disciplined fighter jet pilots. The growth of all was no more than one hundred and seventy centimeters, age - from twenty-five to thirty years, weight - from seventy to seventy-two kilograms.
Of the twenty candidates, three soon stood out: Yuri Gagarin, Grigory Nelyubov and German Titov.
In that 1961 (in which year Gagarin flew into space), when they selected the first astronaut, they were in a hurry, because there was information that the Americans were also preparing for the flight and planned it on April 20th. Therefore, in the USSR, the start was planned to be made from the eleventh to the seventeenth of April.
On April 8, a meeting of a special commission was held, during which they approved the first mission for a space flight and chose the candidature of Yuri Gagarin. German Titov was appointed as a substitute.
Vostok-1 - Flight
Gagarin flew into space April 12, 1961, when at 9:07 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome the Vostok-1 launch was completed. After the command “To the start!” Yuri Alekseevich said the famous "Let's go!", And the ship howled up.
Gagarin spent only one hundred and eight minutes in space. In orbit, he ate, drank and made notes. He recorded all the observations and sensations on a tape recorder. Then it was not yet known how the human psyche behaves in outer space. Therefore, to enable manual control of the ship, Gagarin had to open the envelope and enter the code on the control panel to unlock it.
At the end of the flight, before entering the atmosphere, the ship tumbled for ten minutes, as the braking propulsion system did not receive the necessary impulses. The cosmonaut, in order not to frighten the Queen, reported only a certain emergency situation. In the atmosphere, separation of the compartments finally occurred. The descent took place with eight, even tenfold overloads. But Gagarin was ready for this. He saw liquid metal melt on the windows of the windows and heard the crack of the cockpit - the temperature reached five thousand degrees.
Seven kilometers from the ground, he ejected. He landed not in the planned area - one hundred and ten kilometers from Stalingrad, but in the Saratov region.
Meeting in Moscow
Initially, they did not plan to meet the astronaut with honors. However, N. S. Khrushchev demanded to prepare a worthy meeting in Moscow and insisted that Gagarin be awarded the rank of major.
The first astronaut flew to Moscow on an IL-18, and an escort of seven fighters joined him at the capital. Flying over the city center, he landed in Vnukovo, where jubilant people, journalists and the leadership of the USSR were waiting. Gagarin walked from the ramp along the bright red path, went to the podium and reported to Khrushchev about the fulfillment of the assignment of the party and the Soviet government.
After that, he greeted everyone while driving on the ZIL-111V. The celebrations continued in the Kremlin, where Gagarin became the Hero of the Soviet Union and received the Order of Lenin. Many mothers called the boys born that day Yuri.
Foreign trips and awards
Not only in our country, but throughout the world they wanted to see the first astronaut after Gagarin flew into space. For a year, two, three, he traveled abroad with the Mission of Peace. In Czechoslovakia he was awarded the title "Hero of Socialist Labor of Czechoslovakia", in Bulgaria - he was elected an honorary citizen of the cities of Sofia and Plovdiv, in England - he was made an Honorary Foundry, handed a medal from the golden development of space, and he personally met with Prime Minister and Queen Elizabeth II.
In addition to the countries mentioned, he visited Finland, Cuba, Canada, Brazil, India, Afghanistan, Hungary, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), UAR (Egypt), France and others. In total, he visited almost thirty countries, where a very warm welcome and many different awards awaited him.
After the flight
As a result of constant trips and feasts, Yuri stopped playing sports regularly and gained almost nine extra pounds. Nevertheless, since 1961, when Gagarin flew into space, he studied at the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy and in 1968 he defended his diploma.
Studies, as well as social activities did not leave time for flight practice. He was a deputy of the Supreme Council, a member of the Komsomol Central Committee, the head of the Krasnaya Zvezda cosmonautics department, the president of the Soviet-Cuban friendship, a member of Finland-USSR and an honorary member of the astronautics academy.
In 1966, he began training under the Soyuz program. He was appointed an understudy Komarov (for whom the flight ended in a tragic end).
At the end of 1967, for the first time after Gagarin flew into space, he again took off, but landed incorrectly. Because of this, management began to worry about not losing the hero. Gagarin could not fly a fighter on his own, but he got directions to restore qualifications.
The death of Gagarin
The catastrophe in which the astronaut died, happened on March 27, 1968, when a training flight was carried out with an experienced instructor V. S. Seregin.
A specially created State Commission compiled a report on the causes of the crash in twenty-nine volumes, which was classified. Only in 2013, documents became available to the public. It turned out that another plane, the Su-15, was unauthorized in the pilots' flight zone. Passing ten to fifteen meters, he drove the plane of Seregin and Gagarin into a spiral, from which they did not have time to get out.
Personal life
The widow of Yuri Alekseevich has always been closed to the press. An interview was later given by daughter Galina, in which she said that her mother experienced great sorrow, which was impossible to talk about.
When Valentina (that was the name of Gagarin's wife) first saw Yura, she did not particularly like him. But his self-confidence gradually won, and in 1958 the girl came to him to the North, where he graduated from the flight school. In 1960, when they had a one-year-old daughter, the family moved to Moscow.
After Yuri Gagarin flew into space, Valentina saw her husband only on Red Square, and they managed to stay alone in a few days. Spouses never quarreled in front of the children, and when one of them raised, the other did not intervene.
The day began with gymnastics, when Yuri lifted everyone, descended the stairs, ringing all the apartments. Charging lasted forty minutes. Valentina, however, was not engaged, as she was busy with other worries.
In Soviet times, there was probably no person who did not know in which year Gagarin flew into space. However, the younger generation does not want to remember much. I wonder if there are people today who do not know when Gagarin flew into space and how many are there?