Yuri Gagarin (09.03.1934 - 27.03.1968) - Russian pilot and cosmonaut.Early Life
Yuri Gagarin was
born on 9 March 1934 in the village of Klushino. There were four children
in the family and Yuri was the third. His father, Alexey, was an able
carpenter. Both father and mother worked on a collective farm. It is also known
that his mother, Anna, was a voracious reader. As parents worked their
daughter helped them to bring up Yuri. In World War II the Gagarins underwent
Nazi occupation and their dwelling was taken over. The family had to build a
mud hut and they lived there for almost two years till the occupation ended.
Career in the Soviet Air Force
When Yuri was
young he took an interest in planets and cosmos. Gagarin studied at a
vocational technical school and then was chosen for training at a technical
high school which was located in Saratov. Afterwards Yuri affiliated himself
with the “AeroClub” and tried to fly a light aircraft.
From 1955 Gagarin
studied at the Orenburg Pilot’s School. He made the acquaintance of Valentina
Goryacheva there. Two years later Yuri married her. Post-graduation Gagarin
served at Luostari airbase. Bad weather conditions of this region made flying
perilous. On 5 November 1957 Gagarin became a Lieutenant. In 1959 his rank was
Senior Lieutenant.
Career in the Soviet space program
In 1960 the 20
pilots including Gagarin were chosen for the Soviet space program. Subsequently
he was chosen for an elite training group. All the pilots were tested for both
psychological and physical staying power. At the end of the test program
Gherman Titov and Yuri Gagarin were selected because their results were the
best. Moreover, physical characteristics of these cosmonauts were the most
appropriate. They both were not tall. Gagarin’s height was 1.57 metres.
Gagarin’s
character was described as humble, attentive and persistent. He also had a good
memory, vivid imagination, fast response and other mental faculties. An Air
Force doctor considered that Gagarin understood life better than others. It
should be noted that Yuri liked sports. He played ice hockey and was a
basketball fan.
It is known that when the twenty pilots chose anonymously one of them for the
first flight, all but three voted for Yuri Gagarin.
Space flight
On 12 April 1961
the first human travelled into cosmos. Gagarin was aboard the Vostok 1 and he
orbited the earth. This great event made Yuri Gagarin famous and he
received a lot of honours and medals. Gagarin
became Hero of the Soviet Union.
Death
On 27 March 1968 Yuri Gagarin and Vladimir Seryogin
died in a MiG-15 crash. The incident was near Kirzhach. The Cosmonaut Training
Centre outside Moscow and the adjacent town of Gzhatsk were named in his
honour.