Yuri Gagarin - First Man in Space

 

On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first man to travel into space and the first man to orbit the earth. Blasting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome (present day Kazakhstan), the 27 year old cosmonaut made his historic voyage into space aboard Vostok 1 spacecraft.

 

Reaching an orbital speed of 27,400 kilometers per hour, and an altitude up to 327 kilometers above the earth, the space flight lasted 108 minutes (enough time to orbit the earth once). Upon reentry into earth's atmosphere, Gagarin ejected from the Vostok 1 space capsule (at approximately 7000 meters above sea level) and landed safely by parachute.

 

While the first to see Gagarin return to the planet were purportedly an old woman, her granddaughter, and a cow, it didn't take long for news of his successful mission to spread. Honored in his homeland with the title Hero of the Soviet Union, Yuri Gagarin also became a name celebrated and immortalized around the world, a world he affectionately observed on his historic space flight.

 

"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 turquoise, dark blue, violet, and finally coal black."

 

Unfortunately the historic 1961 space flight was Yuri Gagarin's first and only mission into space. The celebrated Soviet cosmonaut was killed on March 27, 1968 while flying a MiG-15 in a training exercise. At the time of the crash, the 34 year old colonel was in training for a second mission.

Yuri Gagarin Facts   Russian Name: Юрий Алексеевич Гагарин Date of Birth: March 9, 1934 Place of Birth: Klushino, Soviet Union village located in Smolensk Oblast, Russia Date of Death: March 27, 1968 Cause of Death: Plane crash during training Rank: Colonel (Polkovnik), Soviet Air Force Professions: Pilot Cosmonaut Space Mission: Vostok 1 (April 12, 1961) Height: 1.57 meters (5ft 2in) selected in part to his small frame which was advantageous in the small Vostok cockpit Honors: given title of Hero of the Soviet Union honored with the burial of his ashes near the Kremlin wall in Moscow Amongst other mementos left on the moon from the Apollo 11 mission, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin purportedly left a Soviet medal commemorating Yuri Gagarin Has a crater on the far side of the moon named in his honor Has a day named in his honor (April 12) Internationally known as Yuri's Night, its a celebration to commemorate space exploration (established 2001) In Russia April 12 its simply known as Cosmonautics Day or День Космонавтки (established 1962)