Jump to content

Yuri Gagarin: Difference between revisions

Edit links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Halibut Thyme (talk | contribs)
1,235 edits
Halibut Thyme (talk | contribs)
1,235 edits
Line 63: Line 63:
[[Image:Monument to Yuri Gagarin in Moscow.jpg|thumb|left|100px|40-meter monument to Yuri Gagarin in [[Moscow]], made of [[titanium]]. It was erected in the [[Soviet Union]] in July 1980. ]]
[[Image:Monument to Yuri Gagarin in Moscow.jpg|thumb|left|100px|40-meter monument to Yuri Gagarin in [[Moscow]], made of [[titanium]]. It was erected in the [[Soviet Union]] in July 1980. ]]
[[Image:Yuri Gagarin Memorial Plaque.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Yuri Gagarin Memorial Plaque — presented to the Soviet Union on [[January 21]], [[1971]]. Accepting the plaque at the Moscow ceremony was Soviet Gen. [[Kuznetsov]], commander of the Soviet Union's [[Star City, Moscow|Star City]] space base, where cosmonauts have been training since 1960. Gagarin, who made history with his 1 hour and 48 minute flight, lost his life in a training accident on [[March 27]], [[1968]].]]
[[Image:Yuri Gagarin Memorial Plaque.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Yuri Gagarin Memorial Plaque — presented to the Soviet Union on [[January 21]], [[1971]]. Accepting the plaque at the Moscow ceremony was Soviet Gen. [[Kuznetsov]], commander of the Soviet Union's [[Star City, Moscow|Star City]] space base, where cosmonauts have been training since 1960. Gagarin, who made history with his 1 hour and 48 minute flight, lost his life in a training accident on [[March 27]], [[1968]].]]
[[Image:Gargarin poster at Keennedy Space Center.jpg|thumb|left|A poster of Gargarin at the [[Kennedy Space Center]].]]
[[Image:Gargarin poster at Kennedy Space Center.jpg|thumb|left|A poster of Gargarin at the [[Kennedy Space Center]].]]


Gagarin then became deputy training director of [[Star City, Russia|Star City]]. At the same time, he began to requalify as a fighter pilot. On [[27 March]] [[1968]], he and his instructor died in a [[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15|MiG-15UTI]] on a routine training flight near [[Kirzhach]]. It is not certain what caused the crash, but a [[1986]] inquest suggests that the turbulence from a [[Sukhoi Su-11|Su-11 'Fishpot-C']] interceptor using its [[Afterburner (engine)|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.
Gagarin then became deputy training director of [[Star City, Russia|Star City]]. At the same time, he began to requalify as a fighter pilot. On [[27 March]] [[1968]], he and his instructor died in a [[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15|MiG-15UTI]] on a routine training flight near [[Kirzhach]]. It is not certain what caused the crash, but a [[1986]] inquest suggests that the turbulence from a [[Sukhoi Su-11|Su-11 'Fishpot-C']] interceptor using its [[Afterburner (engine)|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.

Revision as of 00:05, 7 May 2007

"Gagarin" redirects here. For other uses, see Gagarin (disambiguation).
Yuri Gagarin
Юрий Гагарин
File:Yuri Gagarin official portrait.jpg
StatusDeceased
NationalitySoviet
Occupation(s)Pilot and Cosmonaut
Space career
Cosmonaut
RankSoviet Air Force Colonel
Time in space
1 hour, 48 minutes
SelectionAir Force Group 1
MissionsVostok 1
Mission insignia
File:Vostok1patch.png

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (Russian: Ю́рий Алексе́евич Гага́рин, Jurij Aleksejevič Gagarin IPA: [ˈjurʲɨj əlʲɪkˈsʲejɪvʲɨtʂ gəˈgarʲɨn]; 9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968), Hero of the Soviet Union, was a Soviet cosmonaut who on 12 April 1961 became the first human in space and the first human to orbit the Earth.

Early life

Yuri Gagarin was born in a village of Klushino near Gzhatsk (now in Smolensk Oblast), Russia, on 9 March 1934. The adjacent town of Gzhatsk was renamed Gagarin in 1968 in his honor. His parents worked on a collective farm.[1] While manual laborers 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, as slave laborers, in 1943, and did not return until after the war. [2] His teachers described Gagarin as intelligent and hard-working, if occasionally mischievous. His mathematics and science teacher had flown in the Soviet Air Forces 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 Murmansk Oblast, close to the Norwegian border, where terrible weather made flying risky. As a full-grown man, Gagarin was 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m) tall, which was an advantage in the small Vostok cockpit.[1]

Career in the Soviet space program

Selection and training

In 1960, after an extensive search and selection process Yuri Gagarin was selected with 19 other cosmonauts 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 being trained for the upcoming flight. Out of the twenty 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.

Space flight

Main article: Vostok 1
File:Gagarin space suite.jpg
Yuri Gagarin in space suit.

On 12 April 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).[3] During his flight, Gagarin famously whistled the tune "The Motherland Hears, The Motherland Knows" (Russian: "Родина слышит, Родина знает").[4][5] The first two lines of the song are: "The Motherland hears, the Motherland knows/Where her son flies in the sky".[6] This patriotic song was written by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1951 (opus 86), with words by Yevgeniy Dolmatovsky.

There are 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.[7] In a 2006 interview a close friend of Gagarin, colonel Valentin Petrov, stated that Gagarin never said such words, and that 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 favorite at the time, Khrushchev's words were soon attributed to Gagarin for them to be more effective.[8]

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]

Gagarin being 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.

In 1962, he began serving as a deputy to the Supreme Soviet. He later returned to "Star City", the cosmonaut facility, where he worked on designs for a reusable spacecraft.

Death and legacy

File:Monument to Yuri Gagarin in Moscow.jpg
40-meter monument to Yuri Gagarin in Moscow, made of titanium. It was erected in the Soviet Union in July 1980.
File:Yuri Gagarin Memorial Plaque.jpg
Yuri Gagarin Memorial Plaque — presented to the Soviet Union on January 21, 1971. Accepting the plaque at the Moscow ceremony was Soviet Gen. Kuznetsov, commander of the Soviet Union's Star City space base, where cosmonauts have been training since 1960. Gagarin, who made history with his 1 hour and 48 minute flight, lost his life in a training accident on March 27, 1968.
File:Gargarin poster at Kennedy Space Center.jpg
A poster of Gargarin at the Kennedy Space Center.

Gagarin then became deputy training director of Star City. At the same time, he began to requalify as a fighter pilot. On 27 March 1968, he and his instructor died in a MiG-15UTI on a routine training flight near Kirzhach. It is not certain 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"[9] Alexei Leonov recounts that he was flying a helicopter in the same area 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.

File:Gagarin-Seregin Memorial.jpg
Memorial at the location of the crash that killed Gagarin and Seregin

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.[10]

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).[11]

Gagarin is buried next to Seregin in the walls of the Kremlin on Red Square.

On 12 April 2007, the Kremlin vetoed a new investigation into the death of Gagarin. Some experts who had been involved in the original investigation had formulated a new theory, based on modern technology and investigative methods. Government officials said that they saw no reason to begin a new investigation. [12]

Gagarin's name

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Yuri Gagarin DENNIS TITO, Time Inc. Retrieved 2006-12-17.
  2. ^ By the end of 1942 Klushino was occupied bythe Nazi invaders, who showed no hesitation in killing any civilians who offered resistance or otherwise questioned their authority. One particularly brutal German officer hung Yuris younger brother, Boris, from a tree to die; Anna managed to save her child just in time. We took him back,Yuri recalled grimly, and with great difficulty brought him back to consciousness. Boris could not walk for a month, and his sleep was filled with nightmares. It may be that he never fully recovered; years later, he took his own life by hanging. Boris was not the only family member to suffer under the foreign occupation. Anna's legs were badly scarred by a German soldier with a scythe,and when Alexei tried to sabotage the mill he had been put to work in he was beaten so badly he was permanently disabled. The entire family was forced out of their home by the soldiers and had to dig themselves a primitive shelter to live in. The shelter was never a safe place, with bombs shaking it until the dirt roof was ready to cave in. Valentin later said that he did not remember seeing his father smile during the entire duration of the war. The boy had little reason to smile himself; the Nazis put him to work as a manual laborer with the promise that he would be shot if he did not work hard. By 1943, Valentin and Yuris sister Zoya had been taken by the ss to a slave labor camp in Poland. Francis French and Colin Burgess (2007). Into That Silent Sea Trailblazers of the Space Era, 1961–1965. University of Nebraska Press. pp. pp 2. ISBN 0803211465. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  3. ^ Gagarin Mark Wade, Encyclopedia Astronautica. Retrieved 2006-12-17.
  4. ^ Template:Ru iconЮрий Гагарин. Дорога в космос — his book in Russian (HTML)
  5. ^ "Download Motherland Hears". SovMusic.ru. Retrieved 2006-11-15.
  6. ^ "Motherland Hears Text". SovMusic.ru. Retrieved 2006-11-15.
  7. ^ "Full Verbatim Record of Gagarin's Conversations with the Earth". CosmoWorld.ru. Retrieved 2006-11-15.
  8. ^ "An interview with Gagarin's close friend" (in Russian). Interfax. 2006-04-12. Retrieved 2007-01-22.
  9. ^ Leonov, Alexei (2004). Two Sides of the Moon. pp. 218-. ISBN 0-312-30865-5. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ Holt, Ed (2005-04-03). "Inquiry promises to solve Gagarin death riddle". Scotland on Sunday. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  11. ^ "Commemorative coins of Russia issued in 2001". Central Bank of Russia. Retrieved 2006-11-15.
  12. ^ "Kremlin Vetoes Investigation Into First Cosmonaut's Death". MosNews.com. Retrieved 2007-04-15.
  13. ^ Yuri Gagarin U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission Retrieved 17 December 2006.
  14. ^ "FAI Award: The Yuri A. Gagarin Gold Medal". FAI. Retrieved 2006-11-15.
  15. ^ Touring the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center Museum Robert Pearlman, SPACE.com, 9 April 2001. Retrieved 2006-12-17.
  16. ^ Details regarding Gagarinite-(Y)
  17. ^ Gagarin 205 Live Music Space
  • 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.
Wikiquote has quotations related to Yuri Gagarin.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Yuri Gagarin.



Template:Persondata

Template:Link FA'

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yuri_Gagarin&oldid=128781177"