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Yuri Gagarin - Short
Biography
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An old lady peered up at the human form
clad in a bright orange space suit and asked in a puzzled tone
“Have you come from outer space?" His response was, "Yes would
you believe it, I certainly have." The place - a field outside
Takhtarova in the Soviet Union. The date and time - 10.20 AM
Moscow time, April 12 1961. The person who was asked the
question - Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin. He had parachuted down to
earth after separating from his capsule from the Vostok I. He
had just made history by being the first human to orbit the
earth.
His early life
Born in a small farming village near Moscow, on March 9, 1938,
Yuri’s schooling was interrupted by the Second World War. He
graduated in 1951, having resumed his education after the war
was over. Taking on technical studies in
metal work, in college, he also indulged his interest in flying.
He joined the Aero Club and flew solo for the first time in
1955; there was no more looking back. He then joined the Soviet
Air Force in 1957 and flew jet fighters with them. Meanwhile
there was progress on the personal front too. Valya had entered
his life as his wife and the family expanded with the addition
of children. |
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A Cosmonaut
Yuri applied for becoming a cosmonaut and was accepted in 1959.
He was specially trained for space flights at a special
institute at Zvezdniy, Gorodok. Yuri Gagarin was chosen to fly
abroad the Vostok I just four days before the launch. He had
been one among the twenty selected for training. He survived the
short listing that brought down the number of probables to
twelve. And finally proved to be the lucky one to be selected. |
Yuri Gagarin |
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Making History
He boarded the craft ninety minutes before lift off, with the happy
news of having been promoted to the rank of Major. During the
launch, Yuri was exposed to six times the force of gravity on earth
and similarly during re-entry he was subjected to eight times the
normal gravitational force of the earth. This means that Gagarin
felt five times and eight times heavier than his normal weight
respectively.
The flight lasted for about an hour and forty-eight minutes. He had
been asked to test hand eye co-ordination in space. As part of his
duties, he ate and drank while in orbit around the earth, becoming
the first human being to do so. He was also the first human to see
the earth from space. He is said to have remarked that, "The sky
looks very, very dark and the Earth is bluish."
The last flight
After returning home to fame and acclaim, Yuri toured the world and
was received everywhere with open arms. He then signed up for the
Russian Soyuz space program. However destiny did not allow him to
venture into space again. On March 27, 1968 the Soviet Union lost
Yuri Gagarin in a training flight accident. A mourning nation gave
him a hero’s burial along the Kremlin wall. |
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