This April 12 marks 62 years since the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became, in 1961, the first human to travel to space, one of the milestones of the space race.
In commemoration of Gagarin’s 108-minute orbital flyby aboard Vostok 1, which changed the world, World Aviation and Cosmonautics Day is celebrated.
Gagarin was chosen for this feat by the head of the Soviet space program, Sergei Korolev, because of his experience as a jet fighter pilot. Taking into account the characteristics and capabilities of space technology, specific candidates were necessary, absolutely healthy and disciplined professionals, who were around 30 years old, measured no more than 1.70 meters and weighed between 68-70 kilos.
According to RIA Novosti, nine months before the legendary flight, the six best Soviet pilots met with Korolev who showed them the first spacecraft and asked who wanted to see the cockpit, an offer to which Gagarin responded by taking off his shoes and climbing up the hatch.
Gagarin was the ideal candidate who was finally approved to make man’s first flight into space and change world history. Shortly before the trip, Gagarin wrote a letter to his wife, Valentina, about his long-awaited flight. “Can I dream of something else? It’s history, it’s a new era! Within a day my flight takes off. I believe in technique completely. It must not fail. But sometimes it happens that a man falls in the most unexpected place and breaks his neck. Something can happen here too. But I don’t think so. If something happens, I ask you, Valiusha, don’t kill yourself in pain,” the letter said.
The first flight was carried out in automatic mode, it assumed that the cosmonaut was a passenger of a spacecraft. However, at any time, he could take manual control of it.
Soviet psychologists did not know very well how a person subjected to prolonged weightlessness would behave, and they admitted that the cosmonaut could lose control of himself and may want to steer the ship manually, so the numerical code to deactivate the mode automatic was stored in a sealed envelope. Only a conscious person was supposed to be able to read and enter this code. However, before the flight someone revealed it to Gagarin.
The path to the rocket and takeoff
On the cosmonaut’s way to the rocket, people asked for his autographs. Already on the metallic platform next to the entrance of the ship, Gagarin raised both hands saying goodbye to those who remained on Earth.
There began the Soviet adventure in space. The first manned Vostok-1 spacecraft was launched at 09:07 (Moscow time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome (Kazkhstan). The records of the Russian space agency Roscosmos assure that upon hearing the noise of the engines, Gagarín yelled: “Let’s go!”
The spacecraft circled the Earth and landed an hour and 48 minutes later in a town in the Saratov region of southeastern Russia. Radio signals from the Soviet spacecraft were captured by observers at the US Shemya radar station in the Aleutian Islands.
Five minutes later, the Pentagon was sent an encrypted message.
Upon receiving it, the night-shift clerk called the home of Dr. Jerome Wiesner, senior science adviser to President John F.
Kennedy, to inform him that the Russians had overtaken the Americans.
In orbit, Gagarin carried out a few simple experiments: drink, eat, write with a pencil. All his sensations and observations were recorded with an onboard recorder. “Inhabitants of the world, let’s safeguard this beauty, let’s not destroy it,” said the cosmonaut while orbiting the Earth.
The descent
During the descent, Gagarin was subjected to an overload 8-10 times greater than normal, but he was prepared to overcome it. The most difficult part was combating the psychological stress, since the outside temperature during the descent can reach 5,000ºC and the cabin began to crackle.
At an altitude of 7 kilometers, according to the established flight plan, Gagarin catapulted. Yuri was in danger of falling with his parachute into the icy water of the Volga River. But thanks to a good pre-flight training, he was able to perform some maneuvers and landed two kilometers from the river.
The first people to receive the cosmonaut on Earth were the wife of a local ranger, Anna Tajtárova, and her six-year-old granddaughter, Rita.
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