Yuri Gagarin

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (Russian: Ю́рий Алексе́евич Гага́рин, Jurij Alekseevič Gagarin; March 9, 1934 – March 27, 1968), Hero of the Soviet Union, was a Soviet cosmonaut who in 1961 became the first person in space and the first human to orbit the Earth.

Early life

Yuri Gagarin was born in Klushino near Gzhatsk, a region west of Moscow, Russia, on March 9, 1934. The adjacent town of Gzhatsk was renamed Gagarin in 1968 in his honor. His parents worked on a collective farm.^[1] While manual labourers are described in official reports as "peasants," this may be an oversimplification if applied to his parents – his mother was reportedly a voracious reader, and his father a skilled carpenter. Yuri was the third of four children, and his elder sister helped raise him while his parents worked. Like millions of people in the Soviet Union, the Gagarin family suffered great hardship in World War II. His two elder siblings were "taken away" to Germany, apparently as conscripts, in 1943, and did not return until after the war. His teachers described Gagarin as intelligent and hard-working, if occasionally mischievous. His mathematics/ science teacher flew in the Red Army Air Force during the war, which presumably made some substantial impression on young Gagarin.

After starting an apprenticeship in a metalworks as a foundryman, Gagarin was selected for further training at a high technical school in Saratov. While there, he joined the "AeroClub," and learned to fly a light aircraft, a hobby that would take up an increasing proportion of his time. Through dint of effort, rather than brilliance, he reportedly mastered both; in 1955, after completing his technical schooling, he entered military flight training at the Orenburg Pilot's School. While there he met Valentina Goryacheva, whom he married in 1957, after gaining his pilot's wings in a MiG-15. Post-graduation, he was assigned to Luostari airbase in the Murmansk region, near the Norwegian border, where terrible weather made flying risky. As a full-grown man, Gagarin was 5 feet 2 inches (approx. 157.5 cm) tall, which was an advantage in the small Vostok cockpit. ^[1]

Career in the Soviet space program

Selection and training

In 1960, an extensive search and selection process saw Yuri Gagarin, as one of 20 cosmonauts, selected for the Soviet space program. Along with the other prospective cosmonauts, he had been subjected to a punishing series of experiments designed to test his physical and psychological endurance, as well as training related to the upcoming flight. Out of the 20 selected, the eventual choices for the first launch were Gagarin and Gherman Titov, because of their excellent performance in training, as well as their physical characteristics - space was at a premium in the small Vostok cockpit. Gagarin's last-minute assignment, approved at the highest levels of the CPSU, to take the historic flight, may have been due to Gagarin's modest upbringing and genial, outgoing personality, as opposed to the middle-class and somewhat aloof demeanor of Titov. Soviet officials weighed other factors as well in selecting Yuri: his appearance, his capacity to handle media attention, his Russian heritage and even the name "Gagarin" which was also a family name associated with Tsarist aristocracy.^{[citation needed]}

Space flight

On April 12, 1961, Gagarin became the first human to travel into space in Vostok 3KA-2 (Vostok 1). His call sign in this flight was Kedr(Cedar) (Russian: Кедр).^[2] During his flight, Gagarin famously whistled the tune "The Motherland Hears, The Motherland Knows" (Russian: "Родина слышит, Родина знает").^[3][4] The first two lines of the song are: "The Motherland hears, the Motherland knows/Where her son flies in the sky".^[5] This patriotic song was written by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1951 (opus 86), with words by Yevgeniy Dolmatovsky.

There were speculations in the media, that from orbit Gagarin made the comment, "I don't see any God up here." There are, however, no such words in the full verbatim record of Gagarin's conversations with the Earth during the spaceflight.^[6] In 2006 interview a close friend of Gagarin, colonel Valentin Petrov, told, that Gagarin never said such words, and the phrase originated from Nikita Khrushchev's speech at the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, where the antireligious propaganda was discussed. In a certain context Khrushchev said, "Gagarin flew into space, but didn't see any God there". As Gagarin was a great people's favourite at the time, Khrushchev's words were soon attributed to Gagarin for them to be more effective. ^[7]

While in orbit Gagarin was promoted "in the field" from the lowly rank of Senior Lieutenant to Major - and this was the rank at which TASS announced him in its triumphant statement during the flight.^{[citation needed]}

Safely returned, Nikita Khrushchev rushed to his side and Gagarin issued a statement praising the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as the "organiser of all our victories." Khrushchev saw Gagarin's achievement as a vindication of his policy of strengthening the Soviet Union's missile forces at the expense of conventional arms. This policy antagonized the Soviet military establishment and contributed to Khrushchev's eventual downfall.

After the flight, Gagarin became an instant, worldwide celebrity, touring widely with appearances in Italy, Germany, Canada, and Japan to promote the Soviet achievement.

From 1962 he served as a deputy to the Supreme Soviet, but later returned to "Star City", the cosmonaut facility, where he worked on designs for a reusable spacecraft.

Death and legacy

Gagarin then became deputy training director of Star City. At the same time, he began to requalify as a fighter pilot. On March 27, 1968 he and his instructor died in a MiG-15UTI 'Fagot' on a routine training flight near Kirzhach.^[2] It is uncertain what caused the crash, but a 1986 inquest suggests that the turbulence from a Su-11 'Fishpot-C' interceptor using its afterburners may have caused Gagarin's plane to go out of control. Weather conditions were also poor, which probably contributed to the inability of Gagarin and the instructor to correct before they crashed.

In his book "Two Sides of the Moon"^[8] Alexei Leonov recounts that he was flying a helicopter in the same area on that day when he heard "two loud booms in the distance". Corroborating the above hypothesis, his conclusion is that a Sukhoi jet (which he identifies as a Su-15 'Flagon'), flying below its minimum allowed altitude, "without realizing it because of the terrible weather conditions, passed within 10 or 20 meters of Yuri and Seregin's plane while breaking the sound barrier". The resulting turbulence would have sent the MiG into an uncontrolled spin. Leonov believes the first boom he heard was that of the jet breaking the sound barrier, and the second was Gagarin's plane crashing.

A new theory, advanced by the original crash investigator in 2005, hypothesises that a cabin vent was accidentally left open by the crew or the previous pilot, thus leading to oxygen deprivation and leaving the crew incapable of controlling the aircraft.^[9]

There were two commemorative coins issued in the Soviet Union to commemorate 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), 100 ruble coin (silver).^[10]

Gagarin's name

• Gagarin is also known in Russian history as "the Columbus of the Cosmos."^[11]
• Fédération Aéronautique Internationale has since 1968 been awarding a medal called the "Yuri A. Gagarin Gold Medal".^[12]
• A crater on the far side of the Moon and an asteroid, 1772 Gagarin, are named after the cosmonaut.
• The town of Gzhatsk, adjacent to his birth town of Klushino, was renamed Gagarin in 1968. It is also where his family moved to after World War 2
• A square in Moscow features a large monument erected in his honor.
• Cosmonauts Training Center in Star City bears his name since 1968.^[13]
• There are numerous streets, avenues and squares bearing Gagarin's name in Russian towns and cities.

"Communism opened the way to the stars". A 1961 Czechoslovak poster featuring Gagarin.

Gagarin and Nikita Khrushchev

See also

• Soviet space program
• Space Race
• Yuri's Night is an international celebration held on April 12 every year to commemorate the first human in space and the first space shuttle launch.

References

• Michael D Cole Vostok 1: First Human in Space, Enslow Publishers, Inc. Aldershot, UK, Springfield, New Jersey, 1995. ISBN 0-89490-541-4.
• Doran, Jamie, and Bizony, Piers: Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998 (paperback version, 1999). ISBN 0-7475-4267-8.

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