Gagarin

Gagarin Yuri Alekseyevich (1934–1968) is the great Soviet pilot-cosmonaut, the first man who made the orbital space flight.

 

Gagarin was born on March 9, 1934 in Gzhatsk, Smolensk in a country family. Having graduated the sixth class in 1949, Yuri entered the vocational school in Lyubertsy near Moscow . There he studied as a former-founder. In 1951 he graduated from this school with excellent marks and simultaneously the 7th class of the school of young workers. He was directed to the Saratov industrial technical school for the continuation of his study as one of the best students. He became engaged in the Saratov aero club and after the graduating of the club in 1955 he decided to devote himself to aviation. Under the recommendation of the commission of aero club he entered the 1st Chkalovsky military-aviation school in Orenburg which he finished in 1957. In 1959 he participated in the competitive selection of candidates for flight to space, and in spring of 1960 he was included into the first group of the cosmonauts for the flight to space among other 20 officers-pilots.

 

On April 12, 1961 Yuri Gagarin started on the spacecraft “Vostok”, made in the developmental and construction bureau of S.P. Korolev, from the space launching site Baikonur and made the first space flight.

 

The flight was in a circumterrestrial orbit at the heights of 181–327 kilometers. The ship-satellite with the first cosmonaut in the world flew around the terrestrial globe for 108 minutes and returned safely to the Earth.

 

Further there was the trip in the open car, Gagarin stood full-height and greeted everybody. Nikita Khrushchev awarded Gagarin the Gold star “The Hero of the Soviet Union” and appropriated a new rank: “The Pilot-cosmonaut of the ”.

 

Gagarin practically was lost in the aviation accident near the Novoselovo village of the Kirzhachskiy area of Vladimir region when he performed a training flight on a plane. On March 27, 1968 at 10:18 Gagarin and the pilot-instructor, the group commander, the Hero of the Soviet Union , Vladimir Seryogin started off the airdrome Chkalovsky, Shchelkovo. The execution of the task in a flight zone should borrow not less than 20 minutes, but just in four minutes (at 10:30) Gagarin informed about the execution of the task and requested the permission to return to the base. After it the connection with the plane interrupted.

 

There was created the State commission for the investigation of the accident, but it could not explain the reasons of the tragedy. As a result the report of the commission was classified, and only a small group of people was informed about details.

 

Urns with Gagarin and Seryogin’s ashes were immured in the Kremlin wall.

 

The first cosmonaut was awarded by the Lenin order, medals, foreign orders: Georgy Dimitrov, Charles Marx, the Star of the II class, Cross of Grunwald of the I degree (Poland), the Banner of the 1st degree with brilliants, “The Necklace of Nile”, the Big tape of African Star, “For the merits in the field of aeronautics”, “Playa-Hiron”, The Columbus medal, gold medal of Saint-Denis city and others. He was appropriated the ranks: the Hero of Socialist Labor of Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, the Hero of Socialist Labor of The National Republic of Bulgaria, the Hero of Labor of the Socialist Republic Vietnam.

 

Gagarin Y.A. was awarded the Gold medal of K.E. Tsiolkovsky, a medal де Lavo (FAI), an honorable diploma “The Man in Space” by the Italian astronautic association, gold medal “For an Outstanding Distinction” and the honorable diploma of the Royal aero club of Sweden, the Greater Gold medal and the diploma of FAI, gold medal of the British society of interplanetary communication, the prize of Galaber on astronautics.

 

Since 1966 Yuri Gagarin was the honorary member of the International academy of astronautics.

 

Yuri Gagarin was awarded the rank of honorable citizen of cities: Kaluga, Novocherkassk, Lyubertsy, Sumgait, Smolensk, Vinnitsa, Sevastopol, Saratov, Tyumen (USSR); Orenburg (Russia); Sofia, Pernik, Plovdiv (Bulgaria); Athens (Greece); Famagusta, Limassol (Chyprus); Saint-Denis (France); Trenyachske Teplice (Czechoslovakia). He was also awarded the gold key from the gates of the cities Cairo and Alexandria (). By the name of Gagarin there was named the crater on the underside of the Moon; his native town (Gzhatsk) was renamed into Gagarin. His name was also appropriated to the military-air academy in Monino near Moscow . The medal by the name of Y.A. Gagarin was established by the International Aviation Federation (IAF).