Yuri Gagarin

From a Small Village to the Skies

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was born on 9 March 1934 in Klushino, a small village near Gzhatsk in the Soviet Union. He trained at a technical school in Saratov and learned to fly through its AeroClub.

In 1955, Gagarin entered military pilot training at Orenburg. He qualified as a military pilot in 1957.

Selected for Space

In 1960, Gagarin was selected with the first Soviet cosmonaut group. He was then chosen to fly Vostok 1, the mission that would send the first human being into space.

The achievement depended on the entire Soviet space programme — the engineers, technicians and the Vostok team who designed, built and operated the spacecraft.

Vostok 1

On 12 April 1961, Vostok 1 launched with Gagarin aboard. He completed one orbit of Earth, and the total flight lasted approximately 108 minutes. The spacecraft was largely automatically controlled.

After re-entry, Gagarin ejected from the capsule and descended separately by parachute. He did not land inside Vostok. This does not affect his status as the first human in space — he was aboard the spacecraft throughout the flight and parachuted to the ground after re-entering the atmosphere.

After his flight, Gagarin became an international symbol of the early space age. He was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union in 1961.

Tragic End

Gagarin later returned to cosmonaut training duties. On 27 March 1968, he died during a routine MiG-15UTI training flight with instructor Vladimir Seryogin, when their aircraft crashed near Kirzhach in the Soviet Union.

Gagarin completed only one spaceflight, but it changed the world. His 108-minute orbit of Earth proved that human spaceflight was possible and opened a new era in exploration.