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Yuri Gagarin

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"Gagarin" redirects here. For other uses, see Gagarin (disambiguation).
This article is about the Russian cosmonaut. For the Swedish rock band, see Yuri Gagarin (band).
This name uses Eastern Slavic naming customs; the patronymic is Alekseyevich and the family name is Gagarin.
Yuri Gagarin
Yuri-Gagarin-1961-Helsinki-crop.jpg
Gagarin in Helsinki, 1961
Native name
Ю́рий Алексе́евич Гага́рин
Born
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin

(1934-03-09)9 March 1934
Klushino, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Died27 March 1968(1968-03-27) (aged 34)
Novosyolovo, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Resting placeKremlin Wall Necropolis
NationalitySoviet
OccupationPilot
AwardsHero of the Soviet Union
Order of Lenin
Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR
Space career
Gagarin Signature.svg
Soviet cosmonaut
RankCCCP air-force Rank polkovnik infobox.svg Colonel (Polkovnik), Soviet Air Forces
Time in space
1 hour, 48 minutes
SelectionSoviet Air Force Group 1
MissionsVostok 1

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin [1] (Russian: Ю́рий Алексе́евич Гага́рин, IPA: [ˈjʉrʲɪj ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ ɡɐˈɡarʲɪn]; 9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet Air Forces pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space, achieving a major milestone in the Space Race; his capsule Vostok 1 completed one orbit of Earth on 12 April 1961. Gagarin became an international celebrity and was awarded many medals and titles, including Hero of the Soviet Union, his nation's highest honour.

Vostok 1 was Gagarin's only spaceflight but he served as the backup crew to the Soyuz 1 mission, which ended in a fatal crash. He later served as the deputy training director of the Cosmonaut Training Centre , which was subsequently named after him. Gagarin died in 1968 when the MiG-15 training jet he was piloting crashed. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale awards the Yuri A. Gagarin Gold Medal in his honour.

Early life and education

Yuri Gagarin was born 9 March 1934 in the village of Klushino,[2] near Gzhatsk (renamed Gagarin in 1968 after his death).[3] His parents worked on a collective farm:[4] Alexey Ivanovich Gagarin as a carpenter and bricklayer, and Anna Timofeyevna Gagarina as a milkmaid.[5][6] Yuri was the third of four children: his siblings were brothers Valentin (1924) and Boris (1936), and sister Zoya (1927).[7][8]

Like millions of Soviet Union citizens, the Gagarin family suffered during the Nazi occupation of Russia during 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 were 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 twenty-one months until the end of the occupation.[9] 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.[7][10] In 1946, the family moved to Gzhatsk, where Gagarin continued his secondary education.[9]

In 1950, aged 16, Gagarin began an apprenticeship as a foundryman at the Lyubertsy steel plant near Moscow,[7][10] and enrolled at a local "young workers" school for seventh-grade evening classes.[11] After graduating in 1951 from both the seventh grade and the vocational school with honours in mouldmaking and foundry work,[11] he was selected for further training at the Saratov Industrial Technical School, where he studied tractors.[7][10][12] While in Saratov, Gagarin volunteered at a local flying club for weekend training as a Soviet air cadet, where he learnt to fly—at first in a biplane and later in a Yak-18 trainer.[10][12] He earned extra money as a part-time dock labourer on the Volga River.[9]

Soviet Air Force service

Gagarin applied to attend the First Chkalov Air Force Pilot's School in Orenburg and was accepted as a cadet. He began his military training by flying Yak-18s. Gagarin was promoted to cadet-sergeant on 22 February 1956.[13] Before he was permitted to fly a single-seat aircraft, he was required to demonstrate his proficiency to a flight instructor. In one training incident, Gagarin was flying with an instructor. His takeoff and flight were acceptable but while landing the instructor realized Gagarin was descending too quickly and took over the controls. An identical incident occurred in another training flight two weeks later; this was grounds for Gagarin's dismissal from the flight school. The commander of the regiment saw Gagarin performing fitness training alone in rain and decided to give Gagarin another chance at landing. The instructor gave Gagarin a cushion to sit on, which improved his view from the cockpit. While the landing was still rough, it was within acceptable limits and Gagarin was permitted to fly solo.[14] He flew solo in a MiG-15 in 1957.[7][10][11]

On 5 November 1957, Gagarin became a lieutenant in the Soviet Air Forces after he accumulated 166 hours and 47 minutes of flight time.[15] He graduated the next day,[15] after which he was assigned to the Luostari airbase close to the Norwegian border in Murmansk Oblast, where inclement weather made flying risky. His assignment there was for two years; three months into which, he became a military pilot, third class.[15] On 6 November 1959, Gagarin received the rank of senior lieutenant.[16]

Soviet space program

Selection and training

See also: Vostok programme
A contemporary newsreel depicting Yuri Gagarin arriving at Moscow airport after his historic flight in 1961, greeted by Nikita Khrushchev.

In 1960, after an extensive search and selection process, Gagarin and 19 other pilots were chosen for 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 that were designed to test physical and psychological endurance; he also underwent training for the upcoming flight. Gagarin experienced microgravity with the use of a drop tower, which allowed users to experience 2–3 seconds of weightlessness.[17] The final choices for the first launch were Gagarin and Gherman Titov due to their performances during training sessions and their physical characteristics—space inside the small Vostok cockpit was limited and both men were short; Gagarin was 1.57 metres (5 ft 2 in) tall.[4]

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

Modest; 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.[18]

Gagarin was a candidate favoured by his peers. When the 20 candidates were asked to vote anonymously for a candidate besides themselves they would like to be the first to fly, all but three chose Gagarin.[19] One of these candidates, Yevgeny Khrunov, believed that Gagarin was very focused and was demanding of himself and others when necessary.[20] 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.[21]

In addition to being a keen ice hockey player, Gagarin was a basketball fan and coached the Saratov Industrial Technical School team, as well as being a referee.[22] Several of the candidates selected for the program did not have a post-secondary degree and were enrolled into a correspondence course program at Zhukovskiy Higher Education Academy. Gagarin enrolled in the program in September 1960 and did not earn his diploma until early 1968.[23]

Vostok 1

Main article: Vostok 1

On 12 April 1961, 6:07 am UTC, the Vostok 3KA-3 (Vostok 1) spacecraft with Gagarin aboard was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome. The five first-stage engines fired until the first separation event, when the four side-boosters fell away, leaving the core engine. The core stage then separated while the rocket was in a suborbital trajectory, and the upper stage carried it to orbit. Once the upper stage finished firing, it separated from the spacecraft, which orbited for 108 minutes before returning to Earth in Kazakhstan.[24]:219 During descent, Gagarin ejected from the capsule as planned and parachuted to the ground.[17] He became both the first human to travel into space and the first to orbit the Earth. His call sign was Kedr (Russian: Кедр, Siberian pine or Cedar).[25]

The radio communication between the launch control room and Gagarin included the following dialogue at the moment of rocket launch:

  • Korolev: "Preliminary stage ... intermediate..... main..... lift off! We wish you a good flight. Everything is all right."
  • Gagarin: "Поехали!" (Poyekhali!—Let's go!).[26]

Gagarin's informal poyekhali! became a historical phrase in the Eastern Bloc that was used to refer to the beginning of the Space Age.[27][28] In his post-flight report, Gagarin wrote; "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."[29]

Vostok I capsule on display at the RKK Energiya museum

Following the flight, Gagarin told the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev that during re-entry he had whistled the tune "The Motherland Hears, The Motherland Knows" (Russian: "Родина слышит, Родина знает").[30][31] The first two lines of the song are: "The Motherland hears, the Motherland knows/Where her son flies in the sky".[32]

There were concerns Gagarin's spaceflight record would not be certified because he ejected from the capsule; prior records required the pilot to land with the craft. The spaceflight records were later certified.[17] Some sources said Gagarin commented during the flight, "I don't see any God up here" but no such words appear in the verbatim record of his conversations with Earth stations during the spaceflight.[33] In a 2006 interview, Gagarin's friend Colonel Valentin Petrov stated that Gagarin never said these 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".[34] Petrov also said 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 Yelena shortly before his space flight; and his family used to celebrate Christmas and Easter and keep icons in the house".[35]

After the Vostok 1 flight

Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova in 1964

Gagarin's flight was a triumph for the Soviet space program and became a national hero of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc, and a worldwide celebrity. Newspapers around the globe published his biography and details of his flight. Moscow and other cities in the Soviet Union held mass demonstrations, the scale of which were second only to World War II Victory Parades. Gagarin was escorted in a long motorcade of high-ranking officials through the streets of Moscow to the Kremlin where, in a lavish ceremony, Nikita Khrushchev awarded him the title Hero of the Soviet Union.[36] Gagarin toured widely abroad; he visited Italy, Germany, Canada, Brazil, Japan, Egypt,[37] and Finland to promote the Soviet Union's accomplishment of putting the first human in space. He visited the United Kingdom three months after the Vostok 1 mission, going to London and Manchester.[38][39] The sudden rise to fame took its toll on Gagarin. While acquaintances say Gagarin had been a "sensible drinker", his touring schedule placed him in social situations in which he was expected to drink alcohol, and reportedly, at a Black Sea resort in September 1961, he was caught by his wife with a nurse named Anna who had aided him after a boating incident. He attempted to escape through a window and jumping off her second floor balcony, hitting his face on a kerbstone and leaving a permanent scar above his left eyebrow.[7][12]

Gagarin in Warsaw, 1961

In 1962, Gagarin began serving as a deputy to the Soviet of the Union,[40] and was elected to the Central Committee of the Young Communist League. He later returned to Star City, the cosmonaut facility, where he spent several years working on designs for a reusable spacecraft. He became a lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Forces on 12 June 1962, and received the rank of colonel on 6 November 1963.[16] Soviet officials, including cosmonaut overseerer Nikolai Kamanin, tried to keep Gagarin away from any flights, being worried about losing their hero in an accident. According to author Nikolai Kamanin, "Gagarin hopes that someday he will fly new space missions. It is unlikely, however, that this will happen. Gagarin is too dear to mankind to risk his life for the sake of an ordinary space flight."[41] On 20 December 1963, Gagarin had become Deputy Training Director of the Star City cosmonaut training base.[42] Two years later, he was re-elected as a deputy to the SSSU, but this time to the Soviet of Nationalities.[40] The following year, he began to re-qualify as a fighter pilot.[43] He was backup pilot for his friend Vladimir Komarov on the Soyuz 1 flight after five years without piloting duty. Kamanin had opposed Gagarin's reassignment to cosmonaut training; in that time he gained weight and his flying skills deteriorated. Despite this, he remained a strong contender for Soyuz 1 until he was replaced by Komarov in April 1996 and reassigned to Soyuz 3.[44]:568,622

The Soyuz 1 launch was rushed due to implicit political pressures[44]:590 and despite Gagarin's protests that additional safety precautions were necessary.[45] Gagarin accompanied Komarov to the rocket before launch and relayed instructions to Komarov from ground control following multiple system failures aboard the spacecraft.[44]:581-584 Despite their best efforts, Soyuz 1 crash landed after its parachutes failed to open, killing Komarov instantly.[44]:588-589 After the Soyuz 1 crash, Gagarin was permanently banned from training for and participating in further spaceflights.[44]:622 He was also grounded from flying aircraft solo, a demotion he worked hard to lift. He was temporarily relieved of duties to focus on academics with the promise that he would be able to resume flight training.[44]:627 On 17 February 1968, Gagarin successfully defended his aerospace engineering thesis on the subject of spaceplane aerodynamic configuration, passing with flying colours.[46][47][44]:627

Honours and awards

Jânio Quadros, President of Brazil, decorated Gagarin in 1961.

Gagarin was welcomed back to Earth on 14 April 1961 with a 12-mile (19 km) parade attended by millions of people that concluded in Red Square. After a short speech, Gagarin was bestowed the Hero of the Soviet Union,[48][49] Order of Lenin,[48] and Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR[49] He was bestowed with other awards:

Gagarin with U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey, French Prime Minister Georges Pompidou and Gemini 4 astronauts at the 1965 Paris Air Show

Gagarin was awarded the 1960 FAI Gold Air Medal and the 1961 FAI De la Vaulx Medal.[61] He was inducted as a member of the inaugural class to the International Space Hall of Fame.[62] He was awarded four jubilee medals over the course of his career.[52]

He was also awarded the golden keys to the gates of the Egyptian cities Cairo and Alexandria.[63][64]

Personal life

In 1957, while at the First Chkalov Air Force Pilot's School in Orenburg, Gagarin met Valentina Ivanovna Goryacheva,[6] a medical technician graduate of Orenburg Medical School.[10][12] They were married on 7 November 1957, the same day Gagarin graduated from Orenburg, and they had two daughters.[6][10][65] Yelena Yurievna Gagarina, born 1959,[65] is an art historian who has worked as the director-general of the Moscow Kremlin Museums since 2001;[66][67] and Galina Yurievna Gagarina, born 1961,[65] is a professor of economics and the department chair at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics in Moscow.[66][68]

Death

Plaque on a brick wall with inscription: Юрий Алексеевич Гагарин, 1934-03-09–1968-03-27
Plaque indicating Gagarin's interment in the Kremlin Wall

On 27 March 1968, while on a routine training flight from Chkalovsky Air Base, Gagarin and flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin died when their MiG-15UTI crashed near the town of Kirzhach. The bodies of Gagarin and Seryogin were cremated and their ashes were buried in the walls of the Kremlin.[17] The cause of the crash that killed Gagarin is uncertain and has been a subject of conspiracy theories.[69][70]

Soviet documents declassified in March 2003 showed the KGB had conducted their own investigation of the accident, in addition to one government and two military investigations. The KGB's report dismissed various conspiracy theories and instead indicated the actions of airbase personnel contributed to the crash. The report states that an air-traffic controller provided Gagarin with outdated weather information and that by the time of his flight, conditions had deteriorated significantly. Ground crew also left external fuel tanks attached to the aircraft. Gagarin's planned flight activities needed clear weather and no outboard tanks. The investigation concluded Gagarin's aircraft entered a spin, either due to a bird strike or because of a sudden move to avoid another aircraft. Because of the out-of-date weather report, the crew believed their altitude was higher than it was and could not react properly to bring the MiG-15 out of its spin.[71] Another theory, advanced in 2005 by the original crash investigator, hypothesizes that a cabin air vent was accidentally left open by the crew or the previous pilot, leading to oxygen deprivation and leaving the crew incapable of controlling the aircraft.[69] A similar theory, published in Air & Space magazine, is that the crew detected the open vent and followed procedure by executing a rapid dive to a lower altitude. This dive caused them to lose consciousness and crash.[70]

A Russian MiG-15UTI, the same type as Gagarin was flying

On 12 April 2007, the Kremlin vetoed a new investigation into the death of Gagarin. Government officials said they saw no reason to begin a new investigation.[72] In April 2011, documents from a 1968 commission set up by the Central Committee of the Communist Party to investigate the accident were declassified. The documents revealed that the commission's original conclusion was that Gagarin or Seryogin had manoeuvered sharply, either to avoid a weather balloon or to avoid "entry into the upper limit of the first layer of cloud cover", leading the jet into a "super-critical flight regime and to its stalling in complex meteorological conditions".[73]

In his 2004 book Two Sides of the Moon, cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who was part of a State Commission established to investigate Gagarin's death, said he was flying a helicopter near the site of the crash that day when he heard "two loud booms in the distance". Leonov's conclusion is that a Sukhoi jet, which he identifies as a Su-15 'Flagon', was flying below its minimum altitude and, "without realizing it because of the terrible weather conditions, he 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 said the first boom he heard was that of the jet breaking the sound barrier and the second was Gagarin's plane crashing.[74] In a June 2013 interview with Russian television network RT, Leonov said a declassified report on the incident revealed the presence of a second, "unauthorized" Su-15 flying in the area. Leonov states that this aircraft had descended to 450 metres (1,480 ft) and that while running afterburners, "the aircraft reduced its echelon at a distance of 10–15 meters in the clouds, passing close to Gagarin, turning his plane and thus sending it into a tailspin – a deep spiral, to be precise – at a speed of 750 kilometers per hour". As a condition of being allowed to discuss the report, however, Leonov was required not to disclose the name of the Su-15 pilot, who was reported to be 80 years old (as of 2013) and in poor health.[75][76]

Legacy

John Glenn panel and Yuri Gagarin statue in Houston, at the former NASA office on Wayside Drive

Aside from his short stature at 1.57 metres (5 ft 2 in), one of Gagarin's most notable traits was his smile.[77] Many said Gagarin's smile gained the attention of crowds on his the frequent tours in the months after the Vostok 1 mission.[39] Gagarin also gained a reputation as an adept public figure. Despite heavy rain when he visited Manchester, England, Gagarin insisted the roof of the convertible car in which he was riding remained open so the cheering crowds could see 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 so that the cheering crowds could still see him.[39] Sergei Korolev, one of the leaders of the early Soviet space program, later said Gagarin possessed a smile "that lit up the darkness of the Cold War".[78]

Tributes

Yuri Gagarin statue at the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London

The date of Gagarin's space flight, 12 April, has been commemorated. Since 1962, it has been celebrated in the USSR and most of its former territories as Cosmonautics Day.[79] Since 2000, Yuri's Night, an international celebration, is held annually to commemorate milestones in space exploration.[80] In 2011, it was declared the International Day of Human Space Flight by the United Nations.[81]

A number of buildings and locations have been named for Gagarin. The Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, was named in 1969. The launch pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome from which Sputnik 1 and Vostok 1 were launched is now known as Gagarin's Start. Gagarin Raion in Sevastopol, Ukraine, was named after him during the period of the Soviet Union. The Air Force Academy was renamed Gagarin Air Force Academy in 1968.[82] A street in Warsaw, Poland, is called Yuri Gagarin Street.

Gagarin has been honoured on the Moon by astronauts and astronomers. During the American space program's Apollo 11 mission in 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left a memorial satchel containing medals commemorating Gagarin and fellow cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov on the moon's surface.[83][84] In 1971, Apollo 15 astronauts David Scott and James Irwin left Fallen Astronaut at their landing site as a memorial to the American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts who died in the Space Race; the names included Yuri Gagarin and 14 others.[85][86] In 1970, a 262 km (163 mi)-wide crater on the far side after him.[87]

Gagarin is memorialized in music; a cycle of Soviet patriotic songs titled The Constellation Gagarin (Russian: Созвездье Гагарина, tr. Sozvezdie Gagarina) was written by Aleksandra Pakhmutova and Nikolai Dobronravov in 1970–1971.[88] The most famous of these songs refers to Gagarin's poyekhali!: in the lyrics, "He said 'let's go!' He waved his hand.[27][88] He was the inspiration for the pieces "Hey Gagarin" by Jean-Michel Jarre on Métamorphoses, "Gagarin" by Public Service Broadcasting, and "Gagarin, I loved you" by Undervud.

Vessels have been named for Gagarin; Soviet tracking ship Kosmonavt Yuri Gagarin was built in 1971[89] and the Armenian airline Armavia named their first Sukhoi Superjet 100 in his honour in 2011.[90]

Russian Rouble commemorating Gagarin in 2001

Two commemorative coins were issued in the Soviet Union to honour the 20th and 30th anniversaries of his flight: a one-ruble coin (1981, copper-nickel) and a three 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; it consisted of a two-ruble coin in copper-nickel, a three-ruble coin in silver, a ten-ruble coin in brass-copper and nickel, and a 100-ruble coin in silver.[91] In 2011, Russia issued a 1,000-ruble coin in gold and a three-ruble coin in silver to mark the 50th anniversary of his flight.[92]

In 2008, the Kontinental Hockey League named their championship trophy the Gagarin Cup.[93] In a 2010 Space Foundation survey, Gagarin was ranked as the sixth-most-popular space hero, tied with Star Trek's fictional James T. Kirk.[94] A Russian docudrama titled Gagarin: First in Space was released in 2013. Previous attempts at portraying Gagarin were disallowed; his family took legal action over his portrayal in a fictional drama and vetoed a musical.[95]

Statues

Bust of Gagarin in Kolkata, India

There are statues of Gagarin and monuments to him located in Karaganda, Orenburg, Izhevsk, Gagarin (Smolensk Oblast), Yoshkar-Ola, Cheboksary, Druzhkivka, Tiraspol, Irkutsk, Komsomolsk-on-Amur and Nicosia.

On 4 June 1980, Monument to Yuri Gagarin in Gagarin Square, Leninsky Avenue, Moscow, was opened.[96] The monument is mounted to a 38 m (125 ft) tall pedestal and is constructed of titanium. Beside the column is a replica of the descent module used during his spaceflight.[97]

In 2011, a statue of Yuri Gagarin was unveiled at Admiralty Arch in The Mall in London, opposite the permanent sculpture of James Cook. It is a copy of the statue outside Gagarin's former school in Lyubertsy.[98] In 2013, the statue was moved to a permanent location outside the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.[99]

In 2012, a statue was unveiled at the site of NASA's original spaceflight headquarters on South Wayside Drive in Houston. The sculpture was completed in 2011 by artist/cosmonaut Alexei Leonov and was a gift to Houston by various Russian organizations. Houston's Mayor Annise Parker, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak were present for the dedication.[100]

In April 2018, a bust of Gagarin, erected on the street in Belgrade, Serbia, that bears his name, was removed after less than week following an outcry over the size of its head. Locals said the tribute was an "insult" to Gagarin. A new work will be commissioned.[101] It was revealed that neither the city, the Serbian Ministry of Culture, nor the foundation that financed it had no prior knowledge of the design.[102]

50th anniversary

50th anniversary stamp of Ukraine

The 50th anniversary of Gagarin's journey into space was marked in 2011 by tributes around the world. A film titled First Orbit was shot from the International Space Station, combining sound recordings from the original flight with footage of the route taken by Gagarin.[103] The Russian, American, and Italian crew of Expedition 27 aboard the ISS sent a special video message to wish the people of the world a "Happy Yuri's Night", wearing shirts with an image of Gagarin.[104]

Swiss-based German watchmaker Bernhard Lederer created a limited edition of 50 Gagarin Tourbillons to commemorate the anniversary.[105] The Central Bank of the Russian Federation released gold and silver coins to commemorate the anniversary.[106] The launch of Soyuz TMA-21 on 4 April 2011 was dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the first manned space mission.[107]

See also

Notes

References

  1. ^ Gagarin's first name is sometimes transliterated as Yuriy, Youri, or Yury.
  2. ^ Hall, Rex D.; Shayler, David J.; Vis, Bert (2007). Russia's Cosmonauts: Inside the Yuri Gagarin Training Center. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 332. ISBN 978-0-387-73975-5.
  3. ^ Hanbury-Tenison, Robin, ed. (2010). The Great Explorers. London: Thames & Hudson. p. 270. ISBN 978-0-500-25169-0.
  4. ^ a b Tito, Dennis (13 November 2006). "Yuri Gagarin". Time Europe via Time.com. Archived from the original on 26 March 2008.
  5. ^ Alexey and Anna's names are sometimes transliterated as Aleksei Ivanovich and Anna Timofeevna, respectively (Bassin 2012).
  6. ^ a b c Rosenberg, Jennifer. "Yuri Gagarin: The First Man in Space". About.com. Archived from the original on 28 March 2013. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Rodgers, Paul (3 April 2011). "Yuri Gagarin: The man who fell to Earth". The Independent. Archived from the original on 4 April 2011.
  8. ^ Burgess & Hall 2009, p. 42.
  9. ^ a b c Moskvitch, Katia (3 April 2011). "Yuri Gagarin's Klushino: Forgotten home of space legend". BBC News. Archived from the original on 4 April 2011. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Bizony, Piers (14 March 2011). "First man of Space – the flight and plight of Yuri Gagarin". Engineering & Technology. 6 (3). Archived from the original on 26 March 2013.
  11. ^ a b c "Yury Gagarin: Biography". RIA Novosti. 30 March 2011. Archived from the original on 23 May 2012.
  12. ^ a b c d Rincon, Paul; Moskvitch, Katia (4 April 2011). "Profile: Yuri Gagarin". BBC News. Archived from the original on 22 January 2013.
  13. ^ Burgess & Hall 2009, p. 43.
  14. ^ Burgess & Hall 2009, p. 43–44.
  15. ^ a b c Burgess & Hall 2009, p. 45.
  16. ^ a b "Archived copy" Юрий Алексеевич Гагарин. Astronaut.ru (in Russian). 11 July 2007. Archived from the original on 24 March 2008. Retrieved 30 March 2008.CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link)
  17. ^ a b c d "The Vostok Missions". Soviet Russia's Space Program During the Space Race. Charles River Editors. 2015. ISBN 978-1-5227-0230-6.
  18. ^ Quoted in Siddiqi 2000, p. 262.
  19. ^ Siddiqi 2000, p. 262.
  20. ^ Siddiqi 2000, p. 261.
  21. ^ Bykovsky quoted in Gavrilin 1973, p. 26-27.
  22. ^ Louis, Victor E; Louis, Jennifer M (1980). Sport in the Soviet Union. Oxford: Pergamon. p. 43. ISBN 0-08-024506-4.
  23. ^ Hall, Shayler & Vis 2007, p. 135.
  24. ^ Sheldon, Charles. Histories of the Soviet/Russian Space Program. NASA. 1. Progressive Management Publications. ISBN 978-1-5496-9658-9. OCLC 1019250543.
  25. ^ Siddiqi 2000, p. 275.
  26. ^ Hall and Shayler, p. 150
  27. ^ a b Душенко, Константин (2014). Большой словарь цитат и крылатых выражений (in Russian). Litres. ISBN 978-5-699-40115-4. Archived from the original on 21 May 2015. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
  28. ^ Первушин, Антон (2011). "6.2 Он сказал «Поехали!»". 108 минут, изменившие мир (in Russian). Эксмо. ISBN 9785457022300.
  29. ^ Quoted in Siddiqi 2000, p. 278.
  30. ^ Гагарин, Юрий (3 December 2004). Дорога в космос. Pravda via TestPilot.ru (in Russian). Archived from the original on 15 March 2008. Retrieved 30 March 2008.
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Sources

Further reading

  • Cole, Michael D (1995). Vostok 1: First Human in Space. Springfield, NJ: Enslow. ISBN 0-89490-541-4.
  • Doran, Jamie; Bizony, Piers (1998). Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 0-7475-4267-8.
  • Jenks, Andrew L (2012). The Cosmonaut Who Couldn't Stop Smiling: The Life and Legend of Yuri Gagarin. Northern Illinois University Press. ISBN 978-0-87580-447-7.

External links

External images
Memorial to Gagarin and Seregin at crash location
Memorial obelisk photo
Memorial obelisk closeup photo
Coordinates 56°02′48″N 39°01′35″E / 56.04664°N 39.0265°E / 56.04664; 39.0265
Multimedia
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