Yuri Gagarin (1934 - 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human being to journey into outer space. On 12 April 1961 he completed a single orbit of the Earth aboard the spacecraft Vostok 1, a flight that made him an international celebrity and marked a decisive moment in the Cold War space race. [1] He was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and served afterwards as a public figure and trainer of cosmonauts until his death in an aircraft crash in 1968. [2]
Early life and education
Gagarin was born on 9 March 1934 in the village of Klushino, in the Smolensk region of the Soviet Union, into a farming family. His childhood was disrupted by the German occupation of the area during the Second World War. [1]
He trained first at a technical school in Lyubertsy near Moscow and then at the Saratov Pedagogical College, where he joined a local flying club and made his first flights. This experience led him to enter the Orenburg Military Aviation Piloting High School, from which he graduated as a military pilot. He later studied at the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy. [1]
Selection and the flight of Vostok 1
Gagarin served as a fighter pilot in the Soviet Air Forces before being selected in 1960 for the first group of cosmonaut candidates. Out of a large pool of military pilots, he was chosen for the inaugural crewed mission of the Vostok programme, favoured for his flying record, his composure under testing, and his small stature, which suited the cramped spacecraft. [2]
On 12 April 1961 Vostok 1 lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The flight lasted about 108 minutes and carried Gagarin once around the Earth before his capsule re-entered the atmosphere and he descended by parachute. [1] The mission demonstrated that a human being could survive launch, weightlessness, and re-entry, and it gave the Soviet Union a significant lead in the early space race. [3]
Fame and later career
Gagarin returned to a reception of extraordinary public enthusiasm. He was named a Hero of the Soviet Union and decorated with the Order of Lenin, and received honours from states across the world, among them Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Indonesia. [1] He undertook extensive international tours as an ambassador for Soviet achievement and was elected a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union.
Considered too valuable to risk on a second spaceflight, he took up work as deputy training director at the cosmonaut training centre and served as backup crew for later missions. He continued to press to return to flying status and resumed training in jet aircraft. [2]
Death and legacy
On 27 March 1968 Gagarin died near the village of Novosyolovo when the MiG-15 training aircraft he was flying with instructor Vladimir Seryogin crashed. He was 34 years old. His ashes were interred in the Kremlin Wall in Moscow. [1]
Gagarin remains one of the most widely recognised figures of the twentieth century. The anniversary of his flight is marked internationally as the Day of Human Space Flight, and his name has been given to the cosmonaut training centre near Moscow, to his home town of Gagarin, and to craters and monuments around the world. [4]
