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 an interesting story for the evening.

"Captivating... Memorable... Revealing... Perhaps Carl Sagan's best book." 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, at 9:07 am Moscow time, the Vostok-1 spacecraft launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. For the first time in history, a spacecraft with a person on board entered outer space, flying in the orbit of an artificial Earth satellite.

Everyone knows Gagarin’s famous word “Let’s go!”, which he exclaimed during the start. And few people know the exclamation of Chief Designer Sergei Korolev. As he watched the launch vehicle go up, Korolev said: “If only he could fly off and come back alive!” All participants in this feat made incredible efforts to ensure that this was the case, but there was no absolute confidence in a successful outcome. Therefore, the incredible tension that reigned in the control center lasted all 108 minutes of this epoch-making flight.

The satellite ship from the Vostok series, on which Gagarin made his first flight into space, deserves special attention. The device itself is launched by a multi-stage launch vehicle, from which it must separate after reaching the desired height. The ship consisted of two parts: a cabin in which life support systems and a control panel were located, and a second compartment with a braking engine and other instruments.

In the cockpit there is a chair in which a catapult is built, separating it from the ship. In addition, the chair is equipped with a supply of food and medicine, a walkie-talkie and even a rescue boat in case of a forced landing on the water. As you know, the shell of a ship located in dense layers of the atmosphere heats up to an incredible temperature, so a special thermal protection system for the hull was provided, and the windows were made of heat-resistant glass. We can say that the means of delivering the first cosmonaut into orbit was absolutely technologically revolutionary for its time. And the issue of his safe return was thought out to the smallest detail.

In total, there were exactly twenty candidates for the first flight into space - all military pilots who were selected for specific characteristics. The Queen needed a man under 30 years of age, weighing 72 kg and height 170 cm, with good physical and mental health. The cabin of the Vostok-1 ship was designed in such a way that a person with certain physical characteristics could fit in it. At first, out of twenty candidates, six were selected, and the final decision was made almost at the last moment. It was decided to send Yuri Gagarin first on the flight, and German Titov was to become his backup.

On April 12, 1961, at the beginning of ten o'clock in the morning, the command “Start!” was given, and for the first time a spaceship with a person on board, propelled by a launch vehicle, set off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome into earth orbit. Gagarin did not have a special program; his task was to fly into orbit and return alive. And yet, during the flight, he experimented a little: he tried to eat and drink, write notes with a pencil, while in a state of weightlessness. The ship's flight lasted only 108 minutes, during which it managed to make one revolution around our planet.

During landing, an emergency situation arose - due to problems in the braking system, the ship deviated somewhat from the planned course. However, the cosmonaut coped with the situation - by controlling the parachute lines, he made a successful landing, avoiding falling into the Volga. At 10:55 a.m., the descent module landed on soft arable land near the Volga bank near the village of Smelovka, Ternovsky district, Saratov region. The first human flight into space has successfully completed.

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 orbiting 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 there are problems in the system, and the ship returns home prematurely and falls. 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 the Soviet people” were recorded. 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.

Chronicle of the events of April 12, 1961. It describes in detail the events of that day.
You will find out what happened on the day the first man flew into space.

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 launch 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.

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 Kedr ignition 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...
The speakers are silent.
- “Cedar”, how do you feel?
The hum of the speakers, there is no familiar voice.
- “Cedar”, answer!
All attention to the speakers.
- “Cedar”! Get in touch! I am "twenty". - 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 did many of those present realize: 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 was the first to launch an artificial Earth satellite in 1957, the first to reach the Moon in 1959, and finally the first to return animals from space to Earth 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 heartfelt that all my fear disappeared..."
A few minutes later, sports commissioner 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. German, 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, weighed heavily on his shoulders so that everyone who was entrusted with Yuri that day hugged him for the last time, wished him good dreams and went away. The light in the window went out.
The clock showed 23.00.

Exactly 55 years ago, on April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first person to fly into space. Time for rest restores the chronology of this day and tells how Gagarin spent 108 minutes in space.

“Hello, my dear, beloved ones... Today a government commission decided to send me into space first... Can you dream of more? After all, this is history, this is a new era! I have to take off in a day...” - this is what Yuri Gagarin wrote in a letter to his wife on the eve of the flight.

Yuri Gagarin actually found out that it was he who was flying into space, literally a couple of days before the flight - the candidacy of the world's first cosmonaut was approved at a meeting of the State Commission on April 8. Boris Chertok, a design scientist, one of Sergei Korolev’s closest associates, wrote in his book “Rockets and People”: “After the open part of the meeting, the commission remained in a narrow composition and approved Kamanin’s proposal to allow Gagarin to fly, and to have Titov in reserve. Now this seems ridiculous, but then, in 1961, the State Commission seriously decided that when publishing the results of the flight and registering it as a world record, “not to allow the disclosure of secret data about the test site and the carrier.” In 1961, the world never knew where Gagarin launched from and what rocket took him into space.”

On April 10, an informal meeting took place on the banks of the Syrdarya, during which Sergei Korolev said: “Six cosmonauts are present here, each of them is ready to fly. It was decided that Gagarin would fly first, and others would follow him... Good luck to you, Yuri Alekseevich!”

“Before this meeting, we had behind-the-scenes disputes: Gagarin or Titov? - Boris Chertok recalls. - I remember that Ryazansky (Mikhail Ryazansky, design scientist) liked Titov more. Voskresensky (Leonid Voskresensky, rocketry test scientist) said that Gagarin harbors some kind of prowess that we don’t notice. Rauschenbach (Boris Rauschenbach, one of the founders of Soviet cosmonautics), who examined the cosmonauts, liked both equally. Feoktistov (Konstantin Feoktistov, a member of the first three-person crew in the history of space exploration, together with Vladimir Komarov and Boris Egorov, who flew into space on October 12–13, 1964) tried very hard, but could not hide his desire to be in their place. Before meeting on the shore, it seemed to me that both candidates were too young for the upcoming worldwide fame.”

“The last pre-launch preparations were carried out in the morning. According to the doctors, I felt good. I myself felt fine. Before that I rested. Got some sleep. After which the spacesuit was put on. In the technological chair we tried how the suspension system lay on the spacesuit, and the ventilation of the spacesuit. We checked the connection through the suit. Everything worked well,” recalled Yuri Gagarin.

“Then we went to the starting position in a bus. We, together with our comrades - my deputy was German Stepanovich Titov - and all my cosmonaut friends, our superiors, went to the launch. We got off the bus, but then I was a little confused. He did not report to the chairman of the State Commission, but reported to Sergei Pavlovich and the Marshal of the Soviet Union. At some point I just got confused.

Then taking the elevator, landing in a chair by a regular crew, which included Comrade. Vostokov, Oleg Genrikhovich Ivanovsky. Boarding into the cockpit was normal... The equipment check went well. When checking the connection, at first they didn’t hear me, then they began to hear me well... The connection was two-way, stable. Good communication,” was how Yuri Gagarin described the preparations for the flight.

Not without a little overlay. “The mood at that time was good, I felt good. He reported on checking the equipment, on readiness for the start, and on his well-being. Then hatch No. 1 was closed. I heard it being closed and the keys knocking. Then they start to turn away. I look: the hatch has been removed. I realized something was wrong. Sergei Pavlovich tells me: “Don’t worry, one contact is not pressed against something. Everything will be OK". We rearranged the plates on which the limit switches are placed. We corrected it and closed the hatch cover. “Everything is fine,” Gagarin recalled.

Despite his belief that the flight would go well, Yuri Gagarin tried to prepare his family for the most unfavorable outcome of events.

“I believe in technology completely. She shouldn't let you down. But it happens that out of the blue a person falls and breaks his neck. Something could happen here too. But I myself don’t believe in it yet. Well, if something happens, then I ask you, and first of all you, Valyusha (Valentina is Yuri Gagarin’s wife), not to die from grief... I hope that you will never see this letter... Valya, please don’t forget my parents, if possible, help with something. Give them my best regards, and let them forgive me for the fact that they knew nothing about this, and they weren’t supposed to know,” Gagarin wrote such a letter to his family in case of his death.

"Go!" - shouted Yuri Gagarin (call sign - Kedr) at the moment of the launch of the Vostok spacecraft from the Baikonur cosmodrome.
The head of the launch team during the launch was engineer-lieutenant colonel of the missile forces Anatoly Kirillov - he gave commands for the stages of the rocket launch and controlled their implementation, observing the rocket through a periscope from the command bunker. His backup at the second periscope was rocketry test scientist Leonid Voskresensky

The first stage of the launch vehicle separated, and the second stage began to operate. “I was literally pressed into a chair,” Gagarin wrote. - As soon as Vostok broke through the dense layers of the atmosphere, I saw the Earth. The ship was flying over a wide Siberian river. The islands on it and the wooded shores illuminated by the sun were clearly visible. He looked first at the sky, then at the Earth. Mountain ranges and large lakes were clearly visible. Even the fields were visible. The most beautiful sight was the horizon - a stripe painted with all the colors of the rainbow, dividing the Earth in the light of the sun's rays from the black sky. The convexity and roundness of the Earth was noticeable. It seemed that she was all surrounded by a halo of soft blue color, which through turquoise, blue and violet turns to blue-black.”

Removing the head fairing of the launch vehicle. Gagarin’s voice was heard on the air: “I see the Earth... What beauty!”

The separation of the second launch vehicle, the third stage started working.

Entering a spacecraft into low-Earth orbit.

Gagarin announced that a state of weightlessness had arrived. “The weightlessness to which I quickly got used to played a cruel joke on me,” the cosmonaut recalled. - After one of the entries in the logbook, I let go of the pencil, and it floated freely around the cabin along with the tablet. But suddenly the knot of the lace on which the pencil was attached came undone, and he dived somewhere under the seat. From that moment on I never saw him again. I had to transmit my further observations by radio and record them on a tape recorder.”

“Audibility is excellent. Bykov beams. His Zarya speaks from space for the first time in the voice of a living person,” recalls Boris Chertok.

“Before entering the shadow of the Earth, all the tape in the tape recorder ran out,” recalled Yuri Gagarin. - I decided to rewind the tape to make further recordings. Switched it to manual control and rewound it. I don't think I rewound it all the way. And then, when I made reports, I recorded them on a tape recorder manually, since when the tape recorder operates automatically, it works almost all the time and, naturally, uses up a lot of tapes. This is caused by the high noise level in the cabin."

The spaceship entered the shadow of the Earth. “The entry into the Earth’s shadow is very abrupt. Before this, I had to observe strong lighting from time to time through the emergency window. I had to turn away or cover myself to keep the light out of my eyes. And then I look out the window - nothing is visible on the horizon. Dark. In the other one, “The Gaze,” I also look - it’s dark. The solar orientation system turned on,” this is how Gagarin described his impressions of the dark side of the Earth.

“The air began to be consumed. By the time we emerged from the shadows it was approximately 150–152 atm. I felt that when the orientation system turned on, the angular movement of the ship changed and became very slow, almost imperceptible. Along the very horizon I observed a rainbow-colored orange stripe, its color reminiscent of the color of a spacesuit. Then the color darkens a little and the colors of the rainbow turn into blue, and the blue turns into black... Soon the ship acquired a stable starting position for descent. At this time there was a very good orientation towards the “Gaze”. In the outer ring, the entire horizon was inscribed completely evenly. The objects I saw moved strictly according to the arrows of the “Gaze”... I prepared for the descent. Closed the right porthole. I strapped myself in, covered it with a pressure helmet and switched the lighting to working.”

Gagarin announced that he was flying over America.

A TASS message was published about the launch of the spacecraft. “On April 12, 1961, the world’s first spacecraft-satellite “Vostok” with a person on board was launched into Earth orbit in the Soviet Union. The pilot-cosmonaut of the Vostok spacecraft is a citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, pilot Major Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin. The launch of the space multi-stage rocket was successful, and after reaching the first cosmic speed and separation from the last stage of the launch vehicle, the satellite ship began a free flight in orbit around the Earth... The period of launching the Vostok satellite into orbit was carried out satisfactorily by cosmonaut Comrade Gagarin to the present time feels good. 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.”

The spaceship emerged from the shadow of the Earth.

Teletypes (electromechanical printing machines used to transmit text messages between two subscribers over a simple electrical channel) finished transmitting the first TASS message. Hundreds of correspondents from around the world stormed the building of the Telegraph Agency

Gagarin announced that he was flying over Africa. “I’m flying and looking - the northern coast of Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, everything is clearly visible. Everything is spinning like a wheel - the head, the legs,” Gagarin recalled.

The braking propulsion system turned on, and the ship began to descend. “At 10:25 a.m. the braking device was automatically turned on,” Gagarin wrote. - The ship entered the dense layers of the atmosphere. Through the curtains covering the portholes, I saw the crimson glow of the flames raging around the ship. The weightlessness disappeared, the growing overloads again pressed me to the chair. They grew larger and were stronger than during takeoff.”

A division occurs. “At 10 hours 25 minutes 57 seconds there should be a separation, but it happened at 10 hours 35 minutes,” wrote Gagarin. - I felt the separation sharply. Such a clap, then a push, the rotation continued. All indicators on the PKRS went out, only one inscription “Prepare for ejection” came on. Then you feel the braking begin, some kind of slight itching goes through the structure, I noticed this when I put my feet on the chair. Then this itching goes away. Here I have already taken the ejection position, I’m sitting and waiting.”

“The rotation of the ship begins to slow down, along all three axes. The ship began to oscillate approximately 90 degrees to the right and left. There was no complete revolution. The other axis also has oscillatory movements with deceleration. At this time, the porthole of the “Vzor” was closed with a curtain, but at the edges of this curtain such a bright crimson light appears. The same crimson light was observed through the small hole in the right porthole. A crackling sound is heard. I don’t know, or the design, or maybe the thermal shell expands when heated, or something else, but it crackles infrequently. So, in one or maybe two or three minutes it will sometimes crack. In general, it feels like the temperature was high.”

At the 108th minute, the ship completed its flight, completing one revolution around the Earth. “Vostok” landed safely on the field of the Leninsky Put collective farm near the village of Smelovki. Yuri Gagarin ejected by parachute 8 km from the ship.

“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,” said the TASS message.
- 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 grandiose prospects for the conquest of space by mankind.”

“I probably looked strange in a bright orange spacesuit,” Gagarin shared. - The first “earthlings”, a woman and a girl, were afraid to come closer to me. It was Anna Akimovna Takhtarova and her granddaughter Rita. Then the machine operators ran up from the field camp, we hugged and kissed. In those less than two hours that I spent in space, the radio carried the news of the launch both here and to all corners of the Earth. My last name was already known to those who met me. “Vostok” descended a few tens of meters from a deep ravine in which spring waters rustled. The ship turned black and burned, but that is why it seemed even more beautiful and dear to me than before the flight. The forester's granddaughter Rita Takhtarova is now going to school. I will never forget that she and her grandmother were the first people to meet me after returning from space."

It is important that before the flight, the USSR government prepared in advance three TASS messages about the launch of a man into space - including the news of the tragic death of a cosmonaut and the news of the satellite’s failure to enter orbit and its emergency landing (it also contained an appeal to foreign countries with a request to assist in the search and rescue of the astronaut).

A group of specialists arrived at the landing site to meet Yuri Gagarin.

“The national rejoicing on April 12, 1961 is compared in terms of the scale of what happened with Victory Day on May 9, 1945. Such a comparison, given the external similarity, seems to me illegitimate. Victory Day was an inevitable, long-awaited holiday, programmed by history itself, “with tears in our eyes” for the entire people. The official announcement of the final victory - the signing of the act of unconditional surrender of Germany - served as a signal for the open expression of delight and grief. The mass celebration was historically natural,” said Boris Chertok. Preparations for human space flight were classified, like all our space programs. The message about the flight into space of the unknown Major Gagarin was a complete surprise for the inhabitants of the Earth and caused rejoicing throughout the world. Muscovites took to the streets, filled Red Square, smiled, and carried homemade posters: “Everyone into space!”

However, after the flight, Major Gagarin could no longer be called unknown to anyone. “Now it’s already difficult for me, as before, unnoticed and unrecognized, to walk around evening Moscow, to come to Red Square,” recalled the world’s first cosmonaut. - Popularity is an irreparable thing. You just have to think: to what and to whom do you owe it. One foreign correspondent asked me: “Are you, Gagarin, tired of the fame that your name received after April 12, 1961? Now, probably, you are guaranteed rest for the rest of your life...” - “Rest? - I objected to him. “Everyone works for us, and most of all, the most famous people.” Heroes of the Soviet Union and Heroes of Socialist Labor, and there are thousands of them in the country, try to work as best as possible, captivating others with their personal example.”

Gagarin's successful flight into space truly marked the beginning of a new stage of work. “The day after Gagarin’s launch, we, who remained at the test site due to the “evil will of the Korolev,” as Kalashnikov put it, joined in the jubilation of the entire country, occasionally turning on the receivers. I consoled my friends with the fact that we, too, were “the first in the world” to have the opportunity to study films of telemetric recordings of the in-flight behavior of the systems of a historical carrier and ship, writes Boris Chertok in his book. - We learned details about the demonstrations in Moscow, the reception in the Kremlin and enthusiastic responses from the world from the reports of Levitan and the BBC! The resentment against Korolev intensified even more after we learned from a conversation on HF from the duty officer in Podlipki that the government service from the Kremlin had delivered invitations to Mishin and me at our home “to come to the evening reception with our spouses.”

What about the house? Family?.. No, he didn’t live his thirty-four springs in vain. And words cannot convey all the richness and beauty of this man’s soul.”

But all this is only part of his business. Preparing for flights, crew training, meeting at the design bureau, visiting factories, studying. Can you really list everything he was associated with!

But there’s one thing I probably can’t say. I can’t explain how he managed to redo a lot of things that constantly fell on his shoulders. Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, member of the Central Committee of the Komsomol, president of the USSR-Cuba society, representative of many commissions... He also found time to meet with writers and scientists, visited pioneers and soldiers: he traveled a lot around the country and often went abroad frontier...

Alexey Leonov, the cosmonaut who was the first in the world to perform a spacewalk, also recalled Gagarin’s life after the flight. “You can talk a lot about him. Yura is an open soul, no tricks, no tricks. He's in full view...

We complete the chronology of events on April 12, 1961 with the words of Major Yuri Gagarin: “Having flown around the Earth in a satellite ship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, and not destroy it!”

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