On April 12, 1961, a man crossed the border between Earth and Space. This man - Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin, was a military pilot of humble origin, who was given the incredible chance to go down in history as the first cosmonaut.
After joining the USSR army as a military pilot in 1957, on December 9, 1959, Gagarin applied to be included in the group of cosmonaut candidates. A month later, Senior Lieutenant Gagarin was recognized as fit for space flight.
On March 3, 1960, by order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force Konstantin Vershinin, he was enrolled in the group of cosmonauts. On March 11, training began. Initially, the group consisted of 20 young pilots. The head of the space program is Sergei Korolev. Of these, 6 were selected, who were trained according to a program different from the others. Four months before the flight, it was decided that he would be the first cosmonaut. His backup was German Titov, the website “Objects“ recalls.
The first cosmonaut must be excellently trained and become the face of the Soviet state, representing it worthily to the world. Gagarin possesses exactly these qualities, and this was among the determining factors in his selection for the first flight. The final word was given to Nikita Khrushchev, at that time the first secretary of the ruling Communist Party of the USSR, the CPSU. When he was shown the photos of the first cosmonauts, he chose Gagarin without hesitation.
On April 12, 1961, at 9:07 a.m. (6:07 a.m. GMT) Moscow time, Gagarin took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on the Vostok-1 spacecraft. with a R-7 launch vehicle. His first words in outer space were “Let’s go!” (Let’s go!). Gagarin’s call sign was “Kedar”. The ship made one orbit around the Earth, lasting 1 hour and 48 minutes, and headed for landing in the Saratov region. Since the landing systems of “Vostok-1” had not been sufficiently tested, at an altitude of 7 kilometers Gagarin decided to eject and land with a parachute. The landing was successful near the descent vehicle.
The news traveled around the world with lightning speed. Two days later, Gagarin was solemnly welcomed on Red Square in Moscow in front of tens of thousands of enthusiastic people who had come to see him. For this flight, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and promoted to the rank of major, and the date April 12, 1962, began to be celebrated as the International Day of Aviation and Cosmonautics.