Yuri A. born ninth of March 1934 and the twelfth in April 1961 at the age of twenty-seven Gagarin first flew in space.He made the ship "Vostok-1" flying around the Earth for the first time and saw our planet from space.What was the way the astronaut before, when Gagarin flew into space, how his life after the flight - this is the next article.
biography
ordinary boy grew up in an ordinary Soviet family in the village Klushino Gzhatsk district.His father - a carpenter, and his mother worked on a dairy farm.
Cloudless childhood war broke.About two years the village was occupied by Nazi troops.But in 1943 the village was released and began to learn a little Jura.After the war, the family moved to Gzhatsk, later renamed Gagarin.
Jura finished first seven classes, and by 1951 - a vocational school with a specialty molder-caster.In the same year he entered the Industrial College of Saratov, and in 1954, first came to the Aero Club, where he made a hundred and ninety six flights, the incident almost forty-two and a half hours in the air.Within seven years, Yuri Gagarin flew in space, but then how could he even think about it?
In 1955, the young man was called up to the First Military Pilot School named Voroshilov.After graduating with honors, he served two years near Murmansk in fighter aviation regiment of the division of the Northern Fleet, the incident two hundred sixty-five hours.
Choice astronaut
In 1959, the CC of the CPSU the decision was made to select astronauts in flight.The group of experts adopted the twenty candidates, among them Yuri Gagarin.With them and started training.
All candidates were completely healthy.They were physically and professionally trained, disciplined fighter jet pilots.The growth was in all about a hundred and seventy centimeters, age - from twenty-five to thirty years, weight - from seventy to seventy-two kilograms.
Of the twenty three candidates stood out soon: Yuri Gagarin, Grigory Nelyubov and German Titov.
In 1961 (the year in which Gagarin flew in space) when selecting the first cosmonaut, in a hurry, as were information that the Americans are also getting ready for the flight and had planned it on April 20.Therefore, the Soviet Union planned to make a start from eleventh on April 17.
eighth day of April a meeting of the special committee, during which approved the first task on the space flight and chose the candidacy of Yuri Gagarin.Gherman Titov was appointed reserve.
«Vostok-1" - Flight
Gagarin flew into space April 12, 1961, when at 9:07 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch was made "Vostok-1".After the command "Ready!" Said Yuri A. famous "Let's go!" And the ship screamed skyward.
Gagarin spent in space, just one hundred and eight minutes.In orbit, he ate and drank, and took notes.All observations and feelings he recorded on tape.Then it was not known how the human mind to behave in space.Therefore, to enable manual control of the ship Gagarin was necessary to open the envelope, and enter the code on the control panel to unlock.
At the end of the flight, before entering the atmosphere, the ship tumbled for ten minutes, as the brake motor system gleaning the necessary impulses.Cosmonaut, not to scare the queen, he said only some of the abnormal situation.In the atmosphere, finally there was a division of compartments.The descent is done with eight, even tenfold overload.But Gagarin was ready for it.He saw the melted liquid metal on the glass windows and heard the crackling of the cabin - the temperature thus reached five thousand degrees.
Seven kilometers from the earth, he ejected.He landed in the planned area is not - in a hundred and ten kilometers from Stalingrad, and in the Saratov region.
Meeting in Moscow
initially met astronaut with honors not planned.However, Khrushchev demanded in Moscow to prepare a fitting welcome, and insisted that Gagarin was given the rank of Major.
first astronaut flew to Moscow for IL-18, and in the capital he was joined by an escort of seven fighters.Flying over the city center, it landed at Vnukovo airport, where waiting jubilant people, journalists, and the Soviet leadership.Gagarin was on the plane on the bright red carpet, walked up to the podium and Khrushchev has reported on the implementation of tasks of the Party and the Soviet government.
Then he greeted everyone passing on the "ZIL-111B."Celebrations continued in the Kremlin, where Gagarin became the hero of the Soviet Union and received the Order of Lenin.Boys born on that day, many mothers named Yuriyami.
Foreign trips and awards
not only in our country but all over the world wanted to see the first cosmonaut since Yuri Gagarin flew into space.A year, two, three, he went to the "peace mission" abroad.In Czechoslovakia, it awarded the title "Hero of Socialist Labor of Czechoslovakia" in Bulgaria - was elected an honorary citizen of the cities of Sofia and Plovdiv, in England - made honorary founders, was awarded the medal of the gold of the cosmos, and he met personally with the Prime Minister and the Queen Elizabeth II.
In addition to these countries, he visited Finland, Cuba, Canada, Brazil, India, Afghanistan, Hungary, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), the United Arab Republic (Egypt), France and others.In all, he has visited nearly thirty countries where it waited for a very warm welcome and a variety of awards.
After flying
As a result of constant travel and feasts Yuri A. stopped doing regular sports and scored almost nine overweight.Nevertheless, since 1961, when Gagarin flew into space, he was in the Air Force Engineering Academy named after Zhukovsky and in 1968 he defended his diploma.
Studies, as well as social activities did not leave time for summer practice.He was a deputy of the Supreme Council, member of the Komsomol, head of Cosmonautics "Red Star", the president of the Soviet-Cuban Friendship Society, a member of the "Finland-USSR" and honorary member of the Academy of Astronautics.
In 1966, he started training under the program "Soyuz".He was appointed understudy Komarova (for which the flight ended tragically as a result).
in late 1967 for the first time after when Gagarin flew into space, he took off again, but landed wrong.Because of this, the leadership was worried about how not to lose the hero.Gagarin could not fly a fighter plane on their own, but got directions to restore skills.
death of Gagarin
catastrophe that killed an astronaut, there was a twenty-seventh of March 1968, when carried out a training flight with an experienced instructor VS Seregin.
specially created State Commission produced a report on the causes of the collapse of the twenty-nine volumes, which is classified.Only in 2013, the documents were made available to the public.It turned out that in the area of the flight was unauthorized pilots another aircraft, the Su-15.After ten to fifteen meters, he drove the airplane Gagarin and Seregin into a spiral from which they did not have time to get out.
Life
widow of Yuri has always been closed to the press.Interview later gave the daughter, Galina, in which she said that her mother suffered great grief, to talk about that was not possible.
When Valentine (the name of Gagarin's wife) first saw Yura, she did not particularly like.But his confidence gradually won, and in 1958 she came to him in the North, where he finished flight school.In 1960, when they were one year old daughter, the family moved to Moscow.
After Yuri Gagarin flew into space, Valentina saw her husband only on the Red Square, and alone they were able to stay a few days later.The couple never quarreled in front of children, and when one of them brought up, the other did not intervene.
day begins with gymnastics when Yuri raised all, down the stairs, calling in all the apartments.Charging lasted forty minutes.Valentine, however, was not involved, because it was busy with other concerns.
In Soviet times, probably, was not a man who would not know in what year Gagarin flew into space.However, the younger generation does not want to remember much.I wonder whether there are people today who do not know when Yuri Gagarin flew into space and a lot of them?
