The legendary first human flight into space, carried out on April 12, 1961, is a great event not only for the USSR and its successor Russia, but also for the whole world. In this round of the space race, the USSR unconditionally won over its main competitor, the United States. But how were the preparations and the flight itself carried out? and What happened after Gagarin flew over our land and landed back? All this, of course, still arouses the interest of many people.

How was the preparation carried out?

Leading Soviet specialists prepared very carefully for sending a man into space. The applicants for the role of the first cosmonaut (initially there were 20 of them) were not the best aces, but this was not necessary - they were selected according to other parameters. Korolev, the chief designer of the Vostok-1 satellite and a pioneer of practical cosmonautics, needed a pilot under thirty years old, weighing up to seventy-two kilograms and up to one hundred and seventy centimeters tall, with excellent psychophysical health.

Such requirements were dictated by the complexity of space flights and the design of the cabin of the Vostok-1 module - only one person with certain data could fit in it. Plus, it was necessary that the astronaut be a real communist, and not a non-party member.

When designing the Vostok, several simple but very effective solutions were invented, which were later used on other space rockets. It was not possible to do some things on time, and, for example, for this reason it was decided not to install an emergency rescue system here at launch. In addition to this, the second braking system, which duplicated the first, was removed from the design of the ship already under construction. The refusal was justified by the fact that Vostok-1, having entered a not too high orbit (up to 200 kilometers), would still have flown out of it within ten days due to braking from the higher atmospheric layers and would have returned back to our planet . And the life support systems on the satellite ship were also enough for a maximum of ten days.

Sergei Korolev wanted to launch his apparatus into outer space as quickly as possible, because there was information that the States were planning to implement something similar in the second half of April 1961. First, out of 20 applicants, 6 were chosen, and the final decision on who exactly should fly was made at one of the meetings of the state commission - the candidacy of Yuri Gagarin was approved (German Titov was appointed as an understudy). And April 12 was chosen as the date for the launch of Vostok-1.

Biography of Gagarin before the day of flight

Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin was born on March 9, 1934 in an ordinary working-class family. He spent most of his childhood in the town of Gzhatsk (now this city in the Smolensk region is called Gagarin) and neighboring villages, and survived the fascist occupation as a little boy. In October 1955, Gagarin was called up to armed forces and were sent to Chkalov (this city today is called Orenburg) to the local aviation school. Gagarin studied with pilot Yadkar Akbulatov, who at that time was considered one of the best specialists in his field.

In his studies, Yuri had very high grades in all subjects and was even appointed assistant platoon commander. But at the same time, he could not master the landing perfectly - the nose of the plane was always slightly tilted down. At one point, because of this, it was even decided to expel him. But Gagarin begged to be given another chance, declaring that he could not imagine his life without the sky. In the end, he managed to achieve a perfect landing. In October 1957, a document confirming graduation from the school was finally issued to Yuri Gagarin.

Then he served for two years in a fighter aviation regiment near Murmansk. And at the end of 1959, he was included in the list of candidates for cosmonaut and asked to come to the capital for a medical examination. By this time he had the rank of “starley” (senior lieutenant).

The probability of launch success was not one hundred percent

The fact of the launch of Vostok-1 was not covered in any way in advance - the authorities sought to ensure secrecy. And in general, many had doubts about the success of this flight - many facts speak about this. For example, it is known that on the eve of the flight, Gagarin wrote a touching farewell letter to his wife and children. But since he was still able to return back to Earth, the letter was not shown to the recipients that day. Only after the death of the astronaut in 1968 was it handed over to his wife.

A TASS (main news agency Soviet Union) prepared in advance, even before April 12, three different messages about this flight: in case of its successful completion, in case of a search for an astronaut abroad, and in case of a fatal disaster.

One cannot discount the fact that before the April flight of Vostok-1, six test launches had already been carried out and three of them ended in tragedy. On May 15, 1960, the satellite ship launched into orbit was unable to descend to the ground due to problems in the orientation system - it still flies around our planet today. In September 1960, a rocket exploded immediately during takeoff; there were two dogs on board. The launch on December 1 started well: the dogs Pchelka and Mushka rose into orbit as planned. But the descent trajectory at the end of the flight turned out to be incorrect - the ship with the animals inside it exploded and completely burned out.

Legendary flight: 108 minutes that changed history

Vostok-1, piloted by Yuri Gagarin, launched from Baikonur on April 12, 1961 at 09:07 (Moscow time). The launch manager was rocket engineer Anatoly Kirillov - he gave commands for the stages of the rocket launch and monitored their implementation, monitoring the situation from the command room.

As soon as the launch vehicle began its ascent, Gagarin said that famous word: “Let's go!” In general, the launch vehicle performed its functions without any problems. Only at the final stage did the system responsible for shutting down the third stage engines fail to work. The engines turned off only after the backup mechanism was activated. By this time, the satellite ship was already one hundred kilometers above the planned orbit.

Gagarin, while in orbit, talked about his own observations. He looked through the porthole window at the Earth with its clouds, mountains, oceans and rivers, saw clouds and the atmosphere from the blackness of space, the Sun and distant stars. He liked the view of our planet that opened up to him. He even urged people to preserve this beauty and not destroy it. Gagarin was most impressed by the horizon line - it separated the globe from the very black sky.

Gagarin also conducted several experiments: he ate, drank water, made a couple of notes with a simple pencil. At some point, he let go of the pencil, and it immediately began to float away from him. Gagarin came to the conclusion that such things should be recorded in zero gravity.

Before the flight, it remained a mystery how the human psyche could react to the conditions of space, so special protection against pilot insanity was implemented inside the ship. To control the ship, Gagarin had to switch to manual control. And to do this, he needed to open an envelope with one piece of paper on which a mathematical problem was written. Only by solving it could you find out the access code to the control panel.

In general, the flight went smoothly and no serious emergencies occurred. The duration of this flight was 108 minutes, during which time the satellite ship made one single revolution around globe.

But when returning to Earth, during landing, the braking system failed a little and there was a slight deviation from the course.

At an altitude of seven kilometers, in full accordance with the plan, Gagarin ejected, after which the module and the cosmonaut in the spacesuit began to descend down on two different parachutes (this landing method was used, by the way, in the other five Vostok rockets). By adjusting the parachute lines, the cosmonaut was able to avoid falling into the cool waters of the Volga and landed on the shore. Thus ended this space flight.

After the flight

After landing, Gagarin was accidentally met by the forester's wife and her granddaughter - they were just walking in these places. Then the military appeared in the landing area - they took the pilot-cosmonaut to the military unit. Here he got in touch with the command and reported that the task assigned to him had been completed.

As soon as Khrushchev became aware of this, he called Defense Minister Malinovsky. During the conversation, Khrushchev asked that Gagarin be promoted to the rank of major as quickly as possible. And, by the way, TASS reports dated April 12 already featured Major Yuri Gagarin. But the cosmonaut himself learned about his new rank only after landing. And a little later he was awarded the title “Hero of the Soviet Union.”

Initially, no celebrations related to Gagarin’s appearance in Moscow were planned. But suddenly plans changed, and a ceremonial meeting was organized at a hasty pace. On an Il-18 plane, the cosmonaut arrived at the capital's Vnukovo airport, where an enthusiastic crowd, media representatives, and top officials of the Soviet state were already waiting for him. Next, Gagarin was driven along the main streets of Moscow in an open-top ZIL car. Gagarin rode standing and greeted those who came to meet him. Congratulations came from all sides, many brought posters with them. Some man even made his way through the cordon and handed flowers to Gagarin.

Then on Red Square, the cosmonaut, walking along the red carpet, reported on the successful flight to Nikita Khrushchev. Some people watching this newsreel noticed the untied lace on Gagarin's boot. This funny detail made the astronaut even more popular among the people.

The legendary footage of Gagarin in a heavy helmet saying “Let’s go” were filmed not before the launch itself, but much later - that is, this clean water imitation. On April 12, none of the main participants in the launch had time to film. Then they decided to recreate these shots - Yuri Gagarin and Sergei Korolev repeated in front of the cameras everything they said and did on the morning before the launch.

This space flight attracted the attention of people from all over the globe, and Gagarin became a celebrity on an international, planetary scale. At the invitation of top officials of other states, he visited approximately three dozen countries. The cosmonaut made many trips throughout the territory of the Soviet Union. Interestingly, in the sixties of the last century the most popular male name in the USSR the name Yuri became. Many couples wanted to name their children after the man who flew into space.

Gagarin speaks to the audience: Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida looks at him enthusiastically

In the sixties, Gagarin led a significant social activities, worked at the Cosmonaut Training Center, he had plans for a second space flight...

However, on March 27, 1968, Gagarin unexpectedly and prematurely died in a plane crash in the Vladimir region. He crashed when, together with instructor Vladimir Seryogin, he was carrying out a scheduled flight on a MiG-15UTI aircraft. The circumstances of the disaster have not been fully clarified to this day. It’s just that communication with the MiG was lost, and then its wreckage was found several tens of kilometers from the airfield.

In connection with the death of Gagarin, mourning was declared in the Soviet Union. Settlements, individual avenues, alleys and streets were named in honor of the cosmonaut. On top of that, a huge number of monuments and sculptures dedicated to Gagarin were discovered in different parts of the Earth.

The significance of Gagarin's flight on Vostok-1

This flight, of course, opened a new era - the era of human exploration of previously unexplored and amazing in its scale outer space. How far this development will go, and what we can achieve along this path, is not yet very clear. For example, there is now talk about the colonization of the Moon and Mars.

But there is no doubt that this journey began on April 12, 1961. And it is quite natural that every year on this spring day such a holiday as Cosmonautics Day is celebrated.

The history of human space exploration began with Gagarin's flight

Forever, Soviet citizen Yuri Gagarin will be in our memory and the memory of our descendants as the first person to be in space. No one will ever take this status and this title away from him.

Documentary film “A Star Named Gagarin”

The launch took place from the first launch complex of the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The Vostok 8K72K launch vehicle launched the Vostok spacecraft into low-Earth orbit, piloted by the first Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

The Vostok spacecraft was launched into orbit with the following parameters: inclination - 64.95 degrees, orbital period - 89.34 minutes, minimum distance from the Earth's surface - 181 kilometers, maximum - 327 kilometers.

The flight of the first cosmonaut lasted 1 hour 48 minutes. After one orbit around the Earth, the spacecraft's descent module landed in the Saratov region. At an altitude of several kilometers, Gagarin ejected and made a soft parachute landing near the descent module. The first cosmonaut on the planet was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and the day of his flight became a national holiday - Cosmonautics Day, starting on April 12, 1962.

Yuri Gagarin was born on March 9, 1934 into a peasant family. His mother, Anna Timofeevna, and father, Alexey Ivanovich, were from the village of Klushino, Gzhatsky district. Having survived the difficult time of the German occupation, the Gagarin family moved from Klushino to the city of Gzhatsk in 1945. After graduating from school, Yuri entered the Lyubertsy vocational school on September 30, 1949, from which he graduated in June with a degree in molding and foundry.

In August he entered the Saratov Industrial College, and in 1954 he began training at the Saratov Aero Club. In 1955, Gagarin graduated with honors from the Saratov Industrial College, and on October 10 of the same year, from the Saratov Aero Club. On October 27, 1957, he married Valentina Goryacheva, who became his faithful ally for many years. Two daughters grew up in their family - Elena and Galina.

The selection of the first cosmonauts into the corps began two years before the legendary launch. Chief designer Sergei Korolev outlined the requirements - age approximately 30 years, weight up to 72 kilograms, height no higher than 170 centimeters.

The training program for the first set of cosmonauts was extremely strict. All pilots had to undergo the strictest medical selection, tests in a centrifuge, in a pressure chamber, on a vibration stand, a rotating chair, and also undergo complete isolation tests in the so-called “silence chamber” measuring approximately three steps in length and one and a half in width. Yuri Gagarin, like everyone else, successfully passed the test between July 26 and August 5, 1960.

The launch took place from the first launch complex of the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The Vostok 8K72K launch vehicle launched the Vostok spacecraft into low-Earth orbit, piloted by the first Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. The backup, who had the opportunity to replace Gagarin at any time before the start, was German Titov. A reserve cosmonaut, Grigory Nelyubov, was also appointed as backup.

The planet's first cosmonaut died on March 27, 1968 while performing a training flight in difficult weather conditions. According to the official version, the MiG-15 aircraft, piloted by Gagarin and the commander of the training regiment of the Cosmonaut Training Center, Colonel Seregin, went into a tailspin, and supposedly there was not enough altitude to recover it. The plane fell into the forest and crashed near the village of Novoselovo, Kirzhach district, Vladimir region.

In order to perpetuate the memory of Gagarin, the city of Gzhatsk, Smolensk region, was renamed Gagarin. Gagarin's name was given to the Air Force Academy in the town of Monino near Moscow. A scholarship named after Gagarin was established for cadets of military aviation schools. The Cosmonaut Training Center, the research vessel of the Academy of Sciences, the streets and squares of many cities around the world are named after Gagarin.

In the village of Smelovka, not far from the landing site of the first cosmonaut, a memorial was erected. In the city of Gagarin there is a joint memorial house-museum, part of the exhibition of which can currently be seen on the website. One of the largest craters on the far side of the Moon (diameter 250 kilometers), located between the Tsiolkovsky crater and the Sea of ​​Dreams, also bears the name of the pioneer of the Universe.

April 1961

What made the twentieth century famous?
A MAN was launched into space!
And no one knew what would happen to him
Landed! Safe and sound!
A young, fair-haired guy!
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin!
He literally charmed everyone!
DO NOT forget that magic - smiles
And the whole world applauded him,
The Dacha Podlipki rejoiced!
Space is related to the cold
The snow glowed like stars in the sun!
That spring he may be like me
Fell in love with Yuri Gagarin?

Galina Gorlova

What was he like, Yuri Gagarin, the first cosmonaut on the planet? How and where did he spend his childhood? How and where did he study? How did you become an astronaut? Yuri Nagibin wrote about this in his book STORIES ABOUT GAGARIN. For middle school age.

A unique product, it contains everything you need. The package contains a flameless autonomous heater - CosmoGrelka. Now you can conduct a real chemical experiment without leaving your home or office. Alcohol wipe for disinfecting the neck of the tube and hands. CosmoKey - for ease of extrusion and, of course, an informational and educational insert that will not leave you without interesting story for evening.

"Captivating... Memorable... Candid... Perhaps best book Carl Sagan."The Washington Post Book World

“Taking the reader far into space... Sagan sees the future of humanity on other star systems.”
Chicago Tribune

“Irresistible, good old Sagan!”
San Francisco Chronicle

An outstanding popularizer of science, a wonderful storyteller, a passionate promoter of space, and a visionary, Carl Sagan believes that the desire to wander and expand the boundaries of knowledge is inherent in human nature and is connected with our survival as a species. His candid, engrossing book interweaves philosophical reflections with enthusiastic descriptions of triumphant exploration of planets and satellites, both by man and robotic missions to the Moon. By introducing us to our neighbors in space, Sagan not only enlightens and delights the reader, he also helps to understand how to protect the Earth.

On April 12, 1961, the world was shocked by the news that the Soviet Union had made its first flight into space. The first ever Vostok spacecraft with a person on board, piloted by Yuri Aleskeyevich Gagarin, was launched into orbit around the Earth.

This date has forever entered the history of mankind. The first space flight lasted 108 minutes. Nowadays, when multi-month expeditions are carried out on orbital space stations, it seems very short. But each of these minutes was a discovery of the unknown.

Yuri Gagarin's flight proved that man can live and work in space. This is how a new profession appeared on Earth - astronaut. In this article we will share with you little-known facts about the first flight into space.

The mystery of Soviet cosmonautics. Three cosmonauts died before Gagarin

Space veterans say the triumphant Soviet space program, which culminated with Yuri Gagarin's first flight into space, was marred by several tragedies that were kept secret from Russians and the world.

Former chief engineer of the Experimental Design Bureau No. 456 of the city of Khimki, Mikhail Rudenko, said that the three first victims were test pilots who flew into the outer layers of the atmosphere along parabolic trajectories - this means that they flew up and then crashed down without ever flying around Earth.

“All three died during the flights, but their names were not made public.”

- said Rudenko. He reported the names of the dead: Ledovskikh, Shaborin and Mitkov died in 1957, 1958 and 1959. According to Rudenko, the death of the test pilots forced the Soviet leadership to create a special school for training space pioneers. “They decided to pay more serious attention to training and create a special staff of astronauts,” he said.

And this is not to mention the fact that tragedies occurred not only in space, but also on Earth: during one of the training sessions, Valentin Bondarenko, the youngest candidate for cosmonaut, died right in the isolation chamber (an experimental chamber with low gravity). Irina Ponomareva, a space expert at the Institute of Biology and Medicine, who has been involved in work on the space program since 1959, says: “We tried to create the conditions that the astronaut would encounter in orbit, but a fire broke out in the chamber, it was impossible to save Bondarenko. That's the only thing I remember."

First flights into space. Running animals

It must be said that Belka and Strelka and Yuri Gagarin are far from the first living beings to conquer the territory of weightlessness. Before that, the dog Laika visited there, whose flight was prepared for 10 years and ended sadly - she died. Turtles, mice, and monkeys have also flown into space. The most striking flights, and there were only three of them, were made by a dog named Zhulka. Twice she launched on high-altitude rockets, the third time on a ship, which turned out to be not so perfect and suffered technical failures. The ship could not reach orbit, and a decision was considered to destroy it. But again problems occur in the system, and the ship ahead of schedule returns home falling. The satellite was discovered in Siberia. No one hoped for a successful outcome of the search, not to mention the dog. But after surviving a terrible accident, hunger and thirst, Zhulka was saved and lived for another 14 years after the fall.

On September 23, 1959, a rocket exploded right at the start, with the dogs Krasavka and Damka on board. On December 1, the launch was more successful: the dogs Pchelka and Mushka safely survived the launch, but due to the fact that the descent trajectory at the end of the flight turned out to be too steep, the ship burned down along with the animals in it

Usually mongrels were sent into space because purebred dogs are too nervous

says Vladimir Gubarev, a science journalist who has covered 50 space missions.

Three messages about the first flight into space

Shortly before the flight into space, three pre-launch addresses of the “first cosmonaut to to the Soviet people" The first was recorded by Yuri Gagarin, and two more by his understudies German Titov and Grigory Nelyubov. Interestingly, three texts of the TASS message about the first manned space flight were also prepared:
- in case of a successful flight
- in case a cosmonaut goes missing and it is necessary to organize a search for him
- in case of disaster.
All three messages were sealed in special envelopes numbered 1, 2, 3 and sent to radio, television and TASS.
The media received clear instructions on April 12, 1961 to open only the envelope whose number was indicated by the Kremlin, and to immediately destroy the remaining messages.

Poems on the first flight into space

Yuri Gagarin admitted in one of his many interviews that during his flight into space he recalled the poems of his favorite poet Sergei Yesenin. During a meeting with cultural figures, which took place a week after world's first space flight, Gagarin left the following note on a book with poems by his beloved poet:

“I love Sergei Yesenin’s poems and respect him as a person who loves Mother Russia”

This unique book is in the center of the exhibition “O Rus', flap your wings!..” at the Moscow State Museum of S.A. Yesenin.

Audio recording, transcript of the first flight

Conversation between Gagarin and Korolev during the first flight into space. The transcript is shortened.

On the eve of the launch, on April 11 at five o'clock in the morning, the rocket was taken to the launch pad. During the day, all tests of the carrier and the ship at the launch position as required by the instructions were carried out. Almost everyone responsible for the system, before signing in the journal for the operation performed, said: “Ugh, ugh, ugh, so as not to jinx it - no comments!”

One of the developers recalls spaceship"East" academician Boris Rauschenbakh:

On this pre-launch day, from 10 o’clock, Konstantin Feoktistov conducted classes with the cosmonauts...

At 13:00, Yuri Gagarin met with soldiers, sergeants and combat crew officers at the launch pad. Sergey Korolev, Mstislav Keldysh, and industry representatives were present. Nikolai Kamanin introduced Senior Lieutenant Gagarin to the audience. Yuri Alekseevich “made a short but heartfelt speech, thanking those present for their great work in preparing the launch of the ship.”

Sergei Pavlovich Korolev insisted on the need for such a meeting (which later became a good tradition for all cosmonauts embarking on a flight). Here's how one of the rocket scientists remembers this episode:

Nikolay Kamanin: “...in the “marshal’s” house, together with Yura, I tried a very hearty, but not particularly tasty, cosmonaut’s lunch in tubes of 160 grams each: for the first - sorrel puree with meat, for the second - meat pate and for the third - chocolate sauce. Yura feels great. Blood pressure - 115/60, pulse - 64, temperature - 36.8... He was fitted with sensors to record physiological functions in flight. This procedure lasted 1 hour and 20 minutes, but had no effect on his mood.

He loves Russian songs very much - the tape recorder works continuously. Yura sits opposite me and says: “I’m leaving tomorrow, but I still don’t believe that I’ll fly, and I’m surprised at my calmness.” To my question: “When did you find out that you would fly first?”, he replied: “I always considered my and Herman’s chances of flying to be equal, and only after you announced your decision to us did I believe in the good fortune that had befallen me make the first flight into space."

Yura and I spent several minutes clarifying tomorrow’s daily routine. In order to fly around the globe, it takes only an hour and a half, and the astronaut needs to board the ship 2 hours before the launch and wait for the flight to begin. We must admit the imperfection of such an organization of preparation for the start. This question occupied me, Korolev and the doctors. We tried to reduce the waiting time for an astronaut to fly to at least 1 hour 30 minutes, but nothing came of it. It takes more than an hour just to close the hatch and remove the installer and the trusses. Checking the spacesuit, communications and ship equipment takes 20 minutes. We all understand perfectly well that waiting inactively for the launch is a very unpleasant necessity for an astronaut, and therefore I will keep Yura busy with radio conversations and inform him about the progress of preparations for the flight.

...At 21.30 Korolev came in, said good night and went to bed. Yura and German are also getting ready to sleep, I hear their conversation in the next room. So, tomorrow the greatest feat will be accomplished - the world's first human flight into space. And this feat will be accomplished by a modest Soviet man in the uniform of an Air Force senior lieutenant - Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin. Now his name means nothing to anyone, but tomorrow it will fly around the whole world, and humanity will never forget him.”

April 12, 1961. Legendary: "Let's go!"

At 5.00 the ship's refueling begins.

At 5.30, Colonel of the Medical Service Evgeniy Karpov wakes up Yuri Gagarin and German Titov.

At 6.00 a meeting of the State Commission took place. It was surprisingly simple and short. All reports boiled down to one phrase: “There are no comments, everything is ready, there are no questions, we can launch.”

At this time, a medical car arrives at the start. They bring food, put it on the ship...

After Yuri Gagarin and German Titov were dressed in spacesuits, “USSR” was carefully written on their helmets in red nitro paint. Somehow they didn’t think about this before - they realized it at the last moment: so that when the Soviet space conqueror landed, they wouldn’t inadvertently be mistaken for a foreign intelligence officer...

At the launch pad everyone is waiting for the astronauts.

At about 7 o'clock in the morning a bus appears on the concrete road. It's getting closer. It stops almost right next to the rocket.

The front door opens and Gagarin appears in a bright orange spacesuit. A short report to the Chairman of the State Commission, last parting words...

There were many more people who saw off and hugged Gagarin before boarding the elevator than were provided for by the somewhere agreed upon schedule. Instead of wishing them a safe journey, some said goodbye and even cried... Sparing but reliable newsreel footage of this moment was preserved - the merit of the cameramen of the Mosnauchfilm studio.

And now the elevator takes Yuri to the top of the rocket. Together with the cosmonaut, the leading designer of the spacecraft, Oleg Ivanovsky, went up in the elevator and helped Gagarin settle into the descent module.

At 7.10, communication was established between the launch complex bunker and the Vostok ship. Before Chief Designer Sergei Korolev descended into the bunker, contact with Yuri Gagarin was maintained by Nikolai Kamanin, Yuri Bykov (chief designer of NII-695 of the State Committee of the USSR Council of Ministers for Radio Electronics) and Pavel Popovich...

After closing the ship's entrance hatch, the indicator on the control panel in the bunker did not work, confirming the tightness. At about 8 o'clock in the morning, the re-opening and closing of the hatch with checking the end contact was carried out promptly (the hatch cover was secured with 32 nuts!) by O.G. Ivanovsky and fitter V.I. Morozov. No other emergency situations were recorded at the start of Vostok.

Everyone was worried about the question: how will a person feel in space? Will weightlessness, for example, affect the activity of his activities, the adequacy of his reactions, and his ability to make the right decisions?

The Vostoks provided for a fully automated ship control cycle: from launch to landing. And only if the automation failed, the astronaut had to switch to manual control. However, first he had to overcome a special “logical lock” - dial a certain three-digit number on the six-button remote control and only after that could turn on manual control.

Out of fear of the astronaut's unpredictable actions, they decided not to tell him the code in advance. A sealed concert with a "magic number" was taped to the interior lining of the cabin next to Yuri's chair. It was enough to break the seal to see the treasured number behind the opened petals of the envelope. But here’s what’s curious: many years later it turned out that the “magic number” - 125 - became known to Gagarin on Earth before the launch. The leading designer of the Vostok spacecraft, Oleg Ivanovsky, and the instructor-methodologist of the cosmonaut group, Mark Gallai, took care of this. They could not come to terms with the decision to hide from the astronaut, even for the time being, the opportunity to switch to manual control...

Memoirs of the launch participants on April 12, 1961 (these fragments of the interview were first heard five years after the Vostok launch - in the spring of 1966):

Maintenance farms are allocated. A five-minute readiness was announced... One minute readiness... Finally, the last commands of the launcher A.S. Kirillov came: “Key to the start!” - “There is a key to start!” - “Start!” - and, obeying the last command, the operator pressed the button. There was a volcanic roar of engines, the rocket slowly took off from the launch pad and, quickly picking up speed, disappeared from view. "Go!"

A television camera was installed in the pilot’s cabin, which transmitted the picture to the launch complex - a new piece of equipment at that time, the Tral-T system (which, however, had very modest characteristics: the number of lines per frame was only 100, and not 625 as in conventional television; frame transmission rate - 10 Hz; number of brightness gradations - 8). But this was the world's first space television! And the negotiations between Sergei Korolev (call sign “Zarya 1”) and Yuri Gagarin (call sign “Kedr”) were recorded on film at the launch complex and on the spacecraft’s on-board tape recorder:

There is no other audio or newsreel of the launch of the Vostok spacecraft, which can also be considered authentic. Everything at the cosmodrome was kept in the strictest secrecy. At the time of the rocket launch, the cameramen sent to Baikonur were taken to a “safe distance”... six kilometers from the launch pad.

In fairness, it should be noted that, starting from the next human launch into outer space (the flight of German Titov on August 6, 1961), a small group of journalists was always present at Baikonur (they were called the “cosmodrome press”) - representatives of news agencies, central newspapers, radio and television. Thanks to them, over time, an impressive library, sound and film library of the life of the cosmodrome was collected.

Journalistic work at Baikonur quickly acquired its own style and gave rise to certain traditions. For example, the sole use of the information received and observations made was strictly prohibited. All parts go into a common pot, and how to handle them is everyone’s personal business.

TASS scientific observer Alexander Romanov became the first correspondent accredited to Baikonur. The team of journalists covering space launches in the 1960s included Nikolai Denisov, Sergei Borzenko, Vasily Peskov, Yuri Letunov, Yaroslav Golovanov, Viktor Bolkhovitinov, Vladimir Gubarev, Boris Konovalov and others.

The famous footage of Sergei Korolev communicating from the launch pad bunker with Yuri Gagarin, who was in the spaceship, was filmed much later on April 12, 1961 - especially for documentary films.

Once again, all the main participants in the launch of the Vostok spacecraft were gathered at the cosmodrome and the reenactment was effectively filmed on color film. historical event. It is quite possible that such pseudo-documentary (or, to use the modern term, “reconstruction of events”), given the total secrecy in the USSR of everything related to astronautics, gave some journalists and writers reason to doubt: did Gagarin really fly into space? Listen and compare the previous recording (recording from tape) with this fragment of newsreel sound:

Man in space! At 9:07 a.m. (in the technical report, the launch time is 09:06:59.7) on April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin went down in history.

From the diary entries of Nikolai Kamanin: “The start went great. Overloads at the launch site did not have a noticeable effect on the astronaut's voice. Radio communication was good... At the moment of communication transfer from the launch to Kolpashevo there were several unpleasant seconds: the cosmonaut did not hear us, and we did not hear him. I don’t know what I looked like at that moment, but Korolev, who was standing next to me, was very worried: when he took the microphone, his hands were shaking, his voice was breaking, his face was distorted and changed beyond recognition. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when Kolpashevo and Moscow reported that communication with the astronaut had been restored and that the spacecraft had entered orbit."

From the memoirs of the cosmonaut’s mother Anna Timofeevna Gagarina:

“That day I was at home, and my daughter Zoya and son Boris and his wife were getting ready for work. I was cleaning and turned off the radio. Suddenly Marusya, the wife of her eldest son, Valentina, comes running, cries and says:

At the station I went to the railway ticket office and handed in ten rubles. The ticket costs two ninety - I took ten kopecks in change and forgot the rest. The cashier shouts: “Give her back, she left the change!” I walked up, took the money, and thanked him. Then I remember sitting in the carriage, not talking to anyone. And our Gzhat soldiers were riding there. One man came up to me, with tears in his eyes, shook my hand tightly and silently left.

I arrived in Moscow and changed trains. And people are already talking about Yuri. His photograph had already been shown on television and it was said that he had a wife and two daughters. And I sit quietly and say to myself: “This is my son!” Well, people heard - how? Some people have mistrust. In a hurry, I didn’t put on a coat, but a quilt. I think: well, what should I do there, I’m not going anywhere! I’ll just take the child to kindergarten and wear something for Valino. After all, just recently, on March 25, I left them. I brought Yura’s wife from the maternity hospital and returned to my village - the children sent me a telegram: their father was sick.

And then one of the incredulous ones asks: “What are his children’s names?” I say: “The eldest is Lenochka, but I don’t know the youngest, because my father was not at home, and my mother did not dare to name her without Yura!” And the youngest, they tell me, is called Galya. Well, maybe Galei, I say. They called it while I was in the village...”

TASS report on the world's first human flight into outer space:

“On April 12, 1961, in the Soviet Union, the world’s first spacecraft-satellite “Vostok” with a person on board was launched into orbit around the Earth.

The pilot-cosmonaut of the Vostok spacecraft is a citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics pilot Major Gagarin Yuri Alekseevich.

The launch of the multi-stage space rocket was successful, and after reaching the first cosmic speed and separation from the last stage of the launch vehicle, the satellite began a free flight in orbit around the Earth.

According to preliminary data, the period of revolution of the satellite ship around the Earth is 89 point one minute; the minimum distance from the Earth's surface (at perigee) is 175 kilometers, and the maximum distance (at apogee) is 302 kilometers; The angle of inclination of the orbital plane to the equator is 65 degrees 4 minutes.

The weight of the spacecraft-satellite with the pilot-cosmonaut is 4 thousand 725 kilograms, excluding the weight of the final stage of the launch vehicle.

Two-way radio communication has been established and maintained with cosmonaut Comrade Gagarin. The frequency of onboard shortwave transmitters is 9 point 19 thousandths of a megahertz and 20 point 6 thousandths of a megahertz, and in the ultrashort wave range 143 point 625 thousandths of a megahertz. Using radio telemetry and television systems, the astronaut's condition is monitored during flight.

Cosmonaut Comrade Gagarin endured the period of launching the Vostok satellite into orbit satisfactorily and is currently feeling well. The systems that provide the necessary living conditions in the cabin of the satellite ship are functioning normally.

The flight of the Vostok satellite with pilot-cosmonaut Comrade Gagarin in orbit continues.”

Messages from space:

“According to data received from the Vostok spacecraft, at nine o’clock twenty-two minutes Moscow time, pilot-cosmonaut Major Gagarin, being above South America, conveyed: “The flight is going well, I feel good.”

At 10:15 a.m. Moscow time, pilot-cosmonaut Major Gagarin, flying over Africa, transmitted from the Vostok spacecraft: “The flight is proceeding normally, I can tolerate the state of weightlessness well.”

The morning of April 12 kept all employees of the All-Union Radio in suspense... It should be noted that three TASS reports were prepared about Yuri Gagarin’s flight into space. The first is “About a successful flight.” It was to be announced immediately after the spacecraft was launched into orbit. If, for example, an astronaut “in the event of a satellite’s failure to enter orbit due to lack of speed” descended into the ocean or landed on the territory of another state, then the information about the launch of the spacecraft would have facilitated the rapid organization of rescue, and would also “exclude declaration by any foreign state of an astronaut as a spy for military purposes.” The second TASS message is “On the successful return of a person from space flight” and the third (“Appeal to the governments of other countries”) with a request to states to assist in saving the astronaut.

And then the long-awaited telephone call rang out in the radio committee, followed by the chatter of a teletype...

TASS message “On the successful return of man from the first space flight”:

“After successfully carrying out the planned research and completing the flight program, on April 12, 1961, at 10:55 a.m. Moscow time, the Soviet spacecraft Vostok made a safe landing in a given area of ​​the Soviet Union.

Pilot-cosmonaut Major Gagarin said: “Please report to the party and the government that the landing went well, I feel good, I have no injuries or bruises.”

The implementation of human flight into outer space opens up great prospects for the conquest of space by mankind.

Of all the spacecraft systems, the landing system was particularly complex. Fearing overload, when hitting the ground, it was decided not to risk lowering the astronaut in the apparatus itself. The system was made two-stage: the descent vehicle and the astronaut landed separately!

At an altitude of 7 kilometers, the hatch was shot off, through which the astronaut ejected along with the chair. The astronaut was in free fall, waiting for his parachute to open, to an altitude of 4 kilometers. Finally, the main parachute opened, and then the chair separated and fell freely. The descent vehicle, using its own parachute, landed next to...

Due to a failure in the braking system, the landing did not take place in the planned area (the estimated landing point of the ship was 110 kilometers south of Stalingrad), but with a flight relative to the calculation - in the Saratov region, not far from the city of Engels (near the village of Smelovka) on the field of the Leninsky collective farm path".

At 10.48, the surveillance radar of the radio technical guidance point of the Engels airfield recorded a target in the southwestern direction at an altitude of 8 kilometers and a distance of 33 kilometers. The target was tracked by the radar to the Earth.

The first to notice the spacecraft's descent module was the collective farm mechanic Anatoly Mishanin. He was riding a motorcycle along the edge of a field and stopped at a strange two-meter metal ball. I wasn't afraid to approach. Touched it. The casing of the device was still hot.

Anatoly climbed inside the open hatch and saw the control panel. Everything was wonderful: there were light filters on the windows, signs, buttons, handles all around. The collective farmer was especially struck by a small globe and space food in tubes that resembled toothpaste.

Mishanin began handing out the astronaut's emergency food supply to the villagers who ran up...

Everyone tried to tear off a piece of the skin from the descent module: maybe it would be useful on the farm (the photo shows how much the collective farmers managed to pluck spacecraft):

But the military arrived in time and surrounded the capsule with an improvised fence: wooden pegs and a cord. The engineers of the special search service of the Air Force, who arrived next, took instrument readings, turned off the power, and recorded the position of the handles and toggle switches.

Having picked up one of the crowbars that local residents had dragged to dismantle the device, the military knocked out a historical date on it with a chisel and hammered it into a hole next to the Vostok.

Afterwards, KGB workers who arrived at the landing area began to confiscate parts of the spacecraft from the local population. Cynologists with dogs were sent from Saratov to help the specialists. Collective farmers gave away the “souvenirs” captured from the “East” with tears in their eyes...

And a resident of the village of Smelovka, the wife of a forester, Anna Takhtarova, and her six-year-old granddaughter Rita were closest to Yuri Gagarin’s landing site. At that time they were planting potatoes in the garden and watched as a parachutist in an unusual orange robe landed in a field not far from the house...

The documents record the astronaut's landing at 11:00.

Later, in an interview, Anna Akimovna Takhtarova recalled: “At first I was scared, I ran away from him, and then I looked back, and he... was smiling.”

On the eve of 1962, Yuri Gagarin, a graduate of the Saratov flying club, recorded the following audio letter addressed to Anna Takhtarova and the Saratov pilots:

A team flew out from the Engels airfield in a Mi-4 helicopter to search for the landed cosmonaut. But Gagarin was not near the descent module. Local residents reported that the astronaut left for the city in a truck. The helicopter headed for Engels. On the road, a truck was seen from which Gagarin was waving his arms. He was picked up, and the helicopter flew to the base, sending a radiogram: “The astronaut has been taken on board, I am heading to the airfield.”

They were already waiting for Gagarin there. The entire base leadership was present. The astronaut was presented with a congratulatory telegram from the Soviet government. On the Pobeda, Yuri Alekseevich was taken to the control center, and then to the base headquarters, for communication with Moscow. By noon, two planes arrived at the airfield from Baikonur. Il-18 and An-10, on which were Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force Philip Agaltsov and a group of journalists.

During three hours, while contacts were being established with Moscow, Gagarin gave interviews and was photographed. With the advent of communication, he personally reported to Brezhnev and Khrushchev about the flight.

The astronaut's return to Earth was reported in Main Headquarters Air Force: “Gagarin landed safely 23 kilometers from Saratov and a few minutes later he called Moscow himself...”

Yuri Alekseevich was expected at the factory airfield in Kuibyshev, as planned in advance.

“By this time a significant crowd of people had already gathered here,- Nikolai Kamanin wrote in his diary on April 12, 1961. - The following arrived: the secretary of the Kuibyshev regional committee of the CPSU, the chairman of the regional executive committee, the commander of the district air force and other leaders. The arrival of the authorities increased the influx of workers to the airfield from the plant territory. I had to order the commander of the Il-14 plane, on which Gagarin and Agaltsov arrived, to taxi to the farthest parking lot.

Before we had time to drive up to the plane in our cars, a large crowd formed here too. The door of the plane opened, and Yura was the first to descend - he was wearing a winter flight helmet and a blue spacesuit. All nine hours that passed from the moment he boarded the spacecraft until this meeting at the Kuibyshev airfield, I was worried and worried about him, as if I were my own son. We hugged tightly and kissed. Cameras were clicking from all sides, the crowd of people was growing. There was a danger of a big crush, and although Yura was smiling, he looked very overtired. The hugging and kissing had to stop. I asked Agaltsov and Yura to get into the car and immediately go to the regional committee’s dacha. About three hours later, Rudnev, Korolev, Keldysh and other members of the commission arrived from Tyura-Tam...

At about ten o'clock in the evening everyone gathered at the table. Six cosmonauts, members of the State Commission, and regional leaders were present... They made toasts, but drank very little - it was felt that everyone was very tired. At eleven o'clock we went to our bedrooms. Thus ended this anxious, joyful, victorious day.

Humanity will never forget the day of April 12, 1961, and Gagarin’s name will forever go down in history and be one of the most famous.”

President of the United States of America Kennedy congratulated Soviet scientists and engineers on their outstanding achievement - launching a spacecraft with a man on board and returning it safely to earth.

“The achievement of the USSR in putting a man into orbit and returning him safely to earth,” Kennedy said, “represents an outstanding technological success. We congratulate the Soviet scientists and engineers who made this feat possible.

Research our solar system“is a goal that we and all of humanity share with the Soviet Union, and this success is an important step towards this goal.”

Here's what People's Artist of the Soviet Union Olga Lepeshinskaya told us:

What we heard on the radio today is so magnificent that it is difficult to find words to define how much it means to humanity.

I just flew from Tselinograd and I really regret that this amazing news did not find me there. I really wanted to hear about it among those wonderful people we met in the virgin lands.

A portrait of Yuri Gagarin was shown on TV. Apparently he is young, very young. We met others like him, his peers, in Tselinograd, and I thought, looking at this brave, simple Soviet man that there are many people like him in our country.

Our Soviet Union and all progressive humanity are proud of Yuri Gagarin, because they move time forward.

Professor Boris Vasiliev, one of the developers of the radio-electronic equipment of the Vostok spacecraft, recalls the events at the cosmodrome on April 12, 1961:

From the release of “Last News” of the All-Union Radio

Soon after the announcement of the successful completion of the first space flight and the landing of Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin in a given area, a telephone conversation took place between comrade Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev and the first cosmonaut Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin. This happened at 13:00 Moscow time. Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev was informed that Yuri Gagarin wanted to talk to him.

“I will be very pleased to talk with Comrade Gagarin,” said Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev.

Picking up the phone, Nikita Sergeevich says:

Glad to hear from you, dear Yuri Alekseevich.

Gagarin. I have just received your welcome telegram, in which you congratulate me on the successful completion of the world's first space flight. I sincerely thank you, Nikita Sergeevich, for this congratulation. I am happy to report to you that the first space flight has been successfully completed.

Khrushchev. I cordially welcome and congratulate you, dear Yuri Alekseevich. You were the first in the world to make a space flight. With your feat you glorified our Motherland, showed courage and heroism in carrying out such an important task, with your feat you made yourself an immortal man, because you were the first of people to penetrate into space.

Tell me, Yuri Alekseevich, how did you feel during the flight, how did this first space flight proceed?

Gagarin. I felt good. The flight was very successful, all the equipment of the spacecraft worked well. During the flight, I saw the earth from a great height. Seas, mountains, big cities, rivers, forests were visible.

Khrushchev. Would you say you felt good?

Gagarin. You said it correctly, Nikita Sergeevich, I felt good in the spaceship, like at home. Thank you again for your heartfelt congratulations and greetings on the successful completion of the flight.

Khrushchev. I am glad to hear your voice and greet you. I will be glad to meet you in Moscow. Together with you, together with all our people, we will solemnly celebrate this great feat in space exploration. Let the whole world look and see what our country is capable of, what our great people, our Soviet science.

Gagarin. Let all countries now catch up with us!

Khrushchev. Right! I am very glad that your voice sounds cheerful and confident, that you are in such a wonderful mood. You are right in saying that let the capitalist countries catch up with our country, which paved the way to space and sent the world’s first cosmonaut. We are all proud of this great victory.

Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan is present here, he conveys his heartfelt congratulations and greetings to you.

Gagarin. Please convey my gratitude to Anastas Ivanovich and best regards to him.

Khrushchev. Tell me, Yuri Alekseevich, do you have a wife or children?

Gagarin. There is also a wife, Valentina Ivanovna, and two daughters, Lena and Galya.

Khrushchev. Did your wife know that you would fly into space?

Gagarin. Yes, I knew, Nikita Sergeevich.

Khrushchev. Please convey my heartfelt greetings to your wife and your children. Let your daughters grow up and be proud of their father, who accomplished such a great feat in the name of our Soviet Motherland.

Gagarin. Thank you, Nikita Sergeevich. I will convey your greetings to them and will forever remember your heartfelt words.

Khrushchev. Are your parents, mother and father, alive? Where are they now, what are they doing?

Gagarin. Father and mother are alive, they live in the Smolensk region.

Khrushchev. Please convey my heartfelt congratulations to your father and mother. They have the right to be proud of their son, who accomplished such a great feat.

Gagarin. Thank you very much, Nikita Sergeevich. I will pass on your words to my father and mother. They will be happy and deeply grateful to you, our party and the Soviet government.

Khrushchev. Not only your parents, but our entire Soviet Motherland is proud of your great feat, Yuri Alekseevich. You have accomplished a feat that will live for centuries.

Once again I sincerely greet you on the successful completion of your first space flight. See you soon in Moscow. Wish you all the best.

Gagarin. Thank you, Nikita Sergeevich. Once again I thank you, my dear Communist Party, the Soviet government for the great trust placed in me, and I assure you that I will continue to be ready to fulfill any task of the Soviet Motherland. Goodbye, dear Nikita Sergeevich.

P.S. The White House learned about Gagarin's flight immediately.

Fifteen minutes after the Vostok launch, signals from the spacecraft were detected by observers from the American Shamiya radar station located in the Aleutian Islands. Five minutes later, an urgent encryption message was sent to the Pentagon. The night duty officer, having received her, immediately called Jerome Weisner, an adviser to President Kennedy, at home. Sleepy Weisner looked at his watch. It was 1:30 am Washington time. Exactly 23 minutes have passed since Gagarin's launch...

NASA leaders and American astronauts were informed of this event at 4 a.m. (Washington time). For Alan Shepard, who was being trained as the first astronaut of the United States of America, this news came as a major shock:

“...In the middle of the night the call rang. Waking up from a deep sleep, I did not immediately understand what was happening and reached for the telephone receiver.

Is this Commander Shepard?

Yes, it's Shepard.

Have you heard the news?

I listened carefully.

What news?

The Russians sent a man into space!

I sat on the bed, rubbing my eyes.

What did they do? - I asked again.

They sent a man into orbit.

The telephone receiver almost fell out of my hand. I sat silently for several seconds.

Are you joking?

The caller was an engineer from NASA.

“I would never allow myself to do that, commander,” he said, somewhat apologizing for delivering such shocking news. - They did it. They launched a man into orbit.

I politely thanked the engineer and hung up. The same thought was spinning in my head: “I could have been there three weeks ago”...

April 12, 1961- Yuri Gagarin made the world's first flight into space. Before leaving the Earth, he uttered the historic word: “Let's go!” Gagarin spent 1 hour and 48 minutes in low-Earth orbit, once flying around the planet on the Vostok-1 spacecraft. He landed on the banks of the Volga River.

• How it was... First, I would like to remind you a little life path Yuri Alekseevich.

Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin was born on March 9, 1934, in the city of Gzhatsk, Smolensk region. His mother, Anna Timofeevna, and father, Alexey Ivanovich, were ordinary rural workers from the village of Klushino, Gzhatsky district.

Having survived the difficult time of the German occupation, the Gagarin family moved from Klushino to the city of Gzhatsk in 1945. After graduating from school, Yuri entered Lyubertsy vocational school 10 on September 30, 1949, from which he graduated in June with a degree in molding and foundry. In August he entered the Saratov Industrial College. In 1954 (October 25) he began training at the Saratov flying club. In 1955 he graduated with honors from the Saratov Industrial College, and on October 10 of the same year he graduated from the Saratov Aero Club. On October 27, 1957, Yuri Gagarin married Valentina Ivanovna Goryacheva, who became his faithful companion for many years. Two daughters grew up in their family - Lena and Galya.

December 26 he was called to a new assignment: a fighter aviation regiment of the Northern Fleet. Having learned about the recruitment of candidates for testing new flight equipment, Gagarin wrote a report on December 9, 1959, asking to be included in such a group, and after being called on December 18, he went to Moscow, to the Central research aviation hospital for health examination.

March 3, 1960 Aviation Lieutenant General Kamanin presented a group of selected pilots - cosmonaut candidates - to the Air Force Commander-in-Chief, Air Chief Marshal Vershinin. On March 11, Gagarin and his family left for a new place of work. On March 25, regular classes began under the cosmonaut training program. On April 12, Gagarin was the first earthling to fly into space on the Vostok-1 spacecraft. For this feat, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and the day of Gagarin's flight into space was declared a holiday - Cosmonautics Day, starting on April 12, 1962.

In 1966 Gagarin was elected an Honorary Member of the International Academy of Astronautics, and in 1964 he was appointed commander of the Soviet cosmonaut corps. In June 1966, Gagarin had already begun training under the Soyuz program. He was appointed as Komarov's backup, who made the first flight on the new ship. His own flight was just around the corner... Gagarin is defending his graduation project at the Air Force Engineering Academy. Zhukovsky. February 17, 1968 Yuri Alekseevich defended his studies at the VVIA named after. Professor Zhukovsky's graduation project. The State Examination Commission awarded Colonel Yu.A. Gagarin qualified as a pilot-engineer-cosmonaut. Before last days Gagarin served as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In honor of Gagarin, his hometown of Gzhatsk was renamed Gagarin. His name remains forever in Space, which he rediscovered for humanity: one of the largest (250 km in diameter) craters on the far side of the Moon is named Gagarin. And what is symbolic is that it is located between the Tsiolkovsky crater and the Sea of ​​Dreams. In 1968. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale has established the Gagarin Medal, which is awarded to individuals who have made a special contribution to aviation and astronautics. The name Gagarin has long become a household name for pioneers in any field of activity, along with the name of Columbus. Gagarin’s life motto was the phrase he wrote in his diary shortly before his death, on March 12: I have no stronger desire than the desire to fly. The pilot must fly. Always fly. March 27, 1968 year, he died under unclear circumstances near the village of Novoselovo, Kirzhach district, Vladimir region, during one of the training flights. He was buried near the Kremlin wall on Red Square.

And now, about the flight itself in the words of eyewitnesses...

3 hours 00 minutes(hereinafter Moscow time). Final checks of the spacecraft began at the launch pad. Sergei Pavlovich Korolev was present. 5 hours 30 minutes. Evgeny Anatolyevich Karpov entered the bedroom and shook Gagarin by the shoulder: - Yura, it’s time to get up... He jumped up. German Titov also stood up, humming a humorous song. The doctor shook his head with satisfaction - the astronauts were cheerful. After exercise - breakfast. The astronauts enjoyed the meat puree, then blackcurrant jam and coffee. Squeezing out another tube, Yuri couldn’t resist making a joke: “Such food is only good for weightlessness - on the ground you can stretch your legs from it... 6 hours 00 minutes. The meeting of the State Commission has begun. It was very short: “everything is ready.” After the meeting, the flight assignment for Cosmonaut-1 was finally signed. German Titov was the first to be put into a spacesuit. Gagarin - the second, in order to sweat less (the ventilation device could be connected to a power source only on the bus). When Yuri was dressed, the cosmodrome workers asked him for autographs. Yuri was surprised - it was the first time in his life that he had been approached with such a request. The cosmonauts left the house and were met by Sergei Pavlovich. He was tired and anxious - apparently, the sleepless night was taking its toll. Gagarin would later say about this meeting: “He gave me several recommendations and advice that I had never heard before and that could be useful to me on the flight. It seemed to me that after seeing us and talking to us, he became somewhat more cheerful... A few minutes later, a special blue bus was already rushing to the starting site. 6 hours 50 minutes. Gagarin got off the bus. Many mourners knew him personally. Everyone was filled with excitement. Everyone wanted to hug Yura goodbye. Andriyan Nikolaev, having forgotten in his haste that Gagarin was already wearing a helmet, wanted to kiss him and hit his forehead on the visor, so much so that a bump appeared on his forehead. After the report on readiness to the Chairman of the State Commission, Yuri made a statement for the press and radio. This statement was contained on several tens of meters of tape tape. Five hours later it became a sensation... Being on the iron platform in front of the entrance to the cabin, Gagarin raised both hands in greeting - farewell to those who remained on Earth. Then he disappeared into the cabin. Below, with their heads raised up in fascination, stood both the Chief Designer and Yura's friends - all those who saw him off on his flight. 7 hours 10 minutes. Gagarin's voice appeared on the air. 8 hours 10 minutes. 50-minute readiness announced. The only problem has been fixed. It was discovered when closing hatch No. 1. They quickly opened it and fixed everything. 8 hours 30 minutes. 30-minute readiness. It was announced to Titov that he could take off his spacesuit and go to the observation point, where all the specialists had already gathered. The name of the person who will be the first to leave the planet is now definitively known - GAGARIN. 8 hours 50 minutes. N.P. Kamanin says: A ten-minute readiness has been announced. How is your pressure helmet closed? Report back. Gagarin: I understand - a ten-minute readiness has been announced. The helmet is closed. Everything is fine, I feel good, I’m ready to start. 9 hours 6 minutes. Korolev: Minute readiness, do you hear? Gagarin: I understand you - minute readiness. Took the starting position. 9 hours 7 minutes. Korolev (excitedly): The ignition of “Kedr” is given. Gagarin (“Kedr”): I understand you - the ignition is given. Korolev: Preliminary stage... Intermediate... Main... Rise! Gagarin (shouting): Let's go!.. 9 hours 9 minutes. First stage department. Gagarin should hear this stage separate and feel that the vibration has sharply decreased. Acceleration increases, as do g-forces. At the observation point they are waiting for Gagarin's report... There is silence in the speakers. - “Cedar”, how do you feel? The speakers hum, there is no familiar voice. - “Cedar”, answer! All attention to the speakers. -"Cedar"! Get in touch! I am “twentieth”. - And into another microphone: - Communication! Fast! “Twentieth” - Korolev. Still - silence. Unhappy thoughts come. Sudden depressurization? Fainting from growing overloads? Suddenly Gagarin's voice: - Reset of the head fairing... I see the Earth... How beautiful!.. Only at that moment many of those present realized: a man in space! Everyone was filled with joy and fun. The unrest subsided due to unexpected silence. As it turned out later, there was a failure in the communication line for just a few seconds. But these seconds cost Korolev his gray hair. 9 hours 22 minutes. The radio signals of the Soviet spacecraft were detected by observers from the American Shamiya radar station located in the Aleutian Islands. Five minutes later, the encryption went to the Pentagon. The night duty officer, having received her, immediately called the home of Dr. Jerome Weisner, President Kennedy's Chief Scientific Advisor. Sleepy Dr. Weisner glanced at his watch. It was 1 hour 30 minutes Washington time. 23 minutes have passed since the start of Vostok. There was a report to the president - the Russians were ahead of the Americans. 9 hours 57 minutes. Yuri Gagarin reported that he was flying over America. At these moments, the TASS message about the launch of the spacecraft sounds at the control center. It was a little late - the order to award senior lieutenant Gagarin the rank of major was pending signature. 10 hours 13 minutes. Teletypes have finished transmitting the first TASS message. Hundreds of correspondents from small and large countries stormed the building of the Telegraph Agency. The editorial offices of all the newspapers in the world began to run around - they had to have time to remake them. “News of the Century” should have become the highlight of all today's press. “The Soviet Union, which first launched in 1957 artificial satellite Earth, the first to reach the moon in 1959, finally the first to return animals to Earth from space last year, has just given the world its Christopher Columbus of outer space.” This is what the French said. The Americans, Italians, Germans, and British did not lag behind them. Yuri Gagarin became close to all peoples of the globe. But most of all, of course, the Motherland was worried and worried about him. 10 hours 25 minutes. The braking propulsion system turned on, and the ship began to descend. Landing is the most critical stage of space flight: an error of one meter per second at a speed of 8000 meters per second deviates the landing point by as much as 50 kilometers... 10 hours 55 minutes. A burnt iron ball hit the plowed soil - the field of the Leninsky Put collective farm, southwest of the city of Engels, not far from the village of Smelovka. Yuri Gagarin landed nearby by parachute. The first person to see Yuri Gagarin was Anna Akimovna Takhtarova. She became known throughout the world as the person who first met the astronaut. She said this: “I raised my head, I saw a man walking in my direction. I was taken aback - that man was dressed very strangely, not like us. And he appeared unexpectedly - out of the blue, out of the blue. Then I look: the man is smiling. And his smile was so sincere that all my fear disappeared…” A few minutes later, sports commissar Ivan Borisenko, who was in a special search group, asked Gagarin to present his identification (this was required by the sports code). Then, having written down all the necessary information and checked the identification marks of the spacecraft, on which there was the inscription “Vostok - USSR,” he registered three absolute space records: -flight duration record - 108 minutes. -record for flight altitude - 327 kilometers. -the record for the maximum load lifted to this height is 4725 kilograms. A few more hours later, the plane carrying Yuri Gagarin headed for Kuibyshev. At this time, a tailor was called and ordered to sew a new suit for Gagarin within 24 hours. After the airfield, Gagarin went to the hotel. It was located on the high bank of the Volga. The doctors decided to give the astronaut the opportunity to rest a little. Then Gagarin and Titov went out to wander along the banks of the Volga. Nature miraculously harmonized with their mood. Herman, noticing that Yuri was thoughtful, asked: “Do you dream that someday the two of us will be like this, wandering along the banks of a Martian river, admiring the setting Sun and the little star Earth?” -That would be great! - Gagarin laughed. The day was so long - Yuri counted every second, and so short - everything happened so quickly that it was hard to believe that it was a dream. 22 hours 00 minutes. An earthly dinner was organized. Toasts were made. We talked about the future of humanity. But fatigue set in, closed his eyelids, pressed heavily on his shoulders so that everyone who was entrusted with Yuri that day hugged him for the last time and wished him good dreams and went their separate ways. The light in the window went out. The clock showed 23.00.