By akademiotoelektronik, 26/01/2023

60 years ago, Youri Gagarin became the first man in space

(Moscow) Crushed in his seat by the powerful gravitational forces, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin saw the flames outside his capsule and prepared to die. His voice broke the tense silence that reigned in the control center: “I am in flames. Goodbye, comrades. »

Published on Apr 12, 2021Vladimir Isachenkov Associated Press

Gagarin did not know that the hell he saw through the porthole was the plasma cloud that enveloped the Vostok-1 capsule during its re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, and that he could always hope to land safe and sound.

His composure under pressure helped make him the first human in space 60 years ago.

His steely self-control was crucial to the success of his 108-minute mission on April 12, 1961—a mission that had its share of problems, from a hatch that wouldn't close properly for a few minutes before takeoff to parachute trouble during the last moments before landing.

From the moment 20 Soviet Air Force pilots were chosen to train for a first manned mission in space, Gagarin's composure, learning ability and his contagious smile made him the favorite.

Two days before takeoff, the 27-year-old wrote a farewell letter to his wife, Valentina, in which he expressed his pride at being chosen to board Vostok-1, but in which he also tried to console her in times of disaster.

“I fully trust the equipment, it will not let me down. But if something happens, I ask you not to let the pain break you,” he said.

Authorities kept the letter. They gave it to his widow seven years after Gagarin died in a plane crash. She never remarried.

Gagarin's unprecedented flight, in which he orbited the Earth, made him a hero in the Soviet Union and an international star. After placing the first satellite in orbit by launching Sputnik in October 1957, the Soviet space program hastened to establish its lead over the American program by sending a man into space.

“We had a job to do, people slept in their offices and workshops, like during the war,” recalled cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikin, who went into space five times.

The Russian rocket and missile program ran into several problems in 1960 as it tried to defeat the Americans. An explosion on the launch pad in October, for example, killed 126 people, including Marshal Mitrofane Nedeline.

Officials had prepared three versions of the statement regarding Gagarin's flight for the official TASS news agency: one in case of success, another in case of trouble, and one last in case of disaster.

Beyond possible engine or equipment problems, Soviet scientists wondered if a human could survive spaceflight. Many feared that the pilot would lose his mind in orbit.

Soviet engineers had prepared for such an eventuality by developing a fully automated system. As an added precaution, the pilot would receive a sealed envelope containing a secret code to activate the capsule's manual controls. In theory, only a sane cosmonaut could activate the code and take control of the capsule.

That being said, everyone in the space program loved Gagarin so much that at least two people revealed this code to him before the flight to prevent him from having to open the envelope in an emergency.

The problems started as soon as Gagarin boarded Vostok-1, when a warning light confirming the hatch was closed did not come on. Working at full speed, an engineer and a colleague removed 32 screws, repaired a faulty connection, and put the screws back in place just in time for takeoff.

Seated in the capsule, Gagarin was whistling a melody. “Poyekhali! " - " Here we go ! – he shouted at the moment of takeoff.

As another precaution, the orbit had been programmed so that the capsule would descend on its own in the event of an incident with the engines. But a glitch sent the capsule into a higher orbit than expected, and Gagarin would never have returned had the engine refused to fire.

While the engine ran smoothly, a fuel leak gave the capsule an unexpected trajectory and faster speed that kept it spinning madly for ten endless minutes.

Gagarin later claimed to have almost fainted from forces ten times that of gravity. "There was a point where the instruments started to disappear in front of my eyes for two or three seconds," he said.

Seeing the flaming plasma around his capsule as it re-entered the atmosphere, he thought it had caught fire.

Gagarin eventually ejected from the capsule, still wearing his space suit, and deployed his parachute. During his descent he had to adjust a valve to be able to breathe the ambient air. An emergency parachute also opened, making it difficult to control the descent, but it landed in a field near the Volga River in the Saratov region.

Gagarin was transferred to Moscow, where he was greeted as a hero by cheering crowds and by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. The success of his flight has been compared to defeating Nazi Germany in World War II. He became an international star and visited dozens of countries before his death at the age of 34.

“The launch of Sputnik and the flight of Gagarin were incredible propaganda stunts,” said Vadim Lukachevich, an aeronautics expert based in Moscow. We had suddenly beaten the United States, even though our country had yet to recover from the enormous damage and death” of World War II.

Gagarin was killed on March 27, 1968, while training to fly a new aircraft. Just under 16 months later, the United States beat out the Soviet Union by sending a man to the moon.

The implosion of the Soviet Union in 1991 ended the rivalry. Russian efforts to develop new missiles and rockets are running into endless delays, and the country continues to use Soviet space technology.

However, the controversial space agency Roscosmos is moving forward with an expensive project to build a new rocket-shaped headquarters.