Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin

Yuri Gagarin

First Flight Shrine: Colonel Yuri A. Gagarin - The First Flight Society - The First Flight Society
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Colonel Yuri A. Gagarin
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Colonel Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin, Soviet Air Force, became a Soviet hero as the first person to break the bonds of earth's gravity and venture into the weightlessness of space when he orbited the earth on April 12, 1961.He described sights never before seen by man.
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Gagarin was born on March 9, 1934, in the city of Gzhatsk, Russia, into a collective farmer's family.He graduated in 1957 from the Voroshilov Aviation Technical Academy and soon afterward became a military fighter pilot with the rank of Lieutenant.In 1960, now a colonel, Gagarin was selected to be a member of the first group of USSR cosmonauts.

After the historic flight, Gagarin entered the Zhukowskii Military Academy and completed his study in 1968.The world was shocked to hear of his tragic death on March 27, 1968, the result of an accident while test piloting a MIG-15 aircraft.