13 April 2011: It was exactly fifty years ago on 12 April 1961,  that Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut, became the first human being to journey into the outer space in the Vostok 1 spacecraft  taking an orbit around the Earth. 

Yuri Gagarin

Colonel Yuri A. Gagarin, popularly called “The Columbus of the Cosmos,” was born on a collective farm in a region west of Moscow, Russia, on 9 March 1934. His father was a carpenter. Gagarin attended the local school for six years and continued his education at vocational and technical schools. 

Yuri Gagarin joined the Russian Air Force in 1955 and graduated with honours from the Soviet Air Force Academy in 1957. Soon afterwards, he became a military fighter pilot. By 1959, he had been selected for cosmonaut training as part of the first group of Soviet Union’s cosmonauts.

 Yuri Gagarin flew only one space mission. On 12 April 1961,  he became the first human to orbit the Earth. Gagarin’s spacecraft, Vostok 1, circled the Earth at a speed of 27,400 kilometres per hour and the flight lasted for 108 minutes. At its highest point, Gagarin was about 200 miles (327 kilometres) above the Earth.

 Once in orbit, Yuri Gagarin had no control over his spacecraft. Vostok’s re-entry was controlled by a computer programme sending radio commands to the space capsule. Although the controls were locked, a key had been placed in a sealed envelope in case an emergency situation made it necessary for Gagarin to take control. As was planned, Cosmonaut Gagarin ejected after re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere at an altitude of 20,000 feet and landed by parachute. As pilot of the spaceship Vostok 1, he proved that man could endure the rigors of lift-off, re-entry, and weightlessness.