12 April 1961: The First Human in Space

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Yuri Gagarin

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, the smiling cosmonaut, the first man in space. Source: blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (Russian: Ю́рий Алексе́евич Гага́рин[note 1]; IPA: [ˈjʉrʲɪj ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtÉ• ɡɐˈɡarʲɪn]; 9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on 12 April 1961.

Source: en.rian.ru

Early life
Yuri Gagarin was born in the village of Klushino, near Gzhatsk (renamed Gagarin in 1968 after his death), on 9 March 1934.[1] His parents worked on a collective farm[2]: Alexey Ivanovich Gagarin as a carpenter and bricklayer, and Anna Timofeyevna Gagarina as a milkmaid.[note 2][3] Yuri was the third of four children: older brother Valentin, older sister Zoya, and younger brother Boris.[4]

Like millions of people in the Soviet Union, the Gagarin family suffered during Nazi occupation in World War II. Klushino was occupied in November 1941 during the German advance on Moscow, and an officer took over the Gagarin residence. The family was allowed to build a mud hut, approximately 3 by 3 metres (10 by 10 ft) inside, on the land behind their house, where they spent a year and nine months until the end of the occupation.[5] His two older siblings were deported by the Germans to Poland for slave labour in 1943, and did not return until after the war in 1945.[4][6] In 1946, the family moved to Gzhatsk, where Gagarin continued his secondary education.[5]

Source: randomnies.blogspot.com

Career in the Soviet space program
In 1960, after much searching and a selection process, Yuri Gagarin was chosen with 19 other pilots for the Soviet space program. Gagarin was further selected for an elite training group known as the Sochi Six, from which the first cosmonauts of the Vostok programme would be chosen. Gagarin and other prospective candidates were subjected to experiments designed to test physical and psychological endurance; he also underwent training for the upcoming flight. Out of the twenty selected, the eventual choices for the first launch were Gagarin and Gherman Titov due to their performance during training sessions as well as their physical characteristics — space was limited in the small Vostok cockpit, and both men were rather short. Gagarin was 1.57 metres (5 ft 2 in) tall........

Source: englishrussia.com

In August 1960, when Gagarin was one of 20 possible candidates, an Air Force doctor evaluated his personality as follows:

[M]odest; embarrasses when his humor gets a little too racy; high degree of intellectual development evident in Yuriy; fantastic memory; distinguishes himself from his colleagues by his sharp and far-ranging sense of attention to his surroundings; a well-developed imagination; quick reactions; persevering, prepares himself painstakingly for his activities and training exercises, handles celestial mechanics and mathematical formulae with ease as well as excels in higher mathematics; does not feel constrained when he has to defend his point of view if he considers himself right; appears that he understands life better than a lot of his friends.
—Soviet Air Force doctor,

Gagarin kept physically fit throughout his life, and was a keen sportsman. Cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky wrote:

Service in the Air Force made us strong, both physically and morally. All of us cosmonauts took up sports and PT seriously when we served in the Air Force. I know that Yuri Gagarin was fond of ice hockey. He liked to play goal keeper... I don't think I am wrong when I say that sports became a fixture in the life of the cosmonauts.[13]
In addition to being a keen ice hockey player, Gagarin was also a basketball fan, and coached the Saratov Industrial Technical School team, as well as being an umpire/referee.

Source: www.inyourpocket.com/gallery/Yuri-Gagarin-Moscow--_7137.jpg

On 12 April 1961, aboard the Vostok 3KA-3 (Vostok 1), Gagarin became both the first human to travel into space, and the first to orbit the earth. His call sign was Kedr (Cedar, Russian: Кедр).[15]

In his post-flight report, Gagarin recalled his experience of spaceflight, having been the first human in space:

The feeling of weightlessness was somewhat unfamiliar compared with Earth conditions. Here, you feel as if you were hanging in a horizontal position in straps. You feel as if you are suspended.[16]

Following the flight, Gagarin told the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev that during reentry he had whistled the tune "The Motherland Hears, The Motherland Knows" (Russian: "Родина слышит, Родина знает").[17][18] The first two lines of the song are: "The Motherland hears, the Motherland knows/Where her son flies in the sky".[19] This patriotic song was written by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1951 (opus 86), with words by Yevgeniy Dolmatovsky.

Some sources have claimed that Gagarin commented during the flight, "I don't see any God up here." However, no such words appear in the verbatim record of his conversations with Earth-based stations during the spaceflight.[20] In a 2006 interview, Gagarin's friend Colonel Valentin Petrov stated that the cosmonaut never said such words, and that the quote originated from Nikita Khrushchev's speech at the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU about the state's anti-religion campaign, saying "Gagarin flew into space, but didn't see any god there."[21] Petrov also said that Gagarin had been baptised into the Orthodox Church as a child, and a 2011 Foma magazine article quoted the rector of the Orthodox church in Star City saying, "Gagarin baptized his elder daughter Elena shortly before his space flight; and his family used to celebrate Christmas and Easter and keep icons in the house."

Source: spacefeelings.com

Death

On 27 March 1968, while on a routine training flight from Chkalovsky Air Base, he and flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin died in a MiG-15UTI crash near the town of Kirzhach. The bodies of Gagarin and Seryogin were cremated and the ashes were buried in the walls of the Kremlin on Red Square.

Gagarin was survived by his wife Valentina, and daughters Elena and Galina. Elena Yurievna Gagarina, Yuri's elder daughter, is an art historian who has worked as the director-general of the Moscow Kremlin Museums since 2001.[27][28] His younger daughter, Galina Yurievna Gagarina, is department chair and a professor of economics at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics in Moscow.

Legacy

Aside from his short stature at 1.57 metres (5 ft 2 in), one of Gagarin's most notable traits was his smile.[36] Many commented on how Gagarin's smile gained the attention of crowds on the frequent tours he did in the months after the Vostok 1 mission success.[25]

Gagarin also garnered a reputation as an adept public figure. When he visited Manchester in the United Kingdom, it was pouring rain. However, Gagarin insisted that the car hood remain back so that the cheering crowds could catch a glimpse of him. Gagarin stated, "If all these people have turned out to welcome me and can stand in the rain, so can I." Gagarin refused an umbrella and remained standing in his open-top Bentley so that the cheering crowds could still see him.[25]

Sergei Korolev, one of the masterminds behind the early years of the Soviet space program, later said that Gagarin possessed a smile "that lit up the Cold War".

Tributes
Gagarin was also honored by the American space program during Apollo 11 when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left a memorial satchel containing medals commemorating Gagarin and fellow cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov on the surface of the Moon. On 1 August 1971, Apollo 15 astronauts David Scott and James Irwin left the Fallen Astronaut on the surface of the Moon as a memorial to all the American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts that died in the Space Race, with Yuri Gagarin listed among 14 others.

There were two commemorative coins issued in the Soviet Union to honour the 20th and 30th anniversaries of his flight: 1 ruble coin (1981, copper-nickel) and 3 ruble coin (1991, silver). In 2001, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Gagarin's flight, a series of four coins bearing his likeness was issued in Russia: 2 ruble coin (copper-nickel), 3 ruble coin (silver), 10 ruble coin (brass-copper, nickel), and 100 ruble coin (silver).[38] In 2011, Russia issued a 1,000 ruble coin (gold) and 3 ruble coin (silver) to mark the 50th anniversary of his flight.[39]

Source: wiki

 

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Re: The First Human in Space

Vostok 1

Vostok 1: Mission insignia

Vostok 1 (Russian: Восток-1, East 1 or Orient 1) was the first spaceflight in the Vostok program and the first human spaceflight in history. The Vostok 3KA spacecraft was launched on April 12, 1961. The flight took Yuri Gagarin, a cosmonaut from the Soviet Union, into space. The flight marked the first time that a human entered outer space, as well as the first orbital flight of a manned vehicle. Vostok 1 was launched by the Soviet space program, and was designed by Soviet engineers guided by Sergei Korolev under the supervision of Kerim Kerimov and others.

April 11, 1961
On Baikonur cosmodrome on the morning of April 11, 1961, the Vostok-K rocket, together with the attached Vostok 3KA spacecraft, were transported several miles to the launch pad, in a horizontal position. Once they arrived at the launch pad, Sergei Korolev inspected the rocket and spacecraft for problems, and without finding any, the rocket was raised into the upright position.[18] At 10 am (Moscow Time), Gagarin and Titov were given a final review of the flight plan.[18] They were informed that launch was scheduled to occur the following day, at 9:07 am Moscow Time. This time was chosen so that when the spacecraft started to fly over Africa, which was when the retrorockets would need to fire for reentry, the solar illumination would be ideal for the orientation system's sensors.[19]

At 6 pm, once various physiological readings had been taken, the doctors instructed the cosmonauts not to discuss the upcoming missions. That evening Gagarin and Titov relaxed by listening to music, playing pool, and chatting about their childhoods.[14] At 9:50 pm, both men were offered sleeping pills, to ensure a good night's sleep, but they both declined.[20] Physicians had attached sensors to the cosmonauts, to monitor their condition throughout the night, and they believed that both had slept well.[21] Gagarin's biographers Doran and Bizony say that neither Gagarin nor Titov slept that night.[22] Korolev didn't sleep that night, due to anxiety caused by the imminent spaceflight.[19]

Launch of Vostok 1

Launch
06:07 UT Launch occurs from the Baikonur Cosmodrome Site No.1. Korolev radioed, "Preliminary stage..... intermediate..... main..... LIFT OFF! We wish you a good flight. Everything is all right." Gagarin replied, "Поехали! (Here we go!)."[28]
06:09 UT Two minutes into the flight and the four strap-on booster sections of the Vostok rocket have used up the last of their propellant; they shut down and drop away from the core vehicle. (T+ 119 s)
06:10 UT The payload shroud covering Vostok 1 is released. This uncovers the window at Gagarin's feet with the optical orientation device Vzor (lit. "look" or "glance"). (T+ 156 s)
06:12 UT Five minutes into the flight and the Vostok rocket core stage has used up its propellant, shuts down and falls away from the Vostok spacecraft and final rocket stage. The final rocket stage ignites to continue the journey to orbit. (T+ 300 s)
06:13 UT The rocket is still firing, pushing Vostok 1 toward orbit. Gagarin reports, "...the flight is continuing well. I can see the Earth. The visibility is good.... I almost see everything. There's a certain amount of space under cumulus cloud cover. I continue the flight, everything is good."
06:14 UT The rocket continues to fire, starting to pass over central Russia. Gagarin reports, "Everything is working very well. All systems are working. Let's keep going!"
06:15 UT Three minutes into the burn of the final rocket stage and Gagarin reports, "Zarya-1, Zarya-1, I can't hear you very well. I feel fine. I'm in good spirits. I'm continuing the flight..." Vostok 1 is moving further downrange from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. He is reporting back to Zarya-1 (the Baikonur ground station) and must be starting to move out of radio range of that station.

Time in orbit
Ground controllers did not know if a stable orbit had been achieved until 25 minutes after launch.

06:17 UT The Vostok rocket final stage shuts down, ten seconds later the spacecraft separates and Vostok 1 reaches orbit. (T+ 676 s) Gagarin reports, "The craft is operating normally. I can see Earth in the view port of the Vzor. Everything is proceeding as planned". Vostok 1 passes over Soviet Union and moves on over Siberia.
06:21 UT Vostok 1 passes over the Kamchatka peninsula and out over the North Pacific Ocean. Gagarin radios, "...the lights are on on the descent mode monitor. I'm feeling fine, and I'm in good spirits. Cockpit parameters: pressure 1; humidity 65; temperature 20; pressure in the compartment 1; first automatic 155; second automatic 155; pressure in the retro-rocket system 320 atmospheres...."
06:25 UT As Vostok 1 begins its diagonal crossing of the Pacific Ocean from Kamchatka peninsula to the southern tip of South America, Gagarin asks, "What can you tell me about the flight? What can you tell me?". He is requesting information about his orbital parameters. The ground station at Khabarovsk reports back, "There are no instructions from No. 20 (Sergey Korolyov), and the flight is proceeding normally" They are telling Gagarin that they don't have his orbital parameters yet because the spacecraft has been in orbit for only 6 minutes, but the spacecraft systems are performing well.
06:31 UT Gagarin transmits to the Khabarovsk ground station, "I feel splendid, very well, very well, very well. Give me some results on the flight!". Vostok 1 is nearing the VHF radio horizon for Khabarovsk and they respond, "Repeat. I can't hear you very well". Gagarin transmits again, "I feel very good. Give me your data on the flight!" Vostok 1 passes out of VHF range of the Khabarovsk ground station and contact is lost.
06:37 UT Vostok 1 continues on its journey as the Sun sets over the North Pacific. Gagarin crosses into night, northwest of the Hawaiian Islands. Out of VHF range with ground stations, communications must now take place via HF radio.
06:46 UT Khabarovsk ground station sends the message "KK" via telegraph (on HF radio to Vostok 1). This message means, "Report the monitoring of commands." They were asking Gagarin to report when the spacecraft automated descent system had received its instructions from the ground control. Gagarin reported back at 06:48 UT.
06:48 UT Vostok 1 crosses the equator at about 170° West, traveling in a south east direction and begins crossing the South Pacific. Gagarin transmits over HF radio, "I am transmitting the regular report message: 9 hours 48 minutes (Moscow Time), the flight is proceeding successfully. Spusk-1 is operating normally. The mobile index of the descent mode monitor is moving. Pressure in the cockpit is 1; humidity 65; temperature 20; pressure in the compartment 1.2 ... Manual 150; First automatic 155; second automatic 155; retro rocket system tanks 320 atmospheres. I feel fine...."
06:49 UT Gagarin reports he is on the night side of the Earth.
06:51 UT Gagarin reports the sun-seeking attitude control system has been switched on. The sun-seeking attitude control system is used to orient Vostok 1 for retrofire. The automated orientation system consisted of two redundant systems: an automatic/solar orientation system and a manual/visual orientation system. Either system could operate the two redundant cold nitrogen gas thruster systems, each with 10 kg (22 lb) of gas.
06:53 UT The Khabarovsk ground station sends Gagarin the following message via HF radio, "By order of No.33 (General Nikolai Kamanin) the transmitters have been switched on, and we are transmitting this: the flight is proceeding as planned and the orbit is as calculated." They tell Gagarin that Vostok 1 is in a stable orbit. He acknowledges the message.
06:57 UT Vostok 1 is over the South Pacific between New Zealand and Chile when Gagarin sends this message, "...I'm continuing the flight, and I'm over America. I transmitted the telegraph signal "ON".
07:00 UT Vostok 1 crosses the Strait of Magellan at the tip of South America. News of the Vostok 1 mission is broadcast on Radio Moscow.[29]
07:04 UT Gagarin sends spacecraft status message, similar to the one sent at 06:48. The message is not received by ground stations.
07:09 UT Gagarin sends spacecraft status message, the message is not received by ground stations.
07:10 UT Passing over the South Atlantic, the Sun rises and Vostok 1 is in daylight again. Vostok 1 is 15 minutes from retrofire.
07:13 UT Gagarin sends spacecraft status message, similar to the one sent at 06:48. Moscow picks up this partial message from Gagarin, "I read you well. The flight is going...."
07:18 UT Gagarin sends spacecraft status message, the message is not received by ground stations.
07:23 UT Gagarin sends spacecraft status message, the message is not received by ground stations.
The automatic system brought Vostok 1 into alignment for retrofire about 1-hour into the flight.

Path of Gagarin's complete orbit; the landing point is west of the takeoff point because of the eastward rotation of the Earth.

The Vostok 1 capsule on display at the RKK Energiya museum

Reentry and landing
At 07:25 UT, the spacecraft's automatic systems brought it into the required attitude (orientation) for the reentry engine firing, and shortly afterwards, the engine firing occurred, also known as retrofire. This took place over the west coast of Africa, near Angola, about 8,000 km (5,000 mi) from the desired landing point. The liquid-fueled retrorockets fired for about 42 seconds.

Ten seconds after retrofire, commands were sent to separate the Vostok service module from the reentry module (sharik), but the Vostok equipment module unexpectedly remained attached to the reentry module by a bundle of wires. At around 07:35 UT, the two halves of the spacecraft begin reentry and went through strong gyrations as Vostok 1 neared Egypt. At this point the wires broke, the two modules separated, and the descent module settled into the proper reentry attitude. Gagarin telegraphed "Everything is OK" despite continuing gyrations; he later reported that he did not want to "make noise" as he had (correctly) reasoned that the gyrations did not endanger the mission (and were apparently caused by the spherical shape of the reentry module).

As Gagarin continued his descent, he experienced about 8 g (Gagarin's own report states "over 10 g") during reentry but remained conscious.

In case of reentry engine malfunction, the spacecraft was designed to descend within 10 days due to orbital decay. However, the actual orbit differed from the planned and would not have allowed descent until 20 days postlaunch while the life support system was designed to function for only 10 days.[30]

At 07:55 UT, when Vostok 1 was still 7 km from the ground, the hatch of the spacecraft was released, and two seconds later Gagarin was ejected. At 2.5 km (8,200 ft) altitude, the main parachute was deployed from the Vostok spacecraft. Two schoolgirls witnessed the Vostok landing and described the scene: "It was a huge ball, about two or three metres high. It fell, then it bounced and then it fell again. There was a huge hole where it hit the first time."

Gagarin's parachute opened almost right away, and about ten minutes later, at 08:05 UT, Gagarin landed. Both he and the spacecraft landed via parachute 26 km (16 mi) south west of Engels, in the Saratov region at 51.270682°N 45.99727°E. It was 280 km to the west of the planned landing site (near Baikonur).[30]

A farmer and her daughter observed the strange scene of a figure in a bright orange suit with a large white helmet landing near them by parachute. Gagarin later recalled, "When they saw me in my space suit and the parachute dragging alongside as I walked, they started to back away in fear. I told them, don't be afraid, I am a Soviet citizen like you, who has descended from space and I must find a telephone to call Moscow!"

Source: wiki

 

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More Pics

First man in space Yuri Gagarin and backup cosmonaut German Titov on their way to the Baikonur Space Center.

Gagarin bids farewell to friends before the historic space journey that opened a new chapter in history - making him the first man in space on April 12, 1961.

A still from the documentary "First Flight to Stars" showing Gagarin aboard the Vostok 1 spaceship that made the historic leap into orbit.

Fireworks on Cosmonautics Day at Gagarin Square in Moscow.

Source: rt.com

 

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Re: The First Human in Space

Salute to the first man in Space and the Vostok 1 mission.

Trivia: Vostok (meaning 'East') was also the name of the lead ship of the expedition, led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen of the Imperial Russian Navy, which discovered the continent of Antartica.

 

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Today is the birth anniversary of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in outer-space. Born 1934-03-09.

Yury Gagarin's International Fame - YouTube

After his historic flight on April 12, 1961, Gagarin became a worldwide celebrity. He visited Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Brazil, Japan, Egypt and Finland to promote the Soviet Union's space breakthrough and was greeted everywhere by cheering crowds.

 

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Gagarin Quotes

I am a friend, comrades, a friend!

First words upon returning to earth, to a woman and a girl near where his capsule landed (12 April 1961) The woman asked: "Can it be that you have come from outer space?" to which Gagarin replied: "As a matter of fact, I have!"
Later recollection: "When they saw me in my space suit and the parachute dragging alongside as I walked, they started to back away in fear. I told them, don't be afraid, I am a Soviet like you, who has descended from space and I must find a telephone to call Moscow!"

If all those people are getting wet to welcome me, surely the least I can do is get wet too!

Asking for the roof of his car to be put back despite the pouring rain, during his visit to Manchester (12 July 1961), as quoted in "Yuri Gagarin: Mankind's first giant leap" in The Economist (3 August 2011)

What beauty. I saw clouds and their light shadows on the distant dear earth.... The water looked like darkish, slightly gleaming spots.... When I watched the horizon, I saw the abrupt, contrasting transition from the earth's light-colored surface to the absolutely black sky. I enjoyed the rich color spectrum of the earth. It is surrounded by a light blue aureole that gradually darkens, becoming turquiose, dark blue, violet, and finally coal black.

Orbiting Earth in the spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it!

Gagarin about the beauty of the Earth.