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58 years ago, on April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first cosmonaut in the history of mankind to carry out a one-orbit flight around the Earth on the Vostok-1 spacecraft.

Yuri Gagarin - the world's first cosmonaut

The launch vehicle with the Vostok spacecraft on board was carried out from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 9 hours 7 minutes. Preparations for the launch proceeded as usual. The only problem discovered when checking the tightness of the hatch through which Gagarin entered the ship was a poor fit of the lid. IN as soon as possible The leading designer of the spacecraft (Oleg Genrikhovich Ivanovsky) unscrewed 30 nuts from the locks and adjusted the electrical contact that was located where the lid was pressed.

Quote from Gagarin's report after the flight

“...hatch No. 1 was closed. I heard it being closed and the keys being knocked. Then they begin to open the hatch again. I see the hatch has been removed. I realized something was wrong. Sergei Pavlovich [Korolev] tells me: “Don’t worry, for some reason one contact is not pressed. Everything will be OK". By calculation, the boards on which the limit switches were installed were soon rearranged. Everything was corrected and the hatch cover was closed. Everything was fine".

Before finally sitting down spaceship, Yuri Gagarin raised both hands and said goodbye to the worried spectators.

Gagarin before the start. RSC Energia

After the launch, the Vostok launch vehicle operated as expected, but the third stage engines turned off later than necessary, and the vehicle was launched into an off-design orbit, which subsequently led to landing in an off-design area.

During the flight, Yuri Gagarin tested the simplest tasks: he ate, drank water, and wrote down his observations with a pencil. In addition, he recorded all his sensations using an onboard tape recorder.

Quote from Gagarin's report after the flight

“The reports were carried out in accordance with the instructions in telegraph and telephone modes. Took water and food. I took water and food normally and can take it. I didn’t feel any physiological difficulties. The feeling of weightlessness is somewhat unusual compared to earthly conditions. Here you get the feeling as if you are hanging horizontally on straps, as if you are in a suspended state. Apparently, the tightly fitted suspension system puts pressure on chest, and therefore it seems that you are hanging. Then you get used to it, adapt to it. There were no bad feelings.

He made entries in the logbook, made reports, and worked as a telegraph key. When I ate food, drank water, I launched the tablet, and it “floated” in front of me with a pencil. Then I had to write down another report. I took the tablet, but the pencil was not there. Flew off somewhere. The eyelet was screwed to the pencil with a screw, but apparently it had to be either glued or wrapped tighter. This screw came loose and the pencil flew away. He rolled up the logbook and put it in his pocket. It won’t be useful anyway, there’s nothing to write with.”

At 9:57 the ship was over South America, when Yuri Gagarin reported to Earth: “The flight is going well, I feel good.” After 23 minutes, the Vostok was already flying over Africa, then the major said that he tolerated weightlessness well. After 10 minutes the ship began braking.

Model of the Vostok-1 ship. Pline | Wikimedia Commons

It is noteworthy that the ship was under automatic control, since the developers did not know how the pilot’s psyche would react in space conditions. However, a special code that allowed the device to be switched to manual mode existed and was in a special envelope that had to be opened if necessary already in space. True, just before the start, Gagarin was informed about it.

The cabin of the ship "Vostok". IIET RAS

At the very end of the flight, the ship's control system did not pick up the impulse; the compartments did not separate into as usual, and before entering the atmosphere the device began to spin randomly at a speed of one revolution per second. In denser layers of the atmosphere, the instrument and engine compartment was still able to separate from the descent vehicle.

Gagarin before the start. Roscosmos

According to the planned plan, Gagarin ejected at an altitude of seven kilometers and descended by parachute. After landing on the spacesuit, the valve that starts outside air, and the astronaut almost suffocated.

Quote from Gagarin’s report after the flight: “It was difficult to open the breathing valve in the air. It turned out that the valve ball, when being put on, got under the unmasking shell. Everything was so pulled in by the suspension system that I couldn’t reach it for about 6 minutes. Then he unfastened the unmasking shell and, using a mirror, pulled out the cable and opened the valve normally.”

Thanks to excellent preparation, Yuri Gagarin managed to land not in icy water, but on the bank of the Volga River in the Saratov region, near the city of Engels. Since the astronaut landed in an unplanned area, the first people he met were the wife of a local forester and her little granddaughter. Only then did the military arrive at the landing site and take Gagarin to the unit’s location.

Quote from Gagarin’s report after the flight “I went out onto the hill, I saw a woman with a girl coming towards me. She was about 800 meters from me. I went forward, intending to ask where the phone was. I walk towards her, look, the woman slows down her steps, the girl separates from her and heads back. I started waving my arms and shouting: “Your one, your own, Soviet, don’t be afraid, don’t be scared, come here.”

Over the phone, the hero reported: “Please convey to the Air Force Commander-in-Chief: I completed the task, landed in the given area, I feel good, there are no bruises or breakdowns. Gagarin."

The duration of the first space flight in history was 108 minutes.

In 2011, a full-length film was made about the flight of Yuri Gagarin with original video and audio recordings of the Vostok-1 mission.

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Man has always strived to overcome the unknown. For thousands of years, geographical discoveries were made at the limit of possibilities, but transport and equipment always suffered a little more than the discoverer - ships were broken up in a storm, a convoy with provisions fell into the abyss, sleighs froze in the ice, and man kept moving and moving towards his goal.

When there were no white spots left on the planet, we began to think about space. Programs for the exploration of the Moon and Mars are not science fiction, but the inevitable future. Behind them are long flights to the nearest stars. The further a person goes from the Earth, the more difficulties he will encounter along the way. We have reached a point beyond which it is not the technology, but the people themselves, who experience extreme overload.

What threats await us in space, and what technologies will allow us to survive - we will talk about this further.

Life without gravity

On September 6, 1522, the battered ship Victoria returned to Spain - the only one of the five ships of Magellan's round-the-world expedition, on which 18 of the 260 crew members sailed. The famous navigator was killed by aborigines from the island of Mactan in the Philippine province of Cebu.

The story of Magellan clearly demonstrates the risks borne by an explorer who ventures into unknown lands. But the travelers did not encounter anything completely unknown on their way. When traveling to the stars (and on flights to nearby planets), we will need to create a new science - space biomedicine.

Astronauts going to Mars may break bones and suffer from urolithiasis, insomnia and depression, and eventually death from cancer. This is why various research groups are now testing various hypotheses on the ISS. We must know in advance how the human body and psyche are affected by a long stay in space.

Due to the reaction of the vestibular apparatus, nausea occurs and a feeling of disorientation appears. Even pilots with strong nervous system For whom irritation of the vestibular apparatus when performing aerobatic maneuvers is professionally common, severe orientation disturbances may occur, accompanied by emotional-neurotic breakdowns. It is known that astronauts feel normal for the first few hours after entering orbit, after which most of them experience effects associated with the lack of gravity. After a few days, adaptation occurs and the unpleasant phenomena disappear.

We evolved as upright walking organisms. Our body has been built over millions of years under the influence of gravity. Our bones and muscles developed to resist the effects gravitational field, and have ideally learned to interact with the outside world.

In microgravity, the body begins to malfunction. The cardiovascular system is designed to pump blood against gravity. For example, in the veins of the legs there are check valves, preventing the accumulation of blood in the legs, but there are no such valves in the vessels of the upper body. Without the influence of gravity, blood rises to the chest and head, causing astronauts' faces to swell and blood pressure to rise. Staying in conditions of weightlessness for more than 6 months leads to disruption of the circulatory system. For example, there was a disturbance in gas exchange in the capillaries, as a result of which much less oxygen reached the tissues and organs.

Before the program was introduced in orbit physical support, the astronauts had a particularly hard time. After 18 days of flight on the Soyuz-9 spacecraft, cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolaev recorded a decrease in heart volume by 12%. Bone lost potassium and calcium, became loose. The composition of the blood has changed: hemoglobin decreased by 25%, the number of red blood cells - by 20%, and platelets - by 50%.

The astronauts are literally starting to lose their own bones. The body first eliminates calcium and phosphorus, which leads to gradual weakening of bones and an increased risk of osteoporosis. Bone loss can reach 1.5% per month, and recovery after returning to Earth takes at least three to four years.

Calcium does not just leave the bones - it is washed out into the blood and urine, which can lead to urolithiasis. All this is happening in the first days of the flight. But the flight to Mars will take almost a year, and after landing the crew will have to act without outside help.

Due to the lack of gravitational compression, the spine lengthens, which leads to back pain. The back muscles degrade significantly while in space, shrinking by 19%. More than half of the ISS crew members complained of back pain. Astronauts are four times more likely to ordinary people, get a herniated disc.

Using ultrasound, scientists are testing non-invasive methods to assess and measure astronauts' intracranial pressure. Image: NASA

Another serious problem is vision problems. The reason, according to research, is an increase in the volume of cerebrospinal fluid. Because of this, pressure increases, and the fluid is first squeezed into the optic nerve sheath, and then along the spaces between the fibers of the optic nerve into the eyeball. As a result, farsightedness develops.

Now there are several ways to solve the problem of microgravity. Astronauts on the ISS exercise on simulators for about two hours a day, counteracting the degradation of bones, muscles and blood vessels. The best decision- artificial gravity. Theoretically, it could be created on a ship. In practice, too many resources are required for now.

Radiation

Long-term exposure to cosmic radiation can have a very negative impact on human health. On Earth, we are protected from cosmic rays because the atmosphere and magnetic field of the planet act as a shield that slows down elementary particles and atomic nuclei. It is better not to encounter such particles - they lead to DNA damage, cell mutation and cancer. And when we get to Mars, we will have to live with the idea that the planet has no ozone layer - nothing protects from ultraviolet radiation.

The daily dose of cosmic radiation on the ISS is 1 mSv, that is, a thousandth of a sievert. By comparison, 1 sievert of radiation is associated with a 5.5% increase in cancer risk. In general, not so scary. Things get much worse when we leave Earth's magnetosphere. During the trip, astronauts will be exposed to different types studying. High-energy subatomic particles flying from the Sun and ionizing radiation caused by a supernova explosion are the fastest to destroy biological tissue. In addition to cancer, they can also cause cataracts and Alzheimer's disease.

When these particles hit the ship's hull, some of the metal atoms break apart, emitting even faster particles; this is called secondary radiation.

Data from another study show that the absence of a protective magnetic field reduces a person’s cognitive functions (thinking speed, learning ability, etc.), causing exacerbation allergic reactions.

Solution to the problem? Scientists are developing ways to reduce exposure, for example by using various protective materials in the ship's hull. But for now the only solution we have is flight speed. The faster we get to the Red Planet, the less astronauts will suffer.

Insulation

Mental illness is another big risk for astronauts. Mental illness difficult to detect and even more difficult to treat.

Living on board a ship is very boring. All your activities consist of routine repetitions built into your work schedule. Monotonous, repetitive tasks lead to apathy, loss of interest, carelessness and mistakes.

Another risk is related to psychological compatibility. You need to live in a limited area in the company of people whom you may have met several months before the start.

Astronauts, as highly trained and highly motivated people, are not inclined to complain or express their emotions harshly. Therefore, it is difficult to recognize signs of psychological stress in a group of superprofessionals. On Earth, they may not be aware of the real problems until an emotional explosion occurs, or, more likely, our great specialist quietly withdraws into himself and plunges into depression.

This is why experiments are carried out in which people are locked in the same room with each other. NASA had the “Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation” project, and in Russia they organized “Mars-500” - an experiment to simulate a manned flight to Mars, which lasted a record 519 days.

Both experiments showed good communication between crew members, ease of interaction and readiness for teamwork at any time. The biggest psychological problem that the participants in the experiments faced was boredom, but it did not jeopardize the entire mission.

However, the data obtained cannot be called objective. The experimental conditions are too far from a real interplanetary flight. Any participant at any time can refuse further participation and leave the complex, unlike an actual flight to Mars. Each participant knew that he was on Earth (and would not die in airless space), and the simulation lasted only as long as he wanted it. In addition, none of the participants suffered from real illnesses that astronauts can expect on the way to Mars.
There is no clear solution to the problem. It will take many months of testing and careful psychological selection to prepare the team. And an important question still needs to be resolved: should a group of same-sex people or representatives of different sexes be sent into space?

Space life

Bacteria feel great on the ISS and, obviously, will fly with us to Mars, and then even further. At the same time, weightlessness can suppress certain immune functions, making people more vulnerable to disease.

The microflora on space stations is actively trying to eat everything it can. It is enough to have high humidity and nutrients so that bacteria and fungi begin to eat the plastic insulation, grow on the glass and damage it with the acids released during growth.

Life will always find its way - organisms live even on outer skin ISS.
A group of scientists led by Brian Krushian from NASA studied how long-term stay in space affects the functioning of the human immune system. It turned out that the immune system of people who were in a state of weightlessness for about six months worked poorly: the ability to produce T-lymphocytes decreased, the level of white blood cells fell, and the ability to recognize foreign microorganisms and cells was suppressed. This will be a serious problem if there are dangerous bacteria on board.

Obviously, we won't be able to eliminate all bacteria (that would require eradicating people too), but more work needs to be done in the area of ​​immune support.

Big problems in big space

How can we deal with mutations and other problems? To date no ready-made solution to eliminate all the dangers of space travel, but there are several concepts supported by Elon Musk. In particular, the problem of cosmic radiation can be solved with the help of an optimal layer of protection for the body, “reinforced” magnetic field around the ship, deflecting the flow of charged particles. In addition, the search for effective anticancer drugs continues.

You can simply fly to Mars faster - engines with an increase in specific impulse by orders of magnitude began to be developed more than half a century ago, and with proper funding and organization of work they can well be implemented. But a lot of effort is required - that’s why no one goes on vacation to the Moon at the beginning of the 21st century, although science fiction writers wrote about it many years ago.

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Early 1960s accounted for the space race between the USA and the USSR. The main goal was to launch a person into outer space using manned vehicles. For this purpose, it was created in the Soviet Union in 1960. Two were singled out from this group - Yuri Gagarin and German Titov. Finally, Yu. Gagarin was approved for the first flight by a special commission; G. Titov was appointed reserve cosmonaut. First of all, he had to find out how weightlessness would affect the mental and emotional condition a person participating in space flight.

Preparations for the first launch began early in the morning. When Gagarin, dressed in a spacesuit, got off the bus that brought him, cosmodrome workers asked him for autographs. Having handed them out, the cosmonaut quickly took his place in the Vostok-1 spacecraft.

Preparing Yuri Gagarin for space flight. Source: riverfishing.ru.

The Vostok-1 spacecraft was launched on April 12, 1961 at 09:07 Moscow time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Fourteen minutes later, Gagarin, using his call sign “Kedr”, reported the onset of a state of weightlessness.

At 9:22 a.m., radio signals from the Soviet spacecraft were detected by personnel at the American Shamiya radar station located in the Aleutian Islands. They sent the encryption to the Pentagon within five minutes, but half an hour later, when Yuri Gagarin was flying over North America, TASS already reported the launch of Vostok-1. Soon hundreds of correspondents from different countries they actually stormed the Telegraph Agency building.

The instrument panel of Yuri Gagarin's Vostok-1 spacecraft. Source: wikimedia.org

At 10:25, the Vostok's braking propulsion system was activated, after which the ship began to descend. Half an hour later, the spacecraft with the astronaut landed near the village of Smelovka, Saratov region. From the moment the braking propulsion system was turned on until landing, the ship flew about 8 thousand km. Soon a helicopter with a search group arrived at the landing site.

Model of the Vostok-1 spacecraft.

Exactly 55 years ago, on April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first person to fly into space. Time for rest restores the chronology of this day and tells how Gagarin spent 108 minutes in space.

“Hello, my dear, beloved ones... Today a government commission decided to send me into space first... Can you dream of more? After all, this is history, this is new era! I have to take off in a day...” - this is what Yuri Gagarin wrote in a letter to his wife on the eve of the flight.

Yuri Gagarin actually found out that it was he who was flying into space, literally a couple of days before the flight - the candidacy of the world's first cosmonaut was approved at a meeting of the State Commission on April 8. Boris Chertok, a design scientist, one of Sergei Korolev’s closest associates, wrote in his book “Rockets and People”: “After the open part of the meeting, the commission remained in a narrow composition and approved Kamanin’s proposal to allow Gagarin to fly, and to have Titov in reserve. Now this seems ridiculous, but then, in 1961, the State Commission seriously decided that when publishing the results of the flight and registering it as a world record, “not to allow the disclosure of secret data about the test site and the carrier.” In 1961, the world never knew where Gagarin launched from and what rocket took him into space.”

On April 10, an informal meeting took place on the banks of the Syrdarya, during which Sergei Korolev said: “Six cosmonauts are present here, each of them is ready to fly. It was decided that Gagarin would fly first, and others would follow him... Good luck to you, Yuri Alekseevich!”

“Before this meeting, we had behind-the-scenes disputes: Gagarin or Titov? - Boris Chertok recalls. - I remember that Ryazansky (Mikhail Ryazansky, design scientist) liked Titov more. Voskresensky (Leonid Voskresensky, rocketry test scientist) said that Gagarin harbors some kind of prowess that we don’t notice. Rauschenbach (Boris Rauschenbach, one of the founders of Soviet cosmonautics), who examined the cosmonauts, liked both equally. Feoktistov (Konstantin Feoktistov, a member of the first three-person crew in the history of space exploration, together with Vladimir Komarov and Boris Egorov, who flew into space on October 12–13, 1964) tried very hard, but could not hide his desire to be in their place. Before meeting on the shore, it seemed to me that both candidates were too young for the upcoming worldwide fame.”

“The last pre-launch preparations were carried out in the morning. According to the doctors, I felt good. I myself felt fine. Before that I rested. Got some sleep. After which the spacesuit was put on. In the technological chair we tried how the suspension system lay on the spacesuit, and the ventilation of the spacesuit. We checked the connection through the suit. Everything worked well,” recalled Yuri Gagarin.

“Then we went to the starting position in a bus. We, together with our comrades - my deputy was German Stepanovich Titov - and all my cosmonaut friends, our superiors, went to the launch. We got off the bus, but then I was a little confused. He did not report to the chairman of the State Commission, but reported to Sergei Pavlovich and the Marshal of the Soviet Union. At some point I just got confused.

Then taking the elevator, landing in a chair by a regular crew, which included Comrade. Vostokov, Oleg Genrikhovich Ivanovsky. Boarding into the cockpit was normal... The equipment check went well. When checking the connection, at first they didn’t hear me, then they began to hear me well... The connection was two-way, stable. Good connection"- this is how Yuri Gagarin described the preparation for the flight.

Not without a little overlay. “The mood at that time was good, I felt good. He reported on checking the equipment, on readiness for the start, and on his well-being. Then hatch No. 1 was closed. I heard it being closed and the keys knocking. Then they start to turn away. I look: the hatch has been removed. I realized something was wrong. Sergei Pavlovich tells me: “Don’t worry, one contact is not pressed against something. Everything will be OK". We rearranged the plates on which the limit switches are placed. We corrected it and closed the hatch cover. “Everything is fine,” Gagarin recalled.

Despite his belief that the flight would go well, Yuri Gagarin tried to prepare his family for the most unfavorable outcome of events.

“I believe in technology completely. She shouldn't let you down. But it happens that out of the blue a person falls and breaks his neck. Something could happen here too. But I myself don’t believe in it yet. Well, if something happens, then I ask you, and first of all you, Valyusha (Valentina is Yuri Gagarin’s wife), not to die from grief... I hope that you will never see this letter... Valya, please don’t forget my parents, if possible, help with something. Give them my best regards, and let them forgive me for the fact that they knew nothing about this, and they weren’t supposed to know,” Gagarin wrote such a letter to his family in case of his death.

"Go!" - shouted Yuri Gagarin (call sign - Kedr) at the moment of the launch of the Vostok spacecraft from the Baikonur cosmodrome.
The head of the launch team during the launch was an engineer-lieutenant colonel missile forces Anatoly Kirillov - he gave commands for the stages of the rocket launch and controlled their implementation, observing the rocket through a periscope from the command bunker. His backup at the second periscope was rocketry test scientist Leonid Voskresensky

The first stage of the launch vehicle separated, and the second stage began to operate. “I was literally pressed into a chair,” Gagarin wrote. - As soon as Vostok broke through the dense layers of the atmosphere, I saw the Earth. The ship was flying over a wide Siberian river. The islands on it and the wooded shores illuminated by the sun were clearly visible. He looked first at the sky, then at the Earth. Mountain ranges and large lakes were clearly visible. Even the fields were visible. The most beautiful sight was the horizon - a stripe painted with all the colors of the rainbow, dividing the Earth in light sun rays from the black sky. The convexity and roundness of the Earth was noticeable. It seemed that she was all surrounded by a halo of soft blue color, which through turquoise, blue and violet turns to blue-black.”

Removing the head fairing of the launch vehicle. Gagarin’s voice was heard on the air: “I see the Earth... What beauty!”

The separation of the second launch vehicle, the third stage started working.

Entering a spacecraft into low-Earth orbit.

Gagarin announced that a state of weightlessness had arrived. “The weightlessness to which I quickly got used to played a cruel joke on me,” the cosmonaut recalled. - After one of the entries in the logbook, I let go of the pencil, and it floated freely around the cabin along with the tablet. But suddenly the knot of the lace on which the pencil was attached came undone, and he dived somewhere under the seat. From that moment on I never saw him again. I had to transmit my further observations by radio and record them on a tape recorder.”

“Audibility is excellent. Bykov beams. His Zarya speaks from space for the first time in the voice of a living person,” recalls Boris Chertok.

“Before entering the shadow of the Earth, all the tape in the tape recorder ran out,” recalled Yuri Gagarin. - I decided to rewind the tape to make further recordings. Switched it to manual control and rewound it. I don't think I rewound it all the way. And then, when I made reports, I recorded it on a tape recorder manually, since when automatic operation The tape recorder works almost all the time and, naturally, uses up a lot of tapes. This is caused high level noise in the cabin."

The spaceship entered the shadow of the Earth. “The entry into the Earth’s shadow is very abrupt. Before this, I had to observe strong lighting from time to time through the emergency window. I had to turn away or cover myself to keep the light out of my eyes. And then I look out the window - nothing is visible on the horizon. Dark. In the other one, “The Gaze,” I also look - it’s dark. Turned on solar system orientation” - this is how Gagarin described his impressions of the dark side of the Earth.

“The air began to be consumed. By the time we emerged from the shadows it was approximately 150–152 atm. I felt that when the orientation system turned on, the angular movement of the ship changed and became very slow, almost imperceptible. Along the very horizon I observed a rainbow-colored orange stripe, its color reminiscent of the color of a spacesuit. Then the color darkens a little and the colors of the rainbow turn into blue, and the blue turns into black... Soon the ship acquired a stable starting position for descent. At this time there was a very good orientation towards the “Gaze”. In the outer ring, the entire horizon was inscribed completely evenly. The objects I saw moved strictly according to the arrows of the “Gaze”... I prepared for the descent. Closed the right porthole. I strapped myself in, covered it with a pressure helmet and switched the lighting to working.”

Gagarin announced that he was flying over America.

A TASS message was published about the launch of the spacecraft. “On April 12, 1961, the world’s first spacecraft-satellite “Vostok” with a person on board was launched into Earth orbit in the Soviet Union. The pilot-cosmonaut of the Vostok spacecraft is a citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics pilot Major Gagarin Yuri Alekseevich. The launch of the multi-stage space rocket was successful, and after reaching the first cosmic speed and separation from the last stage of the launch vehicle, the satellite ship began a free flight in orbit around the Earth... The period of launching the Vostok satellite into orbit was carried out satisfactorily by cosmonaut Comrade Gagarin to the present time feels good. The systems that provide the necessary living conditions in the cabin of the satellite ship are functioning normally. The flight of the Vostok satellite with pilot-cosmonaut Comrade Gagarin in orbit continues.”

The spaceship emerged from the shadow of the Earth.

Teletypewriters (electromechanical printing machines used to transmit text messages between two subscribers using the simplest electrical channel) finished transmitting the first TASS message. Hundreds of correspondents from around the world stormed the building of the Telegraph Agency

Gagarin announced that he was flying over Africa. “I’m flying and looking - the northern coast of Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, everything is clearly visible. Everything is spinning like a wheel - the head, the legs,” Gagarin recalled.

The braking propulsion system turned on, and the ship began to descend. “At 10:25 a.m. the braking device was automatically turned on,” Gagarin wrote. - The ship entered the dense layers of the atmosphere. Through the curtains covering the portholes, I saw the crimson glow of the flames raging around the ship. The weightlessness disappeared, the growing overloads again pressed me to the chair. They grew larger and were stronger than during takeoff.”

A division occurs. “At 10 hours 25 minutes 57 seconds there should be a separation, but it happened at 10 hours 35 minutes,” wrote Gagarin. - I felt the separation sharply. Such a clap, then a push, the rotation continued. All indicators on the PKRS went out, only one inscription “Prepare for ejection” came on. Then you feel the braking begin, some kind of slight itching goes through the structure, I noticed this when I put my feet on the chair. Then this itching goes away. Here I have already taken the ejection position, I’m sitting and waiting.”

“The rotation of the ship begins to slow down, along all three axes. The ship began to oscillate approximately 90 degrees to the right and left. There was no complete revolution. The other axis also has oscillatory movements with deceleration. At this time, the porthole of the “Vzor” was closed with a curtain, but at the edges of this curtain such a bright crimson light appears. The same crimson light was observed through the small hole in the right porthole. A crackling sound is heard. I don’t know, or the design, or maybe the thermal shell expands when heated, or something else, but it crackles infrequently. So, in one or maybe two or three minutes it will sometimes crack. In general, it feels like the temperature was high.”

At the 108th minute, the ship completed its flight, completing one revolution around the Earth. “Vostok” landed safely on the field of the Leninsky Put collective farm near the village of Smelovki. Yuri Gagarin ejected by parachute 8 km from the ship.

“After successfully carrying out the planned research and completing the flight program, on April 12, 1961, at 10:55 a.m. Moscow time, the Soviet spacecraft Vostok made a safe landing in a given area of ​​the Soviet Union,” said the TASS message.
- Pilot-cosmonaut Major Gagarin said: “Please report to the party and the government that the landing went well, I feel good, I have no injuries or bruises.”

The implementation of human flight into outer space opens up grandiose prospects for the conquest of space by mankind.”

“I probably looked strange in a bright orange spacesuit,” Gagarin shared. - The first “earthlings”, a woman and a girl, were afraid to come closer to me. It was Anna Akimovna Takhtarova and her granddaughter Rita. Then the machine operators ran up from the field camp, we hugged and kissed. In those less than two hours that I spent in space, the radio carried the news of the launch both here and to all corners of the Earth. My last name was already known to those who met me. “Vostok” descended a few tens of meters from a deep ravine in which spring waters rustled. The ship turned black and burned, but that is why it seemed even more beautiful and dear to me than before the flight. The forester's granddaughter Rita Takhtarova is now going to school. I will never forget that she and her grandmother were the first people to meet me after returning from space."

It is important that before the flight, the USSR government prepared in advance three TASS messages about the launch of a man into space - including the news of the tragic death of a cosmonaut and the news of the satellite’s failure to enter orbit and its emergency landing (it also contained an appeal to foreign countries with a request to assist in the search and rescue of the astronaut).

A group of specialists arrived at the landing site to meet Yuri Gagarin.

“The national rejoicing on April 12, 1961 is compared in terms of the scale of what happened with Victory Day on May 9, 1945. Such a comparison with external resemblance Seems unfair to me. Victory Day was an inevitable, long-awaited holiday, programmed by history itself, “with tears in our eyes” for the entire people. The official announcement of the final victory - the signing of the act of unconditional surrender of Germany - served as a signal for the open expression of delight and grief. The mass celebration was historically natural,” said Boris Chertok. Preparations for human space flight were classified, like all our space programs. The message about the flight into space of the unknown Major Gagarin was a complete surprise for the inhabitants of the Earth and caused rejoicing throughout the world. Muscovites took to the streets, filled Red Square, smiled, and carried homemade posters: “Everyone into space!”

However, after the flight, Major Gagarin could no longer be called unknown to anyone. “Now it’s already difficult for me, as before, unnoticed and unrecognized, to walk around evening Moscow, to come to Red Square,” recalled the world’s first cosmonaut. - Popularity is an irreparable thing. You just have to think: to what and to whom do you owe it. One foreign correspondent asked me: “Are you, Gagarin, tired of the fame that your name received after April 12, 1961? Now, probably, you are guaranteed rest for the rest of your life...” - “Rest? - I objected to him. - Everyone works hard for us and most of all - the most famous people. Heroes of the Soviet Union and Heroes of Socialist Labor, and there are thousands of them in the country, try to work as best as possible, captivating others with their personal example.”

Gagarin's successful flight into space truly marked the beginning of a new stage of work. “The day after Gagarin’s launch, we, who remained at the test site due to the “evil will of the Korolev,” as Kalashnikov put it, joined in the jubilation of the entire country, occasionally turning on the receivers. I consoled my friends with the fact that we, too, were “the first in the world” to have the opportunity to study films of telemetric recordings of the in-flight behavior of the systems of a historical carrier and ship, writes Boris Chertok in his book. - We learned details about the demonstrations in Moscow, the reception in the Kremlin and enthusiastic responses from the world from the reports of Levitan and the BBC! The resentment against Korolev intensified even more after we learned from a conversation on HF from the duty officer in Podlipki that the government service from the Kremlin had delivered invitations to Mishin and me at our home “to come to the evening reception with our spouses.”

What about the house? Family?.. No, he didn’t live his thirty-four springs in vain. And words cannot convey all the richness and beauty of this man’s soul.”

But all this is only part of his business. Preparing for flights, crew training, meeting at the design bureau, visiting factories, studying. Can you really list everything he was associated with!

But there’s one thing I probably can’t say. I can’t explain how he managed to redo a lot of things that constantly fell on his shoulders. Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, member of the Central Committee of the Komsomol, president of the USSR-Cuba society, representative of many commissions... He also found time to meet with writers and scientists, visited pioneers and soldiers: he traveled a lot around the country and often went abroad frontier...

Alexey Leonov, the cosmonaut who was the first in the world to perform a spacewalk, also recalled Gagarin’s life after the flight. “You can talk a lot about him. Yura is an open soul, no tricks, no tricks. He's in full view...

We complete the chronology of events on April 12, 1961 with the words of Major Yuri Gagarin: “Having flown around the Earth in a satellite ship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, and not destroy it!”