The Mysterious Demise of Yuri Gagarin

On a snowy, blustery morning in March 1968, a two-man MiG-15 UTI jet took off from Chkalov air pressure base exterior Moscow on a routine coaching flight. Barely ten minutes later, the plane’s pilot radioed air visitors management, saying it was chopping its flight quick and requesting permission to land. Then, the transmission went lifeless. At close by Kirzhach airfield, a bunch of cosmonauts present process parachute coaching heard two loud explosions within the distance, and dispatched a flight of six helicopters to analyze. Three hours later, the search staff found a smoking crater in a birch forest simply exterior the village of Kirzhach. And although the plane had been all however vaporized on influence, it didn’t take lengthy to establish the pilots. One was Colonel Vladimir Seryogin, an skilled take a look at pilot, flight teacher, and battle hero who had flown greater than 200 fight missions in the course of the Second World Battle. The opposite was probably probably the most well-known man within the Soviet Union – if not the world: Colonel Yuri Gagarin, who seven years earlier on April 12, 1961 had made historical past by turning into the primary human to journey past the ambiance and orbit the earth. The dying of this nationwide hero on the age of solely 34 shocked the Soviet folks and despatched the nation into mourning. It additionally raised questions as to the precise circumstances of his dying – questions that linger to the current day. Was it a easy accident? A case of negligence or pilot error? Or had been there extra sinister forces at play? That is the story of the mysterious dying of the primary man in area.

Yuri Alekseievich Gagarin was born on March 9, 1934 within the village of Klushino, Smolensk Oblast, the son of Aleksei Gagarin, a carpenter, and Anna Timofeevna Gagarina, a dairy maid. He was the third of 4 youngsters born to the Gagarin family, preceded by brother Valentin in 1924 and sister Zoya in 1927 and adopted by brother Boris in 1936. Early on there have been few indications that Yuri – recognized to his shut associates as “Yura” – was destined for greatness, his mom stating in a later interview: “He grew up like all the opposite boys within the village.”

Gagarin began faculty in 1941, however his training was quickly interrupted by Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. The Gagarin home was commandeered by a German officer, who compelled the household to reside in a small 3×3 metre earth dugout within the again yard. All through the occupation the Germans harassed and abused the villagers, with one soldier trying to hold Gagarin’s youthful brother Boris from a tree by his scarf. In retaliation, Yuri turned to sabotage, pouring soil and different contaminants into car batteries and disabling bikes by stuffing rubbish into their exhaust pipes. When the Germans had been lastly compelled to retreat from Smolensk in 1943, they took Valentin and Zoya Gagarin with them, deporting them to Poland to be used as compelled labour. Miraculously, they survived the battle, and had been later reunited with the household within the village of Gzhatsk.

After ending his interrupted training in 1949, Yuri Gagarin attended commerce faculty within the metropolis of Luybertsy and labored briefly as a moulder in a metal foundry. Then, in October 1954, whereas finishing further coaching on the Saratov Specialised Faculty of Industrial Expertise, he, together with 4 associates, signed up for flying classes on the native aero membership. The one one in his pal group to finish the course, Gagarin carried out his first parachute soar on Could 18, 1955 and his first flight with an teacher on July 2. He quickly graduated with simply 42 hours and 23 minutes of flight time in his logbook. Quickly after, Gagarin utilized and was accepted into the first Chkalovsky Greater Air Pressure Pilots Faculty in Orenburg as an aviation cadet. As he later defined:

“I didn’t grow to be an air pressure pilot by likelihood. In the course of the battle we boys felt powerless. Definitely, we did what we may to harm the Nazis; we might sprinkle nails and damaged glass on the street to puncture the tyres of their vehicles…however once we had been older we realized how necessary our nation’s safety is. And that was what led me to make the selection I did – I dreamed of turning into an air pressure pilot.”

However realizing this dream proved more difficult than anticipated. Twice whereas qualifying on the MiG-15 fighter jet, Gagarin approached the runway at too steep an angle, forcing the trainer to take management of the plane. Given the Soviet Air Pressure’s strict necessities for commencement, it appeared sure that Gagarin would wash out. Then, in the future, the Commander of his regiment, Ivan Polshkov, got here throughout Gagarin exercising alone within the rain. Impressed by the cadet’s dedication, Polshkov approached his flying teacher and requested to overview his expulsion papers. The teacher steered that the issue could be Gagarin’s quick stature – he was solely 5’ 2” tall – and agreed to offer him a 3rd likelihood to finish his coaching flight. This time, nonetheless, he positioned a cushion underneath Gagarin’s seat, offering him a greater view of the runway. Whereas the ensuing touchdown was a bit tough, it was nonetheless inside acceptable limits and Gagarin was allowed to maneuver ahead to solo flights. Mockingly, Gagarin’s peak would later show a significant component in his choice as a cosmonaut.

From this level on, Gagarin’s profession went from power to power. In his second yr of coaching he was appointed assistant platoon commander and likewise met his future spouse, Valentina Gorycheva. As she later recalled:

“Once I first met Yuri I used to be a nursing pupil, and unusual to say I used to be a part of a nurse’s gymnastic brigade taking part within the Moscow might day celebrations. What do I bear in mind of our first assembly? Let’s see; initially an overexcited cadet and my pal Helena guffawing : ‘If you wish to get a normal you have to begin off with a Lieutenant.’”

In the meantime, Gagarin acknowledged that:

“My priorities [at the time] had been my hair, flying faculty, and chasing Valentina.”

Yuri and Valentina had been married in a Moscow Registry Workplace on October 27, 1957. Every week in a while November 5, Yuri graduated from the Air Pressure Pilots Faculty with 166 hours, 47 minutes of flight time underneath his belt and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. He was then assigned to Luostari air base in Murmansk, north of the Arctic Circle on the Kola Peninsula. He was joined by Valentina after she accomplished nursing faculty, and on April 10, 1959 they welcomed their first daughter, Yelena, into the world.

By this time, the Soviet Union was gorgeous the world with a sequence of area spectaculars. On October 4, 1957, they launched Sputnik 1, the world’s first synthetic satellite tv for pc into orbit. This was adopted lower than one month later by Sputnik 2, which carried the primary dwelling animal – a canine named Laika – into orbit. In the meantime, the USA struggled to maintain up, struggling the embarrassing public failure of the Vanguard rocket earlier than lastly inserting their very own satellite tv for pc, Explorer 1, into orbit on February 1, 1958 – and for extra on this forgotten chapter of U.S. area exploration, please take a look at our earlier video ‘Kaputnik’: America’s Largely Forgotten Disastrous First Try and Launch a Satellite tv for pc.

Even in these early days of the “House Race”, it was clear to all that the following main step can be to put a person into orbit. As Gagarin recalled shortly after the launch of Sputnik 1:

“I drew a spaceship in my pocket book and once more felt the acquainted, considerably obsessive and never but acknowledged urge; that very same attraction to area, which I used to be afraid to acknowledge, even to myself.”

In October 1959, shortly after the profitable flight of Luna 3 – the primary spacecraft to {photograph} the far facet of the moon – Gagarin write a letter to his commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Babushkin, volunteering for any duties:

“…in reference to the enlargement of area exploration happening in the usS.R. [in which] folks could also be required for manned spaceflights. I request you to pay attention to my very own ardent want, and will the chance current itself, to ship me for particular coaching.”

He wouldn’t have to attend lengthy to get his want.

Unusually, although the Soviets had been the primary to orbit a satellite tv for pc and launch probes to the moon, they had been significantly slower in placing collectively a manned area programme. Certainly, whereas the newly-formed Nationwide Aeronautics and House Administration or NASA introduced the primary slate of American astronauts – the so-called “Mercury Seven” – on April 9, 1959, the Soviets wouldn’t make their first cosmonaut alternatives till almost a yr later. And in contrast to the Mercury Seven, who grew to become instantaneous celebrities earlier than ever making a single spaceflight, the primary Soviet cosmonauts would stay a closely-guarded secret, their names not revealed to the general public till they’d efficiently reached orbit. Certainly, whereas the American area program was a clear enterprise carried out in full view of the general public, its Soviet counterpart was overseen by the army and shrouded in official secrecy. This performed neatly into the arms of the Soviet propaganda machine, permitting the Kremlin to cowl up any failed launches and provides the impression of an unbroken string of profitable missions.

But regardless of these obtrusive variations, when it got here to deciding what sort of particular person was greatest fitted to area journey, each programmes got here to very related conclusions. As Vladimir Yazdovsky, the founding father of Soviet area drugs, later defined:

“The candidates could be chosen from the ranks of fighter pilots, submariners, rocket specialists, racing automotive drivers or members of different bodily difficult professions. The aviation physicians amongst us knew that fighter pilots would have extra related background than the others since their coaching contains publicity to hypoxia, excessive stress, g-loads alongside varied axes, and ejection by catapult. It appeared apparent to us that cosmonaut candidates should be fighter pilots, and this view was totally shared by [rocket designer Sergei] Korolev and his colleagues. The Council of Chief Designers additionally insisted that the choice ought to be made by aviation physicians reporting to me underneath the supervision of the Medical Flight Fee and with the approval of the Chief Doctor of the Air Pressure, Alexander N. Babiychuk.

The physicians had been effectively conscious that the fighter pilots in our air pressure had been very related in age, well being, and flight expertise. It was due to this fact pointless to go on the lookout for cosmonaut candidates within the Urals, Siberia, and the Russian Far East. The search can be restricted to the European a part of our nation. Korolev went earlier than the staff of physicians entrusted with the choice job and formulated his necessities relating to a future cosmonaut: Age most 30, most peak 170 centimetres. He was requested what number of cosmonauts ought to be chosen. ‘Rather a lot’, he replied with a smile. ‘The Individuals have chosen seven males – and we want many extra.’ His reply created some bewilderment, however no one made any remark. All people understood that it was not one or two flights that had been being deliberate, however a a lot larger quantity.”

The seek for the primary cosmonauts started in mid-1959 underneath the auspices of the Central Medical Aviation Fee, based mostly out of the Central Army Scientific Aviation Hospital in Moscow. Although the Fee tried to maintain the character of their search secret, phrase quickly leaked out to a number of air pressure bases, whose commanders submitted the names of almost 1,000 potential candidates. And whereas bodily disqualifications like peak, weight, age, and persistent illnesses helped slim down the record, finally the Fee’s docs had no alternative however to interview the candidates themselves. On October 12, 1959, they visited Murmansk air pressure base, whose commander had chosen 12 males for analysis – together with Lieutenants Grigori Shonin and Yuri Gagarin. As Shonin later recalled:

“This was a little bit of a poser. What did the docs need with me? They requested me to take a seat down and commenced asking questions. We talked concerning the standard, maybe I ought to say, boring issues: how was I having fun with the air pressure, did I like flying, had I grow to be tailored to the far north, what did I do in my free time, what did I learn, and so forth…I left the workplace and met my comrades’ questioning appears to be like, however as I didn’t have any wise reply, I may solely shrug my shoulders.

…[during my second interview] I used to be requested detailed questions on my flying expertise ranging from my first flights in air faculty. They listened to my solutions very attentively despite the fact that they should have recognized all of it: they’d my flight lengthy on the desk earlier than them.

‘And if it had been a query of flying one thing of a totally new sort?’ [they asked]

‘I’m a fighter pilot. I specifically selected a flying faculty the place I’d be taught to fly jet fighters and also you…’

‘No, no, you don’t perceive. What we’re speaking about are long-distance flights, flights on rockets, flights all over the world.’

Regardless that there have been fairly a couple of satellites in area by then, manned flights had been nonetheless an thought from the realm of the incredible. Even amongst us pilots, nobody spoke significantly about such a factor.”

Certainly, in line with Vladimir Yazdovsky, many of the interviewed candidates had been equally reserved of their solutions:

“One of many Moscow physicians reported that 90 p.c of their interviewees had requested whether or not they can be flying standard plane. The candidates clearly loved their career and had been happy with their rank as army pilots. Roughly three out of ten declined the provide instantly, not essentially as a result of they had been afraid, however often as a result of they favored the Air Pressure, their groups, and their associates. They’d a transparent imaginative and prescient of their future army {and professional} careers. Many had a well-established household life which they had been reluctant to surrender in trade for obscure guarantees. There was a normal rule that any candidate may decline at any stage with out giving his causes. Some requested to be allowed to seek the advice of their wives or household; others gave their settlement instantly or solely after prolonged consideration. They most continuously requested query was how lengthy they must wait to do no matter we had been promising them. Would they’ve to attend till retirement? That might be okay, they mentioned, besides that in the meantime they’d households to assist.”

With the interviews full, the pilots returned to their common duties, not understanding when – or if – they’d be summoned for additional analysis. For Gagarin and Shonin, that day got here on January 14, 1960, once they had been ordered to report back to the Central Army Scientific Aviation Hospital in Moscow for a battery of medical testing. Overseen by Colonel Yevgeny Karpov, these checks had been probably the most thorough and intensive Soviet drugs may devise, as Yuri Gagarin later recalled:

“It was in no way like our yearly pilots’ medicals. We pilots had been used to those and noticed nothing horrible about them. However right here, starting with the very first specialist – the oculist because it occurred – I understood how severe it was going to be. My eyes had been checked very totally. One needed to have excellent imaginative and prescient; that’s to have the ability to learn all of the required letters and indicators on the chart from prime to backside., from the most important to smallest. I used to be fastidiously checked for a hid squint, my night time imaginative and prescient was verified, and my retina was additionally assiduously examined. As an alternative of going to the oculist solely as soon as, I needed to go seven occasions, and every time we went by all the things from the beginning: the charts with letters and indicators, color sensitivity checks, look together with your proper eye, look together with your left eye, look right here, look there…He searched and searched however was unable to search out even a touch of a fault in my eyes.

There was additionally a take a look at of means to work in uncommon and troublesome circumstances. The duty was to resolve sure arithmetical issues with figures that first needed to be present in a particular chart. Each pace and correctness of reply had been taken under consideration. At first look, it appeared it might be comparatively straightforward to resolve the issue. Then out of the blue a loudspeaker was tuned on and a monotonous voice started to immediate solutions. It grew to become a lot tougher to pay attention, and one needed to pressure oneself to proceed calculating with out paying any thoughts to this “obsequious pal.” It was powerful. By the way, this was solely the start; worse was but to come back.

There have been quite a lot of docs and every one was as stern as a state prosecutor. There was no attraction in opposition to their sentences. Medical doctors of all types, inducing therapeutists, neuropathologists, surgeons and ear-nose-and-throat specialists examined us. We had been examined from head to toe: little hammers had been tapped throughout our our bodies, we had been twisted about on particular units, and the vestibular equipment of our ears was checked….Our hearts had been the principle object of their examination. The docs may learn our complete life historical past from them. One couldn’t cover a single factor. Difficult devices detected all the things, even the tiniest cracks in our well being.”

Of the 154 certified pilots short-listed for analysis, 29 handed the medical checks, and of those 20 had been chosen to be the Soviet Union’s first corps of cosmonauts. The record was finalized – however not publicly introduced – on February 25, 1960: Ivan N. Anikeyev, Pavel I. Belyayev, Valentin V. Bondarenko, Valery F. Bykovsky, Valentin I. Filatyev, Yuri A. Gagarin,Viktor V. Gorbatko, Anatoli Y. Kartashov, Yevgeni V. Khrunov, Vladimir M. Komarov, Aleksei A. Leonov, Grigori G. Nelyubov, Andriyan G. Nikolayev, Pavel R. Popovich, Mars Z. Rafikov, Georgi S. Shonin, Gherman S. Titov, Valentin Varlamov, Boris V. Volynov, and Dmitry A. Zaikin.

In March 1960, the newly-minted cosmonauts had been ordered to report back to Chkalovsky airfield northeast of Moscow, the place a brand new coaching facility had unexpectedly been arrange and positioned underneath the command of Yevgeny Karpov and Basic Nikolai Kamanin. Initially recognized merely because the Cosmonaut Coaching Centre, in 1968 the power would purchase its extra well-known nickname of Zvezdy Gordok or “Star Metropolis”. Right here, the cosmonauts settled right into a gruelling coaching schedule involving lectures on dozens of scientific and technical matters and intense bodily actions starting from gymnastics to hockey, basketball, and and cross-country snowboarding. And all of the whereas, in fact, their bodily situation was obsessively monitored, a lot to the annoyance of many. As Yevgeny Karpov recalled:

“We started with bodily coaching. Not all of the flyers understood why. Some had been puzzled, even irritated. Why all of the out of the blue intensified setting-up workout routines each morning and all of the gymnastics and track-and-field work? And why a lot much less consideration to the centrifuges, vibrostands and different particular tools?

We needed to do quite a lot of convincing to carry them round to seeing it our means. Our potential cosmonauts needed to change a lot of their notions. There are some folks, younger flyers particularly, who regard any physician with suspicion. To them he’s the guy who’s cantankerous about trifles, at all times on the lookout for one thing to latch on to. A number of of the latecomers to our group felt this fashion, irritated on the medical checks earlier than and after coaching, ‘Increasingly more indicators! Countless checkups! You’d assume we had been a bunch of guinea pigs!’”

Finally, extra specialised actions had been added to the routine, together with publicity to excessive g-loads in a centrifuge, instruction in radio communications and performing varied duties whereas carrying a spacesuit, survival coaching within the wilderness, weightlessness coaching in a specially-modified Tupolev Tu-104 plane flying parabolic arcs – what within the American area program is nicknamed the “Vomit Comet”- in addition to parachute coaching. The latter was notably important because of the peculiar design of the Vostok spacecraft the cosmonauts would finally fly. Not like the American Mercury capsule, which splashed down within the ocean, for logistical and safety causes the Vostok was designed to the touch down on the big landmass of the Soviet Union. Nonetheless, because the spacecraft couldn’t carry a parachute giant sufficient to securely soft-land each itself and the cosmonaut inside, the cosmonaut would as a substitute eject at an altitude of seven,000 metres and parachute to the bottom individually. This was among the many cosmonauts’ least-favourite a part of the coaching, although a number of of the youthful members – together with Yuri Gagarin – had already accomplished the obligatory 5 jumps as a part of their Air Pressure coaching.

Equally feared was the so-called “chamber of silence”, a soundproof pressurized chamber during which a single cosmonaut can be locked for days and even weeks on finish to simulate the isolation of a protracted area voyage. However whereas designed to check a cosmonaut’s psychological fortitude, on March 23, 1961 the chamber proved lethal when an unintended fireplace within the enriched-oxygen atmosphere claimed the lifetime of 24-year-old cosmonaut Valentin Bondarenko. The cosmonaut corps quickly suffered additional losses: in July 1960 Valentin Varlamov dislocated his backbone whereas diving right into a shallow river whereas Anatoli Kartashov was recognized with weal blood vessels throughout centrifuge coaching – leading to each being dismissed from this system. These losses remained secret for many years, fuelling the enduring “phantom” or “misplaced cosmonaut” conspiracy concept, which holds that cosmonauts had been unsuccessfully launched into area previous to 1961, however their missions – and deaths – had been lined up by the Soviet authorities. However that is a topic for one more video.

In the meantime, the remaining 17 cosmonauts carried on with their coaching, together with finishing up 3-day simulated missions in a mockup of the Vostok capsule. At first look, all this intensive coaching might seem largely redundant given how little management the cosmonauts would even have over their spacecraft. Certainly, whereas the cabin of the American Mercury spacecraft featured 56 switches and 76 indicator lights, that of Vostok had solely 4 switches and 35 indicators – most of which regarding the re-entry course of. In the course of the flights, cosmonauts can be relegated to mere passengers, with the capsule being virtually fully managed from the bottom by radio command. On the time, it was not recognized what the hostile atmosphere of area would possibly do to the human physique; docs speculated that microgravity would possibly stop a cosmonaut from swallowing or digesting meals, distort their eyeballs, and even scramble their minds. For that reason, solely the hardest, healthiest candidates able to withstanding all kinds of stresses had been chosen to grow to be cosmonauts. And till it could possibly be confirmed that people may certainly operate in area, operation of the spacecraft was left to the bottom controllers. Nonetheless, it was at all times attainable that the automated methods would possibly fail, so the cosmonauts had been educated to reorient the capsule manually for reentry. And to make sure that solely a sound-minded cosmonaut may take management of the spacecraft, the controls had been locked out and will solely be activated by punching in a three-number code. This was sealed in an envelope positioned contained in the cabin, or could possibly be transmitted to the cosmonaut over radio in an emergency.

Because the coaching wore on and the primary scheduled launches approached, one query was foremost in everybody’s thoughts: who can be first? Although the Soviets had chosen a cosmonaut corps thrice bigger than the American Mercury Seven, it was not lengthy earlier than a small group of candidates started to face out from the remainder. Often called the Vanguard Six or Sochi Six after a well-known group {photograph} taken on the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, the group consisted of Valery Bykovsky, Yuri Gagarin, Grigori Nelyubov, Andrian Nikolayev, Pavel Popovich, and Gherman Titov. All through the coaching, all six had demonstrated a successful mixture of technical prowess, bodily health, management, and political acumen. However just one could possibly be first. To find out which one, a State Interdepartmental Board or “Credentials Committee” was convened composed of high-ranking officers from the Air Pressure Medical Service, the Soviet Academy of Sciences, the Cosmonaut Coaching Centre, the OKB-1 design bureau that designed the Vostok rocket and spacecraft, and different main organizations. The committee was tasked with deciding on an acceptable candidate based mostly not solely on his technical proficiency but additionally his political reliability and ethical qualities. As a part of this course of, the Vanguard Six had been subjected to a battery of interviews and requested to take a seat in a Vostok capsule mockup whereas being mercilessly grilled concerning the craft’s varied methods and features.

However whereas compelling arguments had been made for every of the six, from the start it was clear that one cosmonaut stood out among the many relaxation: Yuri Gagarin. As area journalist Yaroslav Golovanov later defined:

“Karpov valued in Nelyubov the pace of his thoughts, temperament and expert command of phrases, though he noticed a deficiency in him too; he had a not at all times justified tendency to superiority over all people, and an almost full absence of self-criticism.

Karpov informed me that at completely different durations of coaching, he gave his desire to first Popvich, then Titov. He favored Tito’s frankness very a lot. Gherman, if coming underneath query, by no means twisted issues, by no means invented excuses for himself. Alternatively, Karpov was alert to Tito’s impulsiveness; if he failed, he grew to become virtually unmanageable. Korolev himself, evidently, additionally had some desire to Titov, however nonetheless to a big extent to Gagarin.

Leonov thinks that Gagarin happy Korolev as early because the time of the cosmonauts’ first journey to the [OKB-1] building bureau. Yazdovsky associated that Korolev mentioned to him in the future about Gagarin: “I like that brat.””

Many times, Gagarin demonstrated an vitality and aptitude for management that endeared him to each his superiors and his fellow cosmonauts. As an illustration, on one event throughout zero-gravity coaching Gagarin and his comrades arrived on the airfield solely to search out that the crew of the coaching plane had been late. Whereas the opposite cosmonauts had been comfortable to chill out as they waited, Gagarin steered they focus on the physics of the parabolic flights they had been about to take. On one other event, whereas ready for the State Interdepartmental Board to point out up, a stressed Gagarin declared:

“Why waste time? Suppose I speak and also you appropriate me if I’m unsuitable.”

He then proceeded to leap within the Vostok mockup and effortlessly rattle off all of its varied methods and procedures. When the Board members lastly arrived, he gladly repeated the efficiency. All these strengths had been well-represented in his official file:

“All through the interval of coaching for flight, Yu A. Gagarin displayed nice accuracy within the efficiency of varied experimental psychological checks. He manifested nice equanimity when subjected to sudden and highly effective stimuli.

His response to ‘novelties’ (the state of weightlessness, extended periods within the isolation chamber, parachute jumps, and different procedures) had been at all times constructive; he evinced the power rapidly to orient himself in new circumstances and ability in sustaining self management in varied surprising conditions.

Observations made throughout his confinement within the isolation chamber revealed a extremely developed capability to chill out, throughout even the temporary pauses supplied for relaxation: to drop off to sleep rapidly, and to awaken on his personal on the scheduled time. Noteworthy amongst his character traits was his sense of humour – his good nature and fondness for joking.

His periods within the coach had been characterised by a peaceful, self-confident efficiency, with clear, concise stories after the completion of every process. His self-confidence, presence of thoughts, curiosity and cheerfulness made for a definite originality within the elaboration {of professional} expertise.”

Gagarin had different, much less tangible benefits as effectively. A good-looking younger man with an irrepressible smile and a robust proletarian background, he was precisely the sort of fashionable, virile Soviet man the Kremlin wished to current to the world. Unusually, Gagarin’s weaknesses additionally performed into the ultimate choice, as Basic Kamanin later defined:

“Each [Gagarin and Titov] are glorious candidates, however in the previous few days I hear increasingly more folks converse out in favour of Titov and my private confidence is rising too…The one factor that retains me from selecting him is the necessity to have the stronger particular person for the in the future flight. The second flight, which is able to final sixteen orbits, will undoubtedly be tougher than the primary one-orbit flight. However the first flight and the identify of the cosmonaut won’t ever be forgotten by humanity, whereas the second and following ones can be as simply forgotten as new data….it’s exhausting to determine which ones ought to be despatched to die, and it’s equally exhausting to determine which of those two first rate males ought to be made world-famous.”

The identical logic would come into play two years later when 26-year-old textile employee Valentina Tereshkova was chosen to be the primary girl in area. Not solely was Tereshkova younger, single, enticing, and the daughter of a collective farm employee and battle hero, however she was much less bodily and technically certified than her fellow ladies cosmonaut trainees. She was thus chosen for the largely passive “spam-in-a-can” Vostok 6 mission whereas her extra expert fellow trainees had been reserved for later, extra technically complicated missions – missions that, ultimately, had been by no means flown.

By late March 1961, the time had come to make a last choice. The Individuals had introduced their intention to try a manned launch on April 29, whereas the profitable single-orbit mission of the unmanned Korabl-Sputnik 4 – had demonstrated the protection and reliability of the Vostok spacecraft. The Central Committee of the Communist Occasion thus decreed {that a} cosmonaut can be launched no later than April 20, and on April 5 Basic Kamanin and the Vanguard Six flew to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to oversee preparations for the Vostok 1 mission.

Ultimately, the choice of who can be first into area was left to the cosmonauts themselves. As with the American Mercury Seven, Kamanin requested the cosmonauts to put in writing down who they thought ought to fly first in the event that they themselves weren’t chosen. Nearly to a person, the cosmonauts advisable Gagarin, calling him “a match comrade” who “by no means loses coronary heart”, “daring and steadfast”, “modest and easy”, and “decisive.” Among the many few exceptions was Mars Rafikov, who wrote:

“I ought to be despatched, though I do know that they won’t ship me. However my first identify is ‘cosmic’ and this may sound good.”

On April 9, 1961, the ultimate choice was made: Yuri Gagarin can be first, with Gherman Titov as main backup pilot and Grigori Nelyubov as secondary backup. The following day, the cosmonauts had been knowledgeable in non-public. Nonetheless, the Kremlin, desirous to protect this historic second, insisted on recreating the announcement for the cameras, forcing Titov and the opposite cosmonauts to relive their disappointment a second time.

Gagarin, who had simply welcomed his second daughter Galina into the world, was overwhelmed and humbled by the announcement, later recalling:

“What did I really feel at that session of the fee standing beside my pal and backup? The whole lot was clear and but unclear – possibly even very complicated. I used to be pondering of Gherman. He’s an excellent flier. He’s an clever man and a beautiful pal. He ought to make the flight too. I felt fairly awkward. Why me? Why not him? In fact the fee’s choice defined all the things. However it might have been higher to make the flight collectively.”

In the meantime, Titov tried to hide his disappointment:

“Why Gagarin and myself had been chosen? It’s troublesome to say. The commanders selected us. However all six of us had been equally well-trained, and every may pilot the Vostok spacecraft. It was Gagarin’s character that mattered most. You must perceive me accurately: the primary man in area needed to be a pleasant, enticing particular person.”

[We were] informed [it would be Gagarin] on the ninth of April, and journalists say I used to be so glad for Yuri that I virtually went to kiss him. I used to be disenchanted , as a result of I additionally counted that I’d be the primary man in area. However as the choice had been made, what was there to do?”

The historic day lastly got here on Wednesday, April 12, 1961. After being woken at 5:30 AM, Gagarin and Titov ate a lightweight breakfast of pureed meat and chocolate sauce squeezed from a tube – the identical meals they’d be consuming in area – earlier than being helped into their spacesuit. In a style of what was to come back, Gagarin recalled that:

“The folks serving to me get into my area swimsuit held out items of paper; one even held out his work go, asking for an autograph. I couldn’t refuse and signed a number of occasions.”

On the final minute, somebody expressed concern that the returning cosmonaut can be mistaken for a downed American U-2 spy airplane pilot. A pot of crimson paint was duly fetched, and the letters “USSR” unexpectedly utilized to Gagarin’s helmet. Then, after a quick go to with Chief Designer Sergei Korolev, Gagarin and Titov climbed aboard the specially-modified blue-and-white switch bus, plugged their spacesuits into the built-in cooling system, and headed off for the launch pad. In accordance with legend, alongside the way in which Gagarin requested the bus driver to cease so he may relieve himself exterior. To today, each cosmonaut launched from Baikonur recreates this incident by urinating on the left rear tire of the switch bus for good luck. Nonetheless, archival footage of the drive doesn’t present the bus making any stops, casting doubt on this well-known story.

At 6:50 AM, Gagarin arrived on the launch pad, the place he shook arms with Chairman of the State Fee Konstantin Rudnev and bid farewell to his comrades. As cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolayev later recalled:

“I used to be so nervous that I forgot he was carrying a helmet and tried to kiss him. I knocked my brow in opposition to it so exhausting I even had a bump there. ‘One for all and all for one, lads!’ shouted Yura to us and set off for the launching pad.”

Gagarin climbed the steps to the elevator which whisked him to the highest of the rocket, the place pad chief Oleg Ivanovsky strapped him into his ejection seat and sealed the spacecraft cabin. Simply earlier than closing the hatch, he revealed to Gagarin the lockout code for the controls: 1-2-5.

The remaining preparations for launch proceeded with out incident till, at 9:07 AM Moscow Time, the launch command was given. Not like NASA, the Soviet – and later Russian – area program didn’t go in for countdowns – a practice originating with German rocket engineers like Wernher von Braun – and easily launched their rockets on the appointed time. Because the Vostok rocket blasted off the launch pad, an exuberant Yuri Gagarin cried out:

“Poyekhali! [Let’s go!] Goodbye till we meet quickly pricey associates.”

11 minutes later, Vostok 1 separated from its booster and entered a steady 181 kilometre orbit. Gagarin, now the primary human in historical past to enter outer area, regarded out by the spacecraft’s porthole and declared:

“I see the earth! I see the clouds! It’s stunning; what magnificence!”

With Gagarin now safely in orbit, at 9:59 AM Moscow Time the state information media introduced the mission’s success throughout the nation. The impact on the Soviet folks was electrical, as Time Journal later reported:

“From Leningrad to Petropavlovsk, the us got here to a halt. Streetcars and buses stopped in order that passengers may take heed to loudspeakers in public squares. Manufacturing facility employees shut off their machines; shopgirls stop their counters. Schoolkids turned eagerly from the day’s classes. Someplace above then, a Soviet citizen what arcing previous the celebrities, whirling concerning the earth at 18,000 miles an hour, hovering into historical past as the primary man in area.”

Throughout his temporary single orbit, Gagarin reported on the standing of his craft and tried out the area meals he had been given. He didn’t grow to be nauseated or disoriented, proving that people may work successfully in zero gravity. However solely an hour and twenty minutes after launch, it was already time to return dwelling. As Vostok 1 handed over Angola, the automated photo voltaic sensors realigned the capsule and fired its retrorockets, slowing the craft and sending it plunging into the ambiance. It was then that the one main hiccup of all the mission occurred. The Vostok spacecraft was composed of two fundamental sections: a spherical descent module containing the cosmonaut, his ejection seat, and parachutes; and the biconical instrument module containing oxygen, batteries, the reentry retrorocket and its gas. The 2 had been speculated to separate cleanly following retrofire, permitting the descent module – lined in heat-resistant tiles – to reenter the ambiance. Nonetheless, a thick bundle of cables didn’t separate, and the 2 modules, nonetheless related, whirled violently round one another till the warmth of reentry lastly burned by the cables. Fortunately, Gagarin was unharmed – although he skilled accelerations of as much as 10G – and the remainder of reentry went as deliberate. At an altitude of seven kilometres, the spacecraft’s parachute deployed, and the hatch blew off. Two seconds later, the ejection seat launched Gagarin freed from the capsule. Apparently, the Soviets would maintain this element of the flight secret for a few years, as the foundations of the Fédération Aéronautique Worldwide or FAI regarding spaceflight data stipulated that the astronaut should return inside their spacecraft. Within the occasion, nonetheless, the FAI later amended its guidelines and nonetheless acknowledges Yuri Gagarin as the primary man to journey into outer area – and to study extra about how this cosmic boundary is outlined, please take a look at our earlier video The Surprisingly Attention-grabbing debate of The place Outer House Really Begins.

At 11:05 AM Moscow Time – two hours after blasting off from Baikonur – Yuri Gagarin landed on the sting of a collective farm referred to as the Street of Lenin close to the village of Smelova, Saratov Oblast – not removed from the place he had first began flying in 1954. As Gagarin later recalled:

“As I stepped down on agency floor, I noticed a girl and slightly lady and a noticed calf watching me curiously. I began strolling in direction of them, and so they moved in direction of me. However as I got here nearer, they slowed down. I used to be nonetheless carrying my brilliant orange area swimsuit, which regarded uncommon and was making them really feel uneasy. They hadn’t seen something prefer it earlier than. I took off my helmet and cried out, feeling the chilliness of pleasure.

“Don’t be afraid, comrades. I’m no intruder.”

“Are you from area?” The girl requested uncertainly.

“You received’t consider it,” I mentioned.

Then I noticed a bunch of harvester operators working in direction of me and crying my identify. They had been the primary folks I noticed on earth throughout my mission in area. We embraced and kissed each other.”

Not lengthy after, restoration helicopters arrived on the touchdown web site and airlifted Gagarin to the close by air pressure base at Engels, the place Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev referred to as to congratulate him on his profitable mission. Two days later, the world’s first area traveller appeared in Moscow’s Pink Sq. earlier than a jubilant crowd of tens of 1000’s. Because the Los Angeles Instances reported:

“Weeping with emotion, Premier Khrushchev introduced spaceman Yuri Gagarin dwelling to Moscow Friday and the town’s thousands and thousands hailed the astronaut because the area age Columbus in a roaring welcome no Stalin or Czar ever acquired…Overseas observers presumed that by no means within the 805-year-old tumultuous historical past of Moscow has there ever been such an outpouring of public affection.”

For his achievement, Gagarin was promoted to Main and acquired the best honours the Soviet state may bestow: the Order of Lenin and the title Hero of the Soviet Union. In a single day, he grew to become probably the most well-known and celebrated particular person on the planet, and over the next two years toured all throughout the Soviet Union and visited greater than 30 completely different international locations. He had lunch with Queen Elizabeth II of England, was given golden keys to the gates of Cairo and Alexandria by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, and incessantly hugged by Cuban chief Fidel Castro. His smiling face was plastered over billboards, posters, and postcards all over the world, and streets, establishments, and even his adopted city of Gzhatsk had been renamed in his honour. This sudden movie star was overwhelming for the modest and self-effacing Gagarin, who acknowledged:

“I used to be removed from alone on this achievement. There have been tens of 1000’s of scientists, specialists, and employees who participated in getting ready for this flight. I really feel awkward as a result of I’m being made out to be some type of super-ideal particular person. Actually, like everybody else I’ve made quite a lot of errors and have my weaknesses too. It’s embarrassing to be made tossed like such a very good, candy little boy. It is sufficient to make one sick.”

Certainly, despite his sudden elevation to near-sainthood, Gagarin was very a lot a person with very human weaknesses – particularly a weak point for ladies. All of a sudden introduced with a world full of girls desirous to share his mattress, Gagarin discovered it troublesome to include himself – as did his fellow cosmonauts. This philandering and different dangerous behaviour bought so dangerous so rapidly that in late 1961 Gagarin and Titov – who had just lately carried out his personal day-long Vostok 2 mission on August 6 – had been hauled right into a closed-door listening to earlier than the higher echelons of the Communist Occasion. Nonetheless, this official dressing-down had little impact, and the 2 males continued to get themselves into embarrassing predicaments. For Gagarin, issues got here to a head in October 1961 whereas vacationing along with his household at a sanatorium in Foron on the Black Sea. Taking an curiosity in one of many facility’s nurses, Gagarin adopted her into her quarters. Rising suspicious of her husband’s prolonged absence, Valentina Gagarin set off in the hunt for him and commenced banging on the door. Gagarin, nonetheless drunk, tried to leap out the window, however caught his foot on some decorative vines and fell face-first into an asphalt pathway. As Dr. Vladimir Golyakhovsky later recounted:

“The story was stored underneath tight wraps. Gagarin was taken to the unique hospital #6 arrange by the Third Division of the Ministry of Public Well being for the cosmonauts, and there the wound was handled. The outer desk of the frontal bone was discovered to be fractured and bent inward; the wound was contaminated. The surgeons feared that the an infection had prolonged to the entrance sinus.”

Gagarin was speculated to be the honoured visitor on the twenty second Communist Occasion Congress on October 17, however the so-called “Foron Incident” prevented him from making all however a quick look. It additionally left him with a big scar over his left eye. Although his immense fame would simply have allowed it, he refused to hunt out cosmetic surgery within the west as this may have introduced additional embarrassment upon the Soviet authorities. To the tip of his days, Gagarin maintained both that he had hit his head on a rock whereas taking part in along with his daughter or that he had been taking part in hide-and-seek along with his spouse and was unaware there was one other girl within the room. Certain, Yuri…

The consequences of worldwide fame on Gagarin’s persona and public picture didn’t go unnoticed by Basic Kamanin, who later wrote:

“There have been many conditions when Gagarin miraculously escaped massive troubles. These conditions typically occurred when he attended events, drove in vehicles or boats, or when searching with the large bosses…. The energetic life type, countless conferences and consuming periods had been noticeably altering Yura’s picture and slowly, however steadily erasing his charming smile from his face.”

However as embarrassing as Gagarin’s escapades may need been, these of his fellow cosmonauts had been typically worse. Titov specifically had a behavior of driving drunk, and was concerned in three severe collisions between August 1961 and February 1962. On June 26, 1964 he can be concerned in yet one more drunken crash which resulted within the dying of his feminine passenger – a crash which he subsequently fled and lied to the police about. And on March 12, 1962, cosmonauts Mars Rafikov, Ivan Anikeyev, and Grigory Nelyubov had been returning to Star Metropolis after a booze-soaked night time in town once they failed to provide applicable identification at a checkpoint and bought right into a drunken altercation with the obligation officer. Whereas Basic Kamanin provided to let the lads off with a reprimand in the event that they apologized for his or her behaviour, Nelyubov refused, and all three had been expelled from the cosmonaut program. Rafikov and Anikeyev returned to the air pressure and loved lengthy and profitable careers, however the rejection hit the useless and boastful Nelyubov exhausting and he sank into despair and alcoholism, in the end committing suicide on February 18, 1966.

But despite his private weaknesses, Yuri Gagarin nonetheless tried to make use of his fame to serve the larger good. Day by day he acquired lots of of items of fan mail from all over the world – so many, the truth is, that he was quickly given his personal workers and Moscow postal code to deal with all of it. Many of those letters had been from struggling Soviet residents begging for cash or different help, and whereas there have been limits to Gagarin’s affect, he did all he may to resolve as many instances as attainable. And when Sergei Kiselov, one among Gagarin’s parachuting instructors, broke his neck throughout a soar, Gagarin used his clout to have him transferred to a personal Moscow hospital reserved for the Communist half elite. Because of this intervention, Kiselov made a full restoration and was saved from a lifetime of paralysis.

However as the worldwide hype started to die down and his public tour schedule relaxed, Gagarin’s ideas turned again to the work he liked probably the most: flying. To his horror, nonetheless, he found that the Soviet authorities had grounded him, banning him from flying even standard plane. So invaluable was Gagarin as a nationwide image and propaganda device that the federal government couldn’t afford to danger his life once more. Even Basic Kamanin balked at this pronouncement, writing:

“We are able to’t flip Gagarin right into a museum exhibition – that might kill him.”

However these protests fell on deaf ears. As an alternative, Gagarin was promoted to Colonel, appointed deputy chief of the Cosmonaut Coaching Centre in Star Metropolis, and appointed to the Supreme Soviet. Gagarin grudgingly accepted his new earthbound tasks, appearing as main Capsule Communicator or CapCom for the twin Vostok 3 and 4 mission in August 1963 and heading up the coaching program for the newly-selected feminine cosmonauts together with Valentina Tereshkova, who made her first – and solely – spaceflight aboard Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963. All of the whereas, he continued to submit requests to return to flight standing to Basic Kamanin, who continued to set them apart. Lastly, in 1967 Kamanin relented and appointed Gagarin as backup pilot for Vladimir Komarov on the primary flight of the brand new Soyuz spacecraft.

The event of the Soyuz was notoriously troubled, with engineers reporting 203 severe flaws with the design. These complaints, nonetheless, had been ignored resulting from stress by the federal government to fly the mission on the anniversary of Vladimir Lenin’s birthday, and planning for the mission pushed forward. Gagarin, fearful that his good pal was being despatched on a suicide mission, pulled rank in an try to bump Komarov from the flight, understanding that the federal government would by no means danger the lifetime of a nationwide hero. Komarov, nonetheless, insisted on flying the mission, which was launched on April 23, 1967. As feared, the flight was a catastrophe, with Komarov experiencing an countless string of technical failures together with the failure of one of many spacecraft’s photo voltaic panels to deploy. Following reentry, the parachutes additionally didn’t deploy and the capsule slammed into the bottom at 140 kilometres per hour, killing Komarov immediately. It was the primary time in historical past an astronaut had been killed whereas flying an area mission – and for extra on the Soyuz 1 catastrophe, please take a look at our earlier video The Most Disastrous House Mission Ever Executed.

Following Komarov’s dying, Gagarin was formally grounded as soon as once more. Undeterred, he continued to request permission to no less than fly jets, all whereas finishing up his official duties and pursuing research in technical sciences on the Zhukovsky Air Pressure Engineering Academy. On February 17, 1968 Gagarin defended his thesis on winged spaceplanes. Diploma in hand, he appealed as soon as extra to the Air Pressure to be allowed to fly jets, stating:

“If I cease flying I’ll haven’t any ethical proper to guide different folks whose life and work are related with flying.”

This time, his request was granted, and his grounding order was rescinded as soon as extra. By this time years of inactivity and splendid meals had taken their toll: Gagarin’s boyish face had stuffed out, and his once-athletic physique had grow to be gentle and grown a intestine. He thus started an intense routine of bodily coaching, hoping to in the future qualify for one more spaceflight.

Gagarin’s flight coaching befell at Chkalov Air Pressure Base northeast of Moscow underneath skilled take a look at pilot and teacher Colonel Vladimir Seryogin. Between March 13 and 22, 1968, Gagarin accomplished 18 flights within the MiG-15 UTI 2-seat subsonic jet coach, accumulating 7 hours of flight time. His last tandem flight earlier than he was allowed to solo was scheduled for March 27. Work and journey commitments had prevented Gagarin from flying for a number of days, and he was desirous to get again into the air. Nonetheless, the day bought off to an inauspicious begin. The climate was chilly and windy, with waist-deep snow smothering the bottom and thick cloud cowl overhead. Even worse, Gagarin’s automotive broke down, forcing him to take a bus to the airbase. And when he lastly arrived, he found he had forgotten his gate go and needed to return dwelling to fetch it. Gagarin’s superstitious colleagues chided him on having a bad-luck day and warned him to not fly, however Gagarin ignored them and at 10:19 AM he and Seryogin roared off the runway and climbed into the overcast sky.

The flight plan referred to as for Gagarin to fly the plane to a coaching space northeast of the airbase the place he would observe varied flight maneuvers together with barrel rolls and vertical loops – a job that was anticipated to take not more than 20 minutes. Nonetheless, at 10:37 – barely 8 minutes after taking off, Gagarin introduced that his mission was full and requested permission to return to Chkalov. Permission was granted, however quickly in spite of everything radio contact was misplaced with the plane. Air visitors controllers waited with rising dread for Gagarin to re-establish contact, however when it grew to become clear that his plane had exceeded its gas endurance and certain gone down, a flight of six helicopters was dispatched to search out it. It was almost three hours earlier than search crews lastly noticed a smoking, six-metre huge crater in a birch forest 11 kilometres exterior the village of Kirzhach. Rescue crews rapidly descended upon the positioning, however there was nothing they may do. The plane had disintegrated on influence, scattering particles over a large space. It was solely when one searcher found Gagarin’s pockets and id card that the horrible reality was confirmed. Yuri Gagarin, the primary man in area, Hero of the Soviet Union, and world icon, was lifeless on the age of simply 34.

The next day, Gagarin and Seryogin’s few surviving stays had been cremated and, in a solemn ceremony, interred throughout the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. Instantly, a authorities fee headed by Air Pressure Colonel Igor Kuznetsov, was assembled to analyze the deadly crash. However whereas the inquiry concerned lots of of investigators and succeeded in recovering 90% of the plane’s wreckage, Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev refused to permit the ultimate report back to be launched, fearing its conclusions would “unsettle the nation.” Solely a quick abstract was revealed. Within the absence of official data, all method of rumours and theories emerged relating to the causes of the crash. Some held that Gagarin and Seryogin had collided with a fowl or a climate balloon, whereas others claimed that Gagarin was drunk in the course of the flight, downing a complete bottle of vodka earlier than takeoff. Far stranger theories posited that the pilots had tried to shoot at a moose on the bottom and had by chance collided with a tree, that they’d encountered an alien spacecraft that zapped them with mind-paralyzing rays, or that Gagarin had faked his personal dying and was dwelling in the USA – no, actually. On the extra sinister facet, some speculated that Gagarin had been secretly murdered by the KGB. This concept was based mostly on the truth that Gagarin – and the Soviet area program as a complete – had largely been the pet mission of Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev. After deposing Khrushchev in a coup in 1964, new Premier Leonid Brezhnev, the idea went, was desirous to wipe out all remaining traces of his predecessor’s successes – together with Gagarin.

A extra believable concept was put ahead by lead authorities investigator Igor Kuznetsov, who revealed that on the time of the crash, Vladimir Seryogin was not in good well being, typically complaining of nausea and coronary heart pains. In accordance with Nuznetsov’s concept, in the course of the flight Seryogin suffered some type of well being emergency – probably a coronary heart assault – and fell limp onto the controls, partially disabling them. Gagarin, within the ahead seat of the plane, didn’t discover Seryogin’s situation till it was too late, finally shedding management of the plane and ploughing into the bottom.

Nonetheless, the official Authorities report, lastly declassified in 2011, paints a special image. Primarily based on the angle at which the plane impacted the bottom, investigators concluded that Gagarin and Seryogin had entered a flat spin. Moreover, the sample of fractures in Gagarin’s hand – which was discovered nonetheless clutching the throttle – revealed that he had not tried to eject and had tried to regain management of the plane till the final second. As for what brought about the deadly spin, the report speculates that Gagarin and Seryogin might have banked sharply to keep away from a climate balloon or flown into the wake of one other, sooner plane. As a 1989 Novosti Information Company article, based mostly on the revealed abstract of the report, explains:

“The pilot’s maneuver to stop dive and spin whereas levelling off – the downward deflection of the aileron on a dropping wing to stop the plane from happening in a spin – led to wing stall and spin. The whole accident occurred in a second.”

Both Gagarin’s MiG-15 fell into the vortex wake of one other plane or else it banked sharply to keep away from hitting one other plane or a climate balloon. The plane went right into a spin characterised by maximal vitality loss. Subsequently it recovered from the spin after which the plane ploughed into the bottom.”

Certainly, forensic evaluation of Gagarin’s stays revealed no alcohol in his system, ruling out the chance that he had been drunk in the course of the flight. As for the accusations that the KGB murdered Gagarin on the behest of Brezhnev, the KGB really carried out its personal, unbiased investigation of the crash in 1968 which uncovered further, tantalizing particulars. The KGB report, declassified in 2003, revealed that Gagarin and Seryogin’s MiG-15 UTI coaching plane had been fitted with slip-on wing-mounted gas tanks, which drastically prolonged its vary and endurance however had been recognized to make the plane unstable in poor climate circumstances. Extra importantly, nonetheless, investigators found that the 2 pilots had been given outdated climate data. Previous to takeoff the cloud ceiling was 820 metres, however by the point of the crash the climate had severely deteriorated and this had dropped to solely 300 metres. Thus, when the jet entered a spin, Gagarin and Seryogin tried to get better as a substitute of ejecting, believing they’d considerably extra altitude than they really did.

16 years after the crash, yet one more investigation was launched by Lt. Basic Sergei Mikhailovich Belotserkovsky, who had lectured Gagarin on engineering and scientific coaching on the Zhukovsky Air Pressure Engineering Academy. Belotserkovsky’s investigation found that one other MiG-15 had taken off instantly earlier than Gagarin and Seryogin and {that a} pair of extra highly effective MiG-21 fighters had taken off two minutes after. The timing and proximity of those takeoffs violated security protocols, and both of those plane may have generated wakes highly effective sufficient to throw the already unstable MiG-15 UTI right into a deadly flat spin.

This conclusion is shared by cosmonaut Alexei Leonov – the primary man to carry out an Extravehicular Exercise or “House Stroll” – although he believes one other plane was in charge. On the time of the crash, Leonov was at close by Kirzhach airfield, main parachute workout routines with a bunch of youthful cosmonaut trainees:

“The climate was very dangerous that day. The cloud cowl was low and it was raining exhausting. My staff had carried out only one soar when the climate deteriorated even additional. The rain turned to sleet and circumstances had been so dangerous that I canceled the session and requested permission to return to base.”

On returning to base, Leonov heard two loud explosions within the distance. Three hours later, search crews found the crash web site and the stays of Gagarin and Seryogin. As Leonov writes in his autobiography Two Sides of the Moon:

“On the time of the accident, it was recognized {that a} new supersonic Sukhoi Su-15 jet was in the identical space as Yuri’s MiG. Three individuals who lived close to the crash web site confirmed seeing such a airplane shortly earlier than the accident. In accordance with the flight schedule of that day, the Sukhoi was prohibited from flying decrease than 10,000 metres. I consider now, and believed on the time that the accident occurred when the jet pilot violated the foundations and dipped beneath the cloud cowl for orientation. I consider that, with out realizing it due to the horrible climate circumstances, he handed inside 10 or 20 metres of Yuri and Seryogin’s airplane whereas breaking the sound barrier. The air turbulence created overturned their jet and despatched it into the deadly flat spin.”

In accordance with Leonov, the primary of the 2 explosions he heard that day was the Su-15 breaking the sound barrier, whereas the second was Gagarin and Seryogin’s MiG-15 UTI impacting the bottom. However whereas Leonov claims to know the id of the Su-15 pilot, he has refused to expose it, stating:

“He is an efficient take a look at pilot… It can repair nothing.”

Whereas the plane wake and flat spin concept has gained widespread acceptance, different prospects have additionally been steered. In 2007, Igor Kuznetsov petitioned the federal government of Vladimir Putin to launch yet one more investigation into Gagarin’s deadly crash, centred on an uncommon design quirk of his plane. Kuznetsov theorized {that a} set of cockpit vent panels might have by chance been left open by floor crews, permitting the cockpit to slowly depressurize. Whereas such panels weren’t included on Russian-manufactured MiG-15s, they had been current on Gagarin and Seryogin’s plane, which was manufactured in Czechoslovakia. In accordance with Kuznetsov, the pilots – who weren’t carrying oxygen masks – would solely have seen the decreased cabin stress at an altitude of 4,000 metres, slowly shedding consciousness as they started to undergo from hypoxia. They then tried to quickly cut back their altitude to 2,000 however descended too rapidly, inflicting them to go out and spiral into the bottom.

However whereas intriguing, this concept has been disputed by many pilots together with cosmonaut Vladimir Aksyonov, who argued that not solely would skilled pilots like Gagarin and Seryogin not have panicked in such a scenario, however {that a} speedy descent from 4,000 metres was a reasonably commonplace process for even unpressurized plane and would have had few unfavorable physiological results on the crew. In accordance with Aksyonov, the probably reason behind the crash had been the extreme climate circumstances on that day, which might have made it straightforward for Gagarin and Seryogin to grow to be disoriented:

“The cloudiness that day was uncommon: the underside fringe of the almost stable clouds was about 600 meters above the bottom. Then, as much as a peak of 4 thousand meters, the clouds had been dense, with small rarefaction. No clouds above the highest edge: clear sky and excellent visibility. We had been even proven pictures of the highest edge taken from a meteorological airplane.”

Given the paucity of proof, we might by no means know for certain what actually occurred. What is clear, nonetheless, is that Gagarin and Seryogin had been virtually actually not liable for the crash. Whether or not they flew into one other plane’s wake, grew to become disoriented within the clouds, handed out from hypoxia, or had been attacked by aliens, the 2 pilots carried out their duties precisely as they’d been educated and had been merely the victims of extremely dangerous luck.

What can be clear is that on that fateful day, the world of area exploration misplaced one among its main lights. Although he typically downplayed his personal significance, Yuri Alekseievich Gagarin was effectively and actually a hero – a humble, good-natured, but flawed farm boy who nonetheless had the braveness to leap into the unknown and blaze a path for humanity into the celebrities. As his superior and shut pal Nikolai Kamanin lamented:

It was unattainable to think about Gagarin lifeless. Gagarin was life himself, the unbound dream of the sky, of flying, of area.”

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