Valentin Gagarin

Gagarin, Yuri Alexeyevich

Starport.com - who be Who in Space

HOME About News Store Discuss Downloads Search

SPACE CENTERS :

Space Shuttle : Follow the missions of the Space Transportation System.

...
After the fiery reentry, made tricky by the failure of the retrorocket package to separate as commanded, Gagarin ejected as planned from Vostok and parachuted safely to a field on a collective farm near Saratov.

Gagarin's flight lasted 1 hour and 48 minutes.

Gagarin was born March 9, 1934, in the village of Klushino in the Smolensk Region west of Moscow.His father was a carpenter, and the Gagarin family lived under German occupation in the village of Gzhatsk for several years during World War II.After graduating from secondary school in 1949 Gagarin attended the Lyubertsy Agricultural Machinery School for 2 years followed by the Saratov Industrial Technical School.But while studying to become a factory worker Gagarin joined an amateur pilot's club and learned to fly.One of his instructors recommended him for air force duty and Gagarin entered the Orenburg Higher Air Force School in 1955.

After graduation in November 1957 Gagarin was offered the chance to be an instructor at Orenburg, but he opted instead for service with the Northern Fleet.For 2 years he was a pilot based at Zapolyarny, north of the Arctic Circle, until volunteering for the cosmonaut group in October 1959.The following March, after months of medical, psychological, and political testing, Gagarin was one of 20 young pilots who reported to the Frunze Central Airport in Moscow to begin training for manned flights into space.

Gagarin quickly established himself as one of the candidates for the first flight and in late March 1961 was advised by Lieutenant General Nikolai Kamanin, the director of cosmonaut training, that he would be the pilot of the first Vostok.A meeting of the State Commission for Space Flight on April 8, 1961, confirmed the appointment.

Following his historic flight Gagarin spent many days and weeks making public appearances and trips, visiting Czechoslovakia, Britain, and Canada.He found it difficult to devote time to his career as an active pilot and cosmonaut and so found himself in administrative jobs.He was, in fact, named commander of the cosmonaut team on May 25, 1961, a post he held until December 1963, when he was made deputy director of the Cosmonaut Training Center.In these posts he directed the training of the first women cosmonauts (who arrived at the Center in March 1962) and acted as communications operator for the twin flights of Vostok 3 and Vostok 4, Voskhod 1, and Voskhod 2. He was also active politically as a delegate to Party Congresses in 1961 and 1966.

As of June 1964 Gagarin was also forbidden to fly and train actively, a restriction he found increasingly frustrating.He made repeated requests to General Kamanin to be allowed to train again, and in April 1966 Kamanin relented, allowing Gagarin to join the group of cosmonauts beginning to train for manned Soyuz flights.

The preliminary crew assignments for the proposed Soyuz 1/Soyuz 2 mission, made in September 1966, originally do not include Gagarin.But he fought for inclusion, and was finally named as second or backup pilot to Komarov on Soyuz 1. He was expected to fly a weeklong Soyuz mission later in 1967.

But following launch on April 23, 1967, Komarov's Soyuz 1 developed severe technical problems : one solar panel failed to unfold, leaving the spacecraft short of power.There were also problems with the attitude control system.The scheduled Soyuz 2 launch was scrubbed, and Soyuz 1 was ordered to land.

Following reentry, however, the parachute on Komarov's spacecraft failed to open properly.The vehicle smashed into the ground and burst into flames, killing Komarov and bringing the Soviet manned space program to a sudden halt.
...
Gagarin took part in Komarov's memorial service, and hoped to involve himself in the investigation and return to flight.But 5 days after the accident General Kamanin again removed Gagarin from flight status.

Throughout 1967 Gagarin continued his studies at the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy (he would graduate in February 1968) and supervised training for not only the Earth orbit Soyuz, but also the Soyuz-Zond circumlunar missions.

On March 12, 1968, DATE : [ 03/12/1968 ]following completion of Gagarin's academic work, Kamanin was able to restore him to flight status.Gagarin immediately joined cosmonauts Shatalov, Volynov, Gorbatko, and others in weightless flights aboard the Tu-104, and set out to requalify himself as a jet pilot.

At 10 : 19 on the morning of March 27, 1968, Gagarin and flight instructor Vladimir Seregin took off from the Chkalov air base near the Center in a MiG-15.After one request from the pilots for a change of course, nothing further was heard.Ground controllers became alarmed.Search and rescue helicopters were ordered into the air.Other air bases in the region were alerted.Hours passed without word.
...
It be not until dawn the next day that Gagarin's remains were found.

An investigation and reconstruction of the accident 20 years later concluded that Gagarin and Seregin's MiG-15 had been caught in the vortex of another jet and thrown into a spin.The pilots recovered, but found themselves in a steep dive at an altitude of not much more than 1, 000 feet.They were unable to pull out or eject.

Gagarin has been the subject of several biographies published around the world, including Orbits of a Life by Oleg Nudenko (1971), My Brother Yuri by Valentin Gagarin (1973), It could not Have Been Otherwise by Pavel Popovich and Vasily Lesnikov (1980), 108 Minutes and an Entire Life by his wife, Valentina (1981), Words About a Son by his mother, Anna (1983), and Gagarin by V. Stepanov (1986).His autobiographies include My Road to Space (1961) and Flame (1968).Gagarin also coauthored several technical works, including Survival in Space (1969).

A crater on the far side of the Moon, a Soviet space tracking vessel, the Red Banner (Order of Kutuzov) Air Force Academy, the Cosmonaut Training Center, and his former hometown of Gzhatsk have all been named for Yuri Gagarin, the first citizen of space travel.