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Yuri Gagarin

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• BBC - Future - Yuri Gagarin: the spaceman who came in from the cold
• European Space Agency - 50 years of humans in space - Biography of Yuri Gagarin
• Live Science - Yuri Gagarin: How the first man in space sparked a conspiracy theory
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Yuri Gagarin (born March 9, 1934, near Gzhatsk, Russia , U.S.S.R. [now Gagarin, Russia]—died March 27, 1968, near Moscow) was a Soviet cosmonaut who in 1961 became the first man to travel into space.

The son of a carpenter on a collective farm , Gagarin graduated as a molder from a trade school near Moscow in 1951. He continued his studies at the industrial college at Saratov and concurrently took a course in flying. On completing this course, he entered the Soviet Air Force cadet school at Orenburg , from which he graduated in 1957.

Gagarin’s 4 3 / 4 -ton Vostok 1 spacecraft was launched at 9:07 am Moscow time on April 12, 1961, orbited Earth once in 1 hour 29 minutes at a maximum altitude of 187 miles (301 km), and landed at 10:55 am in the Soviet Union . His spaceflight brought him immediate worldwide fame. He was awarded the Order of Lenin and given the titles of Hero of the Soviet Union and Pilot Cosmonaut of the Soviet Union. Monuments were raised to him, and streets were renamed in his honour across the Soviet Union.

Gagarin never went into space again but took an active part in training other cosmonauts. He made several tours to other nations following his historic flight, and from 1962 he served as a deputy to the Supreme Soviet. Gagarin was killed with another pilot in the crash of a two-seat jet aircraft while on what was described as a routine training flight. His ashes were placed in a niche in the Kremlin wall. After his death in 1968 the town of Gzhatsk was renamed Gagarin.

Yuri Gagarin: Facts about the first human in space

Yuri Gagarin was the first human in space when he orbited Earth in 1961 aboard the Vostok 1 space capsule.

Yuri Gagarin FAQs

Childhood and cosmonaut selection, vostok 1 mission, soyuz 1 and death, additional resources.

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human in space. In 1961, he orbited Earth aboard the Vostok 1 space capsule, the first-ever crewed spacecraft. As a result, he became an international celebrity and received many awards for this achievement, both within and outside the Soviet Union.

Vostok 1 was Gagarin's only spaceflight. He was on the backup crew for the Soyuz 1 mission but wasn’t allowed to go to space after that mission ended in a fatal crash because officials worried that Gagarin, a national hero, would be killed. Though he was eventually allowed to continue flying regular aircraft, he died five weeks after being cleared to fly again, when his flight-training airplane crashed. The exact cause of the crash is still unknown.

Related: Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1: How the 1st human spaceflight worked (infographic)

Who was the first man in space?

Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut, was the first person in space and the first to orbit Earth. 

How old was Yuri Gagarin when he died?

Yuri Gagarin was 34 when he died. 

How many times did Yuri Gagarin go to space?

Gagarin went to space only once, aboard the Vostok 1 capsule. He was also the backup crewmember for the Soyuz 1 mission. 

Gagarin was born on March 9, 1934, in the Soviet Russian village of Klushino to parents who worked on a collective farm, according to the European Space Agency (ESA). Beginning in October 1941, German soldiers occupied Klushino as part of their advance on Moscow during World War II. The occupation lasted 21 months, according to the BBC . In 1946, his family moved to the nearby town of Gzhatsk (now named Gagarin), where he went to secondary school and studied math and physics, according to the New Mexico Museum of Space History .

After six years of secondary school, Gagarin went to technical school in Saratov, where he also joined a local flying club and began learning to fly a plane. He went on to attend the Soviet Air Force Academy and graduated in 1957. He was one of 20 Soviet fighter pilots chosen as cosmonauts, in part because of his small size, according to ESA. To fit in the small Vostok capsule, cosmonauts couldn't be taller than 1.75 meters (5 feet 9 inches), according to Star Walk , and Gagarin was 1.57 m tall (5 feet 5 inches), according to ESA. In fact, in a 1961 interview , Gagarin described the capsule as quite roomy, especially compared with airplane cockpits of the time.  

Alongside other cosmonauts, Gagarin participated in intensive preparation for spaceflight, including various physical and psychological experiments. A doctor doing psychological testing on him praised his "high degree of intellectual development," noting his attention to detail, strong imagination, quick reaction time and skill in doing mathematical calculations, according to ESA.

" Vostok " means "East" in Russian, as opposed to the Western world, signifying the mission's importance in the Cold War-era space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. The crewed part of the capsule was spherical, with an inside diameter of about 7 feet (2 m), according to The Planetary Society . The spacecraft launched on April 12, 1961, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in what is now Kazakhstan.

In response to a statement from ground control that everything seemed to be working fine, Gagarin famously replied "Poyekhali!" — an informal phrase meaning "Off we go!" in Russian, according to ESA.

Gagarin orbited Earth in the capsule for about an hour before the spacecraft reentered Earth's atmosphere . For the most part, the flight went smoothly, though Gagarin lost communication with ground control several times. The two parts of the spacecraft also failed to correctly separate for a while during reentry, and the spacecraft shook violently. But when the capsule was about 4 miles (6 kilometers) above the ground, Gagarin parachuted back to Earth as planned, landing on farmland outside the city of Engels, Russia.

After the mission, Gagarin became an overnight international celebrity; the Soviet Union had kept his spaceflight secret until it was successful. Gagarin was known not only for his accomplishments but also for his charismatic personality and smile, according to the BBC. Though he was barred from visiting the United States, he traveled the world and received many honors, The Telegraph reported . This included the title " Hero of the Soviet Union ," the nation's highest honor.

On April 23, 1967, the Soyuz 1 mission launched with cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov as its sole crewmember, with Gagarin as the backup. During the spacecraft's landing, the parachute failed to deploy, instantly killing Komarov when it hit the ground. Though Gagarin had nothing to do with the crash (and even reportedly tried to get the launch postponed due to safety concerns), the Soviet Union barred him from spaceflight after the crash, out of fear that their national hero would be killed, according to the BBC . Officials also originally also banned him from flying regular aircraft.

After completing additional training, Gagarin was eventually allowed to continue flying. But on March 27, 1968, the plane he was test-piloting crashed, killing him and flying instructor Vladimir Seryogin, according to ESA.

It is unclear exactly what caused the crash. An investigation by the KGB , the former Soviet security and intelligence agency, found that the aircraft went into a spin, possibly maneuvering sharply to avoid a weather balloon. According to the report, the two pilots couldn't regain control; they believed they were at a higher altitude than they actually were because of the inaccurate weather information they'd been given. The report is difficult to confirm, and there are many theories about the crash, including conspiracy theories that Gagarin's death was orchestrated by Soviet officials.

You can learn more about the first man in space with these pieces from Scientific American and Astronomy.com . Space Center Houston's on this day in history details Gagarin's historic flight to space. 

Bibliography

 BBC News. (2011, April 8). Yuri Gagarin: 'I was never nervous during the space flight.' [video]. https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-politics-12983333

Dowling, S. (2021, April 12). Yuri Gagarin: the spaceman who came in from the cold . BBC Future. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210409-yuri-gagarin-the-spaceman-who-came-in-from-the-cold  

European Space Agency. (2007, February 4). Yuri Gagarin . www.esa.int/About_Us/ESA_history/50_years_of_humans_in_space/Yuri_Gagarin

European Space Agency. (2007, February 4). The flight of Vostok 1. https://www.esa.int/About_Us/ESA_history/50_years_of_humans_in_space/The_flight_of_Vostok_1

Lapenkova, M. (2018, March 27). Fifty years on, Yuri Gagarin's death still shrouded in mystery . Phys.org. http://www.phys.org/news/2018-03-fifty-years-yuri-gagarin-death.html

McKeever, A. (2022, April 12). How the space race launched an era of exploration beyond Earth . National Geographic . https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/space-race-early-human-spaceflight-history-missions?loggedin=true&rnd=1699322304385 .

Orange, R. (2011, April 12). Yuri Gagarin: 50th anniversary of the first man in space . The Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/8443777/Yuri-Gagarin-50th-anniversary-of-the-first-man-in-space.html  

Star Walk. (2021, April 11). 60th anniversary of the first human space flight . https://starwalk.space/en/news/60th-anniversary-of-the-first-human-space-flight

Swopes, Brian. “Pilot-Cosmonaut Yuri Alexseyevich Gagarin, Hero of the Soviet Union.” This Day in Aviation. 14 Apr. 2023, https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/yuri-alekseyevich-gagarin/ . Accessed November 7, Nov. 2023.

The Planetary Society. (n.d.). Yuri Gagarin and Vostok 1, the first human spaceflight . Retrieved November 7, 2023, from https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/vostok-1

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Rebecca Sohn is a freelance science writer. She writes about a variety of science, health and environmental topics, and is particularly interested in how science impacts people's lives. She has been an intern at CalMatters and STAT, as well as a science fellow at Mashable. Rebecca, a native of the Boston area, studied English literature and minored in music at Skidmore College in Upstate New York and later studied science journalism at New York University. 

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Biography of Yuri Gagarin, First Man in Space

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Yuri Gagarin (March 9, 1934–March 27, 1968) made history on April 12, 1961, when he became both the first person in the world to enter space and the first person to orbit the Earth. Although he never again went to space, his achievement was one of the most significant events of the " space race " which eventually saw men land on the moon.

Fast Facts: Yuri Gagarin

• Known For : First human being in space and first in Earth orbit
• Born : March 9, 1934 in Klushino, USSR
• Parents : Alexey Ivanovich Gagarin, Anna Timofeyevna Gagarina
• Died : March 27, 1968 in Kirsach, USSR
• Education : Orenburg Aviation School, where he learned to fly Soviet MiGs
• Awards and Honors : Order of Lenin, Hero of the Soviet Union, Pilot Cosmonaut of the Soviet Union; monuments were raised and streets named for him across the Soviet Union
• Spouse : Valentina Gagarina
• Children : Yelena (born 1959), Galina (born 1961)
• Notable Quote : "To be the first to enter the cosmos, to engage single-handed in an unprecedented duel with nature—could anyone dream of anything greater than that?"

born in Klushino, a small village west of Moscow in Russia (then known as the Soviet Union). Yuri was the third of four children and spent his childhood on a collective farm where his father, Alexey Ivanovich Gagarin, worked as a carpenter and bricklayer and his mother, Anna Timofeyevna Gagarina, worked as a milkmaid.

In 1941, Yuri Gagarin was just 7 years old when the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union. Life was difficult during the war and the Gagarins were kicked out of their home. The Nazis also sent Yuri's two sisters to Germany to work as forced laborers.

Gagarin Learns to Fly

In school, Yuri Gagarin loved both mathematics and physics. He continued on to a trade school, where he learned to be a metalworker and then went on to an industrial school. It was at the industrial school in Saratov that he joined a flying club. Gagarin learned quickly and was obviously at ease in a plane. He made his first solo flight in 1955.

Since Gagarin had discovered a love of flying, he joined the Soviet Air Force. Gagarin's skills led him to the Orenburg Aviation School, where he learned to fly MiGs. On the same day he graduated from Orenburg with top honors in November 1957, Yuri Gagarin married his sweetheart, Valentina ("Valy") Ivanovna Goryacheva. The couple eventually had two daughters together.

After graduating, Gagarin was sent on some missions. However, while Gagarin enjoyed being a fighter pilot, what he really wanted to do was to go to space. Since he had been following the Soviet Union's progress in space flight, he was confident that soon his country would send a man into space. He wanted to be that man, so he volunteered to be a cosmonaut.

Gagarin Applies to Be a Cosmonaut

Yuri Gagarin was just one of 3,000 applicants to be the first Soviet cosmonaut. Out of this large pool of applicants, 20 were chosen in 1960 to be the Soviet Union's first cosmonauts; Gagarin was one of the 20.

During the extensive physical and psychological testing required of the chosen cosmonaut trainees, Gagarin excelled at the tests while maintaining a calm demeanor as well as his sense of humor. Later, Gagarin would be chosen to be the first man into space because of these skills. (It also helped that he was short in stature since Vostok 1's capsule was small.) Cosmonaut trainee Gherman Titov was chosen to be the backup in case Gagarin was unable to make the first space flight.

Launch of Vostok 1

On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin boarded Vostok 1 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Although he was fully trained for the mission, no one knew if it was going to be a success or a failure. Gagarin was to be the very first human being in space, truly going where no man had gone before.

Minutes before the launch, Gagarin gave a speech, which included:

You must realize that it is hard to express my feeling now that the test for which we have been training long and passionately is at hand. I don't have to tell you what I felt when it was suggested that I should make this flight, the first in history. Was it joy? No, it was something more than that. Pride? No, it was not just pride. I felt great happiness. To be the first to enter the cosmos, to engage single handed in an unprecedented duel with nature—could anyone dream of anything greater than that? But immediately after that I thought of the tremendous responsibility I bore: to be the first to do what generations of people had dreamed of; to be the first to pave the way into space for mankind. *

Vostok 1 , with Yuri Gagarin inside, launched on schedule at 9:07 a.m. Moscow Time. Just after lift-off, Gagarin reputedly called out, "Poyekhali!" ("Off we go!")

Gagarin was rocketed into space using an automated system. Gagarin did not control the spacecraft during his mission; however, in case of an emergency, he could have opened an envelope left on board for the override code. He was not given the controls because many scientists were worried about the psychological effects of being in space (i.e. they were worried he would go mad).

After entering space, Gagarin completed a single orbit around Earth. The Vostok 1's top speed reached 28,260 kph (about 17,600 mph). At the end of the orbit, Vostok 1 reentered the Earth's atmosphere. When Vostok 1 was still about 7 km (4.35 miles) from the ground, Gagarin ejected (as planned) from the spacecraft and used a parachute to land safely.

From launch (at 9:07 a.m.) to Vostok 1 touching down on the ground (10:55 a.m.) was 108 minutes, a number often used to describe this mission. Gagarin landed safely with his parachute about 10 minutes after Vostok 1 came down. The calculation of 108 minutes is used because the fact that Gagarin ejected from the spacecraft and parachuted to the ground was kept secret for many years. (The Soviets did this to get around a technicality about how flights were officially recognized at the time.)

Right before Gagarin landed (near the village of Uzmoriye, near the Volga River), a local farmer and her daughter spotted Gagarin floating down with his parachute. Once on the ground, Gagarin, dressed in an orange spacesuit and wearing a large white helmet, terrified the two women. It took Gagarin a few minutes to convince them that he too was Russian and to direct him to the nearest phone.

After his successful first flight into space , Gagarin never again was sent into space. Instead, he helped train future cosmonauts. On March 27, 1968, Gagarin was test-piloting a MiG-15 fighter jet when the plane plummeted to the ground, killing Gagarin instantly at the age of 34.

For decades, people speculated about how Gagarin, an experienced pilot, could safely fly to space and back but die during a routine flight. Some thought he was drunk. Others believed that Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev wanted Gagarin dead because he was jealous of the cosmonaut's fame.

However, in June 2013, fellow cosmonaut, Alexey Leonov (the first man to conduct a spacewalk), revealed that the accident was caused by a Sukhoi fighter jet that had been flying too low. Traveling at supersonic speed , the jet flew perilously close to Gagarin's MiG , likely overturning the MiG with its backwash and sending Gagarin's jet into a deep spiral.

Nearly as soon as Gagarin's feet touched the ground back on Earth, he became an international hero. His accomplishment was known around the globe. He had accomplished what no other human being had ever done before. Yuri Gagarin's successful flight into space paved the way for all future space exploration.

• Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “ Yuri Gagarin .” Encyclopædia Britannica.
• Biography.com , A&E Networks Television. “Yuri Gagarin.”
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Who was yuri gagarin.

Written by: Gina Taranto

The vast infinity of space, the ever-expanding reaches of our known universe, the confluence of planets and celestial objects, the representation of what man can achieve with just more research and technological development, all of this and much more appeals present and future astronauts to brave the boundaries of our earthly realm and venture out to the great unknown, to see and feel what just a few brave explorers have felt and seen. This thirst for adventure and knowledge has been in humanity's sight ever since we learned how to keep our feet off the ground, and when we talk about space exploration, we must mention the first human to ever set foot in space, Yuri Gagarin. In today's article, we aim to make honor on the first man who gazed upon our universe's vast expanse, his life, and why is he remembered on an international level as a hero.

Who Was Yuri Gagarin?

Born in Klushino, a small Russian village on March 9, 1934, Yuri was the third son of carpenter Alexei Ivanovich Gagarin and dairy farmer Anna Timofeyevna Gagarina. Being born in what some historians call the "Darkest and Bloodiest Period in Modern History", Yuri and his family weren't safe from the ravages and brutality of World War II.

Young Rebel

1941 signed the year for Yuri to begin his school-life, however shortlived as it was, as during that same year, during military operations done by the German army in Soviet territory, Yuri's school was burned to the ground and the Nazi army occupied the village for 3 years, forcing the residents, including Yuri and his family, to work in the farm to feed the soldiers, beating and deporting those that refused to do so.

During this period Yuri became a saboteur, carrying out small but effective interference work such as mixing chemicals meant for maintenance of the Nazi tanks. He solidified his resolution when one of the soldiers, nicknamed "The Devil", tried to hang Yuri's younger brother with his own scarf. After years of abuse on behalf of the Nazi soldiers, including a scythe attack that left Yuri's mother on the hospital, the Germans were finally routed out of Klushino by The Red Army on Yuri's tenth birthday, March 9, 1944. Even after the nightmare was over, Yuri helped the Army look for leftover mines in the village.

The Man Who Saw the Infinity

After the war, Yuri worked several different jobs and studied until seventh grade at school, once graduated, he volunteered at a local flight club for weekend training to become a Soviet fly cadet. This training, backed up by Yuri's spirit and skills, earned him a position on the Vostok program, after intense and rigorous physical training and screening.

On the morning of April 12, 1961, the Vostok 1 was launched with Yuri as its pilot. Yuri is humorously remembered as saying "Poyekhali", meaning "off we go" in English, which later became a catchphrase in Russia to refer to the beginning of the Space Age. After the intended operations were carried out both by Yuri and his spacecraft, Gagarin reentered the atmosphere after orbiting Earth for 108 minutes.

On returning to Earth, Yuri has deemed a national hero and was given the title National Hero of the Soviet Union by The First Secretary of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev. Gagarin became a worldwide celebrity, and many programs and space research institutions were given his name. Following his return, the Soviet Union was afraid of the possible consequences of the death of a National Hero on another spaceflight, so they forbade him from taking part on more of these operations, and authorized him to fly regular aircraft. On March 27, 1968, during a practice flight gone south, Yuri and his instructor crashed. Yuri Gagarin passed away at the young age of 34.

Closing Words

A man that fought at an age in which most of us play with toys, who overcame the impossible and became a legend, Yuri Gagarin was, is, and will always be synonym with what humans are capable of, our capacity to overcome any limitation, and to grasp that which may out of our reach, may we all strive to greatness, as the most important cosmonaut once did, Dasvidanya dear readers!.

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What Really Happened to Yuri Gagarin, the First Man in Space?

By: Sarah Pruitt

Updated: May 16, 2023 | Original: April 12, 2016

Becoming the First Man in Space

The son of a carpenter, Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was born in the village of Klushino in Smolensk, Russia in 1934. At 16, he moved to Moscow to apprentice as a foundryman in a metal works but soon transferred to a technical school in Saratov. There, Gagarin joined a flying club and took to the skies for the first time. He graduated from the Soviet Air Force cadet school in 1957 and began serving as a fighter pilot. He married his wife, Valentina, that same year; they went on to have two daughters.

In 1960, Gagarin was selected along with 19 other candidates for the Soviet space program. The program winnowed the cosmonauts down to two—Gagarin and fellow test pilot Gherman Titov—as finalists to make the program’s first flight into space. Some thought Gagarin made the cut due to Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev’s preference for his more modest background (Titov was the son of a schoolteacher).

At 9:07 a.m. on April 12, 1961, when Gagarin’s Vostok 1 spacecraft lifted off  from Baikonur cosmodrome, he uttered the surprisingly informal, immediately iconic exclamation “Poyekhali!” (Translation: “Let’s go!”) His flight, a single orbit around the Earth, was uneventful, but the landing ended in near-disaster when the cables joining the Vostok’s descent module and service module failed to separate properly, causing massive shaking as the spacecraft reentered Earth’s atmosphere. Gagarin ejected before landing, parachuting down safely near the Volga River.

Hero of the Soviet Union

Gagarin became an international celebrity, toured the world and was showered with honors by his country. Krushchev’s government awarded him the Order of Lenin and named him a Hero of the Soviet Union. Gagarin’s triumph was a painful blow to the United States, which had scheduled its first space flight for May 1961. What’s more, a U.S. astronaut wouldn’t match Gagarin’s feat of orbiting the Earth until February 1962, when astronaut John Glenn made three orbits in Friendship 7. (By that time, Titov had already become the second Soviet to make it to space, making 17 orbits of Earth over 25 hours in Vostok 2 in August 1961.)

Gagarin struggled with drinking on the heels of his fame, but by the late 1960s had returned to his training. He was chosen as backup pilot for the ill-fated Soyuz 1 mission (in which two Soviet spacecraft were supposed to rendezvous in space), and watched in horror as his friend Vladimir Komarov died when his parachutes failed to open on re-entry in April 1967.

A Hero’s Tragic End

Less than a year later, on March 27, 1968, Gagarin himself was killed when a two-seater MiG-15 fighter jet he was flying with Vladimir Seryogin, crashed outside a small town near Moscow during a routine training flight. Gagarin’s ashes were placed in a niche in the Kremlin wall, while his hometown of Gzhatsk was renamed Gagarin in his honor.

An official investigation into the accident concluded that Gagarin swerved to avoid a foreign object—such as a bird or weather balloon—sending the plane into a tailspin that ended with its crash into the ground. But many aviation professionals viewed this conclusion as implausible, and rumors continued to swirl around the crash. Some thought Gagarin might have been drinking, or that he and Seryogin might have been distracted by taking photographs from the plane’s window. Others suggested a cabin pressurization valve could have failed, causing both pilots to suffer hypoxia. More outlandish theories included sabotage for political motives, suicide or even collision with a UFO.

The Truth, Declassified

Gagarin’s friend and fellow Russian cosmonaut, Alexei Leonov, was in the area on the day of the crash and served (along with Gherman Titov) on the board that investigated the accident. In 2013, Leonov announced on the Russia Today TV network that another report on the crash, recently declassified, confirmed the real story: A second plane being tested that day, a Su-15 jet, mistakenly flew far lower than its planned altitude of 33,000 feet, instead passing close to where Gagarin’s plane had been flying, around 2,000 feet. Such a large aircraft would be able to roll over a smaller one (like the MiG-15) in its wake if the two planes came too close to each other.

After running various computer simulations, the report concluded that the only viable explanation for the crash was that the Su-15 flew too close to Gagarin’s plane that day, flipping it and forcing it into an unrecoverable spiral dive toward the ground. When asked why the report remained classified for so long, Leonov replied “My guess would be that one of the reasons for covering up the truth was to hide the fact that there was such a lapse so close to Moscow.” Leonov agreed not to identify the test pilot of the Su-15, who was 80 years old at the time, as a condition of being able to go public with the truth nearly five decades after the history-making cosmonaut’s fatal crash.

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The Meaning of Human Spaceflight: 20 Essays on Its 50th Anniversary

On the anniversary of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's historic trip around the Earth, NASA administrators, former astronauts, science museum curators and other thinkers from various fields reflect on 50 years of human spaceflight

Fifty years ago today, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, then just 27 years old, became the first human to journey into outer space. Gagarin, strapped inside of his Vostok spacecraft, completed an orbit of the Earth on April 12, 1961, instantly making himself a subject of international conversation. Before he died seven years later when a training jet crashed outside of Chkalovsky Air Base, Gagarin was awarded numerous medals and honors.

To commemorate 50 years of manned spaceflight, we reached out to NASA administrators, former astronauts, science museum leadership and many others who have written intelligently about space in the past. We've gathered their responses, ranging from the story of the Blue Marble Shot, that photograph seen above, to a moving celebration of colleagues from a former Space Shuttle pilot, on this page.

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(1934–68). The world’s first astronaut was a 27-year-old Soviet aviator named Yury Gagarin. On April 12, 1961, the 4.75-ton spacecraft Vostok 1 was launched at 9:07 in the morning, Moscow time, from a location in Baikonur, a wasteland in the south-central region of the Soviet Union (now in Kazakhstan ). The spacecraft orbited the Earth once in 1 hour and 29 minutes at a maximum speed of 17,000 miles (27,000 kilometers) per hour. It followed an elliptical orbit that carried Gagarin as far as 187 miles (301 kilometers) from Earth. Vostok 1 landed at 10:55 am and made the young Soviet cosmonaut a worldwide celebrity.

Yury Alekseyevich Gagarin was born on March 9, 1934, on a collective farm near Gzhatsk, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of Moscow. His early education was interrupted by World War II . After his early schooling, he attended a vocational school at Lyubertsy, a Moscow suburb. It was here that he first became interested in flight. Following graduation in 1951, Gagarin attended the industrial college at Saratov, where he learned to fly. After graduation in 1955 he became a Soviet Air Force cadet. He completed his flight training in 1957 and joined the air force. After two years as a test pilot he was admitted to the astronaut training program.

Gagarin’s flight in Vostok 1 was an astounding achievement that began humankind’s entry into space. It was recognized that the Soviet Union had a definite advantage in space technology over the United States. It was his achievement that prompted the United States to launch its program to get a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. ( See also space exploration .)

Gagarin was celebrated as a hero in the Soviet Union. Monuments were raised to him and streets named in his honor. He never went into space again. He resumed his test flight career and was killed on March 27, 1968, on a routine mission near Moscow.

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• photo essay

First Man in Space: Vintage Soviet Propaganda Glorifying Yuri Gagarin

E xcerpts from a collection of postcards commemorating the Soviet cosmonaut’s historic journey into outer space fifty years ago.

On April 12, 1961, a young Soviet pilot named Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the earth. The trip lasted a little less than two hours, but its success had extraordinary significance for the Soviet Union, which at the time was engaged in the heated “space race” with the United States.

The cosmonaut’s heroic act was the cause of great celebration in the USSR, as the country’s state-controlled media churned out countless mementos celebrating his achievement. Not only handsome, Gagarin came complete with peasant origins, making him the ideal subject for a Soviet propaganda campaign.

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Remembering yuri gagarin 50 years later, johnson space center.

“Poyekhali!!” With that one Russian word, meaning “Let’s go!” on April 12, 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to become the first human to travel in space.  Upon his return from his history-making single orbit of Earth, the Soviet Union treated Gagarin as a national hero.  Completing many goodwill tours, he became an international celebrity.

For several years, Soviet officials were hesitant to assign him to a second space flight for fear of losing him in an accident.  He became the deputy training director of the cosmonaut training center, helping other cosmonauts prepare for their space flights, and successfully defended his aerospace engineering thesis on space plane design at the prestigious Zhukovski Air Force Academy.  Gagarin persisted in his desire to return to space and eventually he was assigned as Vladimir Komarov’s backup for the first Soyuz mission.  After Komarov’s death in the Soyuz 1 accident in April 1967, Soviet officials felt justified in their caution and allowed Gagarin to fly aircraft only with a flight instructor.

On March 27, 1968, while on a routine training mission from Chkalovskiy Air Base near the Star City cosmonaut training center with flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin, the MiG-15UTI jet in which they were flying crashed in inclement weather, killing both pilots.  Gagarin was 34.  His ashes were interred in the Kremlin wall and are ritually visited by space flight crews prior to their departure for Baikonur.

Upon hearing the news, the NASA Astronaut Office sent a message of condolences to the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R., saying in part: “We join you in mourning the loss of Yuri Gagarin.  Nothing will dim the memory of his achievement in becoming the first pilot to fly in space.”

After his death, many prominent space facilities were renamed in his honor.  Outside of Moscow, the facility where cosmonauts train for their spaceflights was renamed the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.  Once a secret facility, today international crews, including U.S. astronauts, train there for missions to the international space station (ISS).  At the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the launch pad from which Gagarin began his historic journey is known as the Gagarin Start.  The pad is still in use today to launch multinational crews to the ISS.

To symbolize the current cooperation in space between two former rivals, in 2012 the Dialogue of Cultures – United World Foundation donated a bronze statue of Gagarin to the city of Houston, along with a bronze monument to John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth.  The side-by-side sculptures stand outside the building that once housed the original headquarters of the Manned Spacecraft Center (now the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center), before the Clear Lake facility was completed.

What is Gagarin’s legacy?

Space is an inspirational subject and human spaceflight in particular has motivated many young people to follow careers in science and engineering. Space now affects our everyday lives and makes an important contribution to the economies of the world.

This is the legacy of the early days of spaceflight, but it is often also associated with Yuri Gagarin and the astronauts who followed him.

Yes, it is true that space now touches many aspects of our daily lives – from the vital role it plays in monitoring our planet and protecting the environment, to the technical advances that space exploration has brought to materials science, computing, engineering, communications, biomedicine and many other fields.

Satellites are now able to show us our home planet in extraordinary detail and tell us about the way that we are changing it on local and global scales. Spaceprobes have made landings on distant planets, moons and asteroids and are even now journeying to the very edge of our Solar System. Orbiting astronomical telescopes have given Earth-based scientists insights into the creation of life and of the Universe itself.

But the fact is the Space Age was already well under way in 1961. Scientists and engineers were already making discoveries and inventing new technologies for spaceflight. By the time of Gagarin’s flight, the Soviet Union and the USA had made over 100 launch attempts, and both had succeeded in putting satellites in orbit and sending probes out into interplanetary space.

Since the launch of the first artificial satellite Sputnik in October 1957, the Soviet Union had notched up a set of ‘firsts’. They placed the first living creature, the dog Laika, into space in November 1957 and sent Luna 1 to pass close to the Moon in January 1959. Luna 2 would be the first probe to impact the Moon in September 1959 and Luna 3 the first to photograph its far side in October the same year. In February 1961, Venera-1, the first truly planetary probe, was launched toward Venus – an important milestone in spacecraft design.

On the American side, progress was equally impressive. Explorer 1 was launched in January 1958, and besides being the first US satellite, it is known for discovering the Van Allen radiation belts. This success was quickly followed by other satellites, notably the first communications satellite SCORE, also launched in 1958, and Pioneer 5, the first scientific probe around the Sun, launched in March 1960. TIROS-1, the first weather satellite, and Transit, the first operational navigation satellite, were both launched a month later.

In Europe, scientists from 10 countries, the ‘Groupe d’etudes europeen pour la Collaboration dans le domaine des recherches spatiales’ (GEERS), had already set up a commission at which governments would decide on possibilities for European cooperation in space. By 1961, the ‘Commission preparatoire europeenne de recherches spatiales’ (COPERS) was defining a structure for the envisaged European Space Research Organisation.

So what, then, could be Gagarin’s legacy? Until pictures of Gagarin appeared in the news, there were no real ‘space heroes’ for the public to identify with. The scientists and engineers working behind the scenes rarely appeared in the media. In the west, youngsters had comic book characters, science fiction and could aspire to be jet pilots. The US Mercury astronauts, although appearing in magazines such as Life since their selection in 1959, had yet to prove themselves.

With Gagarin came the first human face for space exploration. The photographs of this brave, helmeted space explorer became iconic of the 20th century and defined the image of the cosmonaut, much like the picture of Buzz Aldrin on the Moon in 1969. The thing that most people remember about Gagarin is his smile. The images of his smiling face would humanise space for the public, and they would also give a human quality to the Soviet society at that time.

The Soviet authorities chose their first man well. It would appear that they were also looking beyond the spaceflight, namely to make Gagarin an ambassador for the Soviet Union. Certainly the pictures of the first human space explorer transcended political differences and caught the imagination of people around the world.

Gagarin projected the image of confidence, professionalism, team spirit, modesty, bravery, leadership and concern for others, like that of his American counterparts (all had the same background as military jet pilots, so this was not surprising). These qualities became forever associated with cosmonauts and astronauts and still inspire today.

But more importantly, during the flight of Vostok 1, Gagarin was the first human being to see Earth from space. With so many images of Earth from space now available, it is hard to imagine how it felt to be the first person to view Earth from that perspective. This one aspect of his flight was so significant, transforming it from an impressive technical achievement to a milestone in human history. Could this be his legacy?

More than 500 people have travelled into space since, representing over 30 countries. Like Gagarin, most of them came back from space with a changed viewpoint and reverence for planet Earth. They describe seeing a world with no political boundaries, no borders between countries.

For a few months, Gagarin was the only person on Earth to have had such a unique view of our planet. He was struck by its beauty and fragility, and realised it was humankind’s duty to protect it. For a flight that lasted only one hour and 48 minutes, one orbit of Earth, it provoked important political, social, cultural and technical changes, and forever altered our perspective of our place on Earth.

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Essay, Biography or Paragraph on “Yuri Gagarin” complete biography for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Yuri Gagarin

Soviet Union : First Cosmonaut

Birth : 1934 Death : 1968

Yuri Alexeyvich Gagarin was the first person to fly into space. He made this trail-blazing space flight on the spacecraft Vostok-1, which was launched into space from a Kazhakistan cosmodrome on 12 April, 1961 at 9.07 a.m. Gagarin spent a total of 108 minutes in space and at a height of 340 km from the Earth and at a staggering speed of 28,090 km./ hr., made a revolution round the earth. He completed only one revolution round the Earth and it took him 89.34 minutes to do so. Since then Gagarin is known not only as the first space traveller but he holds the distinction of being the first person to fly at such a great height. This manned’space flight was carefully planned. Firstly, a bitch named Laika was sent into space by the Soviet Union to study the effects of space conditions on a living being. It was only after the favourable results of this flight that decision was taken to send a human being into space. Before making this space flight, Gagarin underwent very strenuous training during which there came many ,dangerous moments also but Gagarin bore all this with great courage.

Gagarin was born in a rural family of Russia. He studied mechanics in his early days and then took admission in an aircraft school. On the basis of his talent and hard work, Gagarin became successful in joining the Russian Air Force. After some time he was selected for training for the space flight. This brave conqueror of space died in an air accident on 27 March 1968, at the age of just 34. His name is written in golden letters in the annals of space flight.

Gagarin was a much celebrated person. He was honoured with the titles of ‘Order of Lenin’, ‘Gold Star Medal’ and the Hero of the Soviet Union’. ‘The successful space flight by Yuri Gagarin not only generated much excitement throughout the world but it inaugurated a new era in space science— the era of manned space flight.

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