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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 single-orbital flight around the Earth on the Vostok-1 spacecraft.

Yuri Gagarin is the first cosmonaut in the world

The launch vehicle with the Vostok spacecraft on board was made from the Baikonur cosmodrome at 9 hours 7 minutes. Preparations for the launch took place as usual. The only problem that was discovered already at the time of checking the tightness of the hatch through which Gagarin boarded the ship was the poor fit of the cover. In the shortest possible time, the leading designer of the spacecraft (Oleg Genrikhovich Ivanovsky) unscrewed 30 nuts from the locks and corrected the electrical contact, which was at the place of the cover clamp.

Quote from Gagarin's report after the flight

“… Hatch No. 1 was closed. I heard how it was being closed, how the keys were knocking. Then they begin to open the hatch again. I looked, the hatch was removed. Realized something was wrong. Sergei Pavlovich [Korolev] says to me: “Don't worry, for some reason one contact does not press. Everything will be fine". Calculation soon rearranged the board on which the limit switches were installed. All tweaked and closed the hatch cover. Everything was fine".

Before finally boarding the spaceship, Yuri Gagarin raised both hands and said goodbye to the excited spectators.

Gagarin before the start. RSC Energia

After the launch, the Vostok launch vehicle worked in the prescribed mode, but the third stage engines turned off later than necessary, and the device was launched into an off-design orbit, which subsequently led to a landing in the off-design area.

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

Quote from Gagarin's report after the flight

“The reports were carried out in accordance with the assignment in the telegraph and telephone modes. He took food and water. I took water and food normally, you can take it. At the same time, I did not feel any physiological difficulties. The feeling of weightlessness is somewhat unusual compared to earthly conditions. Here there is a feeling as if you are hanging in a horizontal position on belts, as if you are in a suspended state. Apparently, the tightly fitted harness is putting pressure on the chest, and therefore it seems that you are hanging. Then you get used to it, you adapt to it. There were no bad feelings.

He made notes in the logbook, reports, worked as a telegraph key. When I ate, drank water, started up the tablet, and he “floated” in front of me with a pencil. Then I had to write down the next report. I took a tablet, but the pencil was not there. Flew away somewhere. The eyelet was screwed to the pencil with a screw, but apparently it was necessary to either put on glue or wrap it tighter. This screw twisted and the pencil flew away. I rolled up my logbook and put it in my pocket. It will not be useful anyway, there is nothing to write with. "

At 9:57 am the ship was over South America when Yuri Gagarin reported to Earth: "The flight is going well, I feel good." 23 minutes later, the "Vostok" was already flying over Africa, then the major conveyed that he tolerates weightlessness well. After 10 minutes, the ship began to decelerate.

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

It is noteworthy that the ship was on automatic control, since the developers did not know how the pilot's psyche would react in space. However, a special code that allows 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 nevertheless informed of it.

The cockpit of the Vostok ship. IIET RAS

At the very end of the flight, the ship's control system lacked momentum, the compartments were not divided in a regular manner, and before entering the atmosphere, the apparatus began to whirl randomly at a speed of one revolution per second. In denser layers of the atmosphere, the instrument-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 triggers the outside air did not work, and the astronaut almost suffocated.

Quote from Gagarin's report after the flight “It was difficult with the opening of the breathing valve in the air. It turned out that the valve ball, when put on, fell under the unmasking shell. The harness was so drawn in that I couldn't get it for about 6 minutes. Then he unbuttoned the unmasking shell and with the help of a mirror pulled out the cable and opened the valve normally. "

Thanks to excellent preparation, Yuri Gagarin managed to land not in ice-cold water, but on the banks 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 later did the military arrive at the landing site and took Gagarin to the unit's location.

A quote from Gagarin's report after the flight “I went out to the hillock, I saw a woman with a girl coming towards me. She was about 800 meters away from me. I went to meet, intending to ask where the phone is. I go to her, I look, the woman slows down, the girl separates from her and goes back. I started waving my hands and shouting: "Your own, your own, Soviet, do not be afraid, do not be alarmed, come here."

The hero reported on the phone: “I ask you to tell the commander-in-chief of the Air Force: I completed the task, landed in the given area, I feel good, there are no bruises or breakdowns. Gagarin ".

The duration of the first ever space flight was 108 minutes.

In 2011, a full-length film was shot 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 their capabilities, but always transport and equipment suffered a little more than the discoverer - ships were smashed in a storm, a baggage train with provisions fell into the abyss, sledges froze into the ice, and the man kept moving and moving towards his goal.

When there were no blank spots left on the planet, we began to think about space. Moon and Mars exploration programs are not fiction, but an inevitable future. Behind them are distant flights to the nearest stars. The further a person moves away from the Earth, the more difficulties he encounters along the way. We have come to a point beyond which not the equipment, but the people themselves are experiencing extreme overloads.

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, which sailed 18 of 260 crew members. The famous navigator was killed by the aborigines from the island of Mactan in the Philippine province of Cebu.

The story of Magellan clearly demonstrates the risks that a researcher who dares to venture into unknown lands bears. But the travelers on their way did not encounter something completely unknown. When we travel to the stars (and in flights to the nearest planets), we will need to create a new science - space biomedicine.

Astronauts going to Mars can break their bones and suffer from urolithiasis, insomnia and depression, and in the long term - death from cancer. This is why various research groups are currently testing various hypotheses on the ISS. We must know in advance how a long stay in space affects the human body and psyche.

Due to the reaction of the vestibular apparatus, nausea occurs, a feeling of disorientation appears. Even pilots with a strong nervous system, for whom irritations of the vestibular apparatus during aerobatics are professionally common, may experience severe disorientation, accompanied by emotional and neurotic breakdowns. It is known that astronauts feel normal for the first few hours after entering orbit, after which most of them experience the effects associated with the absence of gravity. After a few days, adaptation occurs and the unpleasant phenomena disappear.

We have evolved as bipedal organisms. Our body has been built under the influence of gravity for millions of years. Our bones and muscles have evolved to resist the effects of the gravitational field, and have perfectly learned to interact with the world around us.

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 that prevent 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, because of which the faces of the astronauts swell and the pressure rises. Staying in zero gravity conditions for more than 6 months leads to disruption of the circulatory system. For example, there was a violation of gas exchange in the capillaries, as a result of which much less oxygen was supplied to the tissues and organs.

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

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

Calcium doesn't just leave the bones - it is washed out into the blood and urine, which can lead to kidney stones. 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 operate without assistance.

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

Using ultrasound, scientists are testing non-invasive methods for assessing and measuring the intracranial pressure of astronauts. 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, the pressure increases, and the fluid is first squeezed into the optic nerve sheath, and then along the spaces between the optic nerve fibers into the eyeball. As a result, hyperopia develops.

There are now several ways to solve the microgravity problem. Astronauts on the ISS work out on simulators for about two hours a day, counteracting the degradation of bones, muscles and blood vessels. The best solution is artificial gravity. In theory, it could be created on a ship. Practically - too many resources are required so far.

Radiation

Long-term exposure to space radiation can have a very negative impact on human health. On Earth, we are protected from cosmic rays, because the planet's atmosphere and magnetic field act as a shield, inhibiting elementary particles and atomic nuclei. It is better not to meet 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 does not have an ozone layer - nothing protects against ultraviolet radiation.

The daily dose of cosmic radiation on the ISS is 1 mSv, that is, a thousandth of a sievert. In comparison, 1 sievert of radiation is associated with a 5.5% increased risk of cancer. In general, not so scary. Things get much worse when we leave the Earth's magnetosphere. During the journey, astronauts will be exposed to different types of study. High-energy subatomic particles flying from the Sun and ionizing radiation from a supernova explosion destroy biological tissues most rapidly. Besides cancer, they can also cause cataracts and Alzheimer's disease.

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

Data from another study show that the absence of a protective magnetic field reduces human cognitive functions (speed of thinking, learning ability, etc.), and causes an aggravation of allergic reactions.

Solution? Scientists are developing ways to reduce the impact, for example by using various protective materials in the hull of the ship. But so far 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 is difficult to detect and even harder to cure.

Living aboard a ship is very boring. All your activity consists of routine repetitions, built in a work schedule. Monotonous, repetitive tasks lead to apathy, loss of interest, carelessness, and mistakes.

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

Astronauts, as well-trained and highly motivated people, do not tend to complain or express their emotions harshly. Therefore, it is difficult to recognize signs of psychological stress in the super-professional group. On Earth, they may not guess about real problems until an emotional outburst occurs, or, more likely, our class specialist will quietly withdraw into himself and plunge into depression.

This is why experiments are being conducted in which people are locked with each other in the same room. NASA had a project called "Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation", Russia 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 a willingness to work in teams at any time. The biggest psychological problem the participants faced was boredom, but it didn't jeopardize the entire mission.

However, the obtained data 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 a real flight to Mars. Each participant knew that he was on Earth (and would not die in airless space), and the simulation continued only as long as he himself wanted it. In addition, none of the participants suffered from real diseases that astronauts may expect on the way to Mars.
There is no definite solution to the problem. It will take many months of tests and the most careful psychological selection to prepare the team. And another important question needs to be resolved: should a group of same-sex people or representatives of different genders be sent into space?

Space animals

The 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.

Microflora on space stations is actively trying to eat everything it can. It is enough to have high humidity and nutrients for bacteria and fungi to start eating plastic insulation, growing on glass and damaging it with acids released during growth.

Life will always find its way - organisms live even on the outer skin of the ISS.
A group of scientists led by Brian Crushian of 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 zero gravity for about six months worked poorly: the ability to produce T-lymphocytes decreased, the level of leukocytes fell, and the ability to recognize foreign microorganisms and cells was in a suppressed state. This will be a serious problem if dangerous bacteria are on board.

Obviously, we cannot kill all bacteria (and that would require eliminating people), but it is worth working more in the field of maintaining immunity.

Big problems in large space

How can we deal with mutations and other problems? To date, there is 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 space radiation can be solved with the help of an optimal layer of protection of the hull, "reinforced" by a magnetic field around the ship, which deflects the flow of charged particles. In addition, the search continues for effective anticancer drugs.

To Mars itself, you can simply fly 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 may well be implemented. But a lot of effort is required - therefore, no one flies on vacation to the moon at the beginning of the 21st century, although science fiction writers wrote about this many years ago.

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Early 1960s fell on the space race of the USA and the USSR. The main goal was to launch a person into space using manned vehicles. For this, in 1960 in the Soviet Union was created. Two were singled out from this group - Yuri Gagarin and German Titov. Yuri Gagarin was finally approved by a special commission for the first flight; G. Titov was appointed a reserve cosmonaut. First of all, he had to find out how weightlessness would affect the mental and emotional state of 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 had brought him, the cosmodrome workers asked for his autographs. Having distributed them, the cosmonaut quickly took his place in the Vostok-1 spacecraft.

Preparation of Yuri Gagarin for a flight into space. 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 am, radio signals from the Soviet spacecraft were seen by personnel from the American Shamiya radar station located in the Aleutian Islands. Within five minutes they sent an encrypted message to the Pentagon, but half an hour later, when Yuri Gagarin was flying over North America, TASS already announced the launch of Vostok-1. Soon hundreds of correspondents from different countries were practically storming the building of the Telegraph Agency.

The instrument panel of the Vostok-1 spacecraft by Yuri Gagarin. Source: wikimedia.org.

At 10:25, the braking propulsion system was activated on the Vostok, after which the ship went downhill. Half an hour later, the spacecraft with the cosmonaut landed near the village of Smelovka, Saratov Region. From the moment the braking propulsion system was switched on until the landing, the ship flew about 8 thousand km. Soon a helicopter with a search group arrived at the landing site.

Model of the spaceship "Vostok-1".

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 ... Today the government commission decided to send me into space first ... Can you dream of more? After all, this is history, this is a new era! I have to start in a day ... ”- this is how Yuri Gagarin wrote in a letter to his wife on the eve of the flight.

Yuri Gagarin really learned 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 and 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 keep Titov in reserve. Now it seems ridiculous, but then, in 1961, the State Commission seriously decided that when publishing the flight results and registering it as a world record, "not to allow the disclosure of classified information about the test site and the carrier." In 1961, the world did not know where Gagarin started from and which rocket launched him into space. "

On April 10, an informal meeting took place on the banks of the Syr Darya, during which Sergey Korolev said: “There are six cosmonauts here, each of them is ready to fly. It was decided that Gagarin will fly first, and others will follow him ... Success to you, Yuri Alekseevich! "

“Before this meeting, we had backstage disputes: Gagarin or Titov? - recalls Boris Chertok. - I remember that Ryazansky (Mikhail Ryazansky, design scientist) liked Titov better. Voskresensky (Leonid Voskresensky, rocket test scientist) said that a certain prowess lurked in Gagarin, which we do not notice. Rauschenbach (Boris Rauschenbach, one of the founders of Soviet cosmonautics), who examined the cosmonauts, was equally fond of both. Feoktistov (Konstantin Feoktistov, a member of the first three-man 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 world fame. "

“The last prelaunch preparation was carried out in the morning. According to the doctors, the state of health was good. I myself felt good. Before that, I rested. I slept well. After that, the suit was put on. In the technological chair we tried how the harness is on the spacesuit, ventilation of the spacesuit. We checked the connection through the spacesuit. Everything worked well, ”Yuri Gagarin recalled.

“Then there was a departure to the starting position in the bus. Together with my comrades - my deputy was Titov German Stepanovich - and all my friends-cosmonauts, our bosses went to the start. We got off the bus, but then I was a little at a loss. I did not report to the chairman of the State Commission, but reported to Sergei Pavlovich and the Marshal of the Soviet Union. I just got confused at some point.

Then the rise in the elevator, landing in a chair by a regular calculation, which included Comrade Vostokov, Oleg Genrikhovich Ivanovsky. The cockpit boarding went well ... The equipment check went well. When checking the connection, at first they did not hear me, then they began to hear well ... The connection was two-way, stable. Good connection, "- this is how Yuri Gagarin described the preparation for the flight.

Not without a small lining. “The mood at that time was good, the state of health was good. He reported on checking the equipment, on readiness for the start, on his state of health. Then hatch # 1 was closed. I heard how it was closed, how the keys were knocking. Then they begin to turn away. I looked: the hatch was removed. I realized something was wrong. Sergei Pavlovich says to me: “Don't worry, one contact is not pressed against something. Everything will be fine". We rearranged the plates on which the limit switches are installed. Corrected, closed the hatch cover. Everything is fine, ”Gagarin recalled.

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

“I totally believe in technology. She must not fail. But it happens that out of the blue a person falls and breaks his neck. Something could happen here too. But I don’t believe it yet. Well, if something happens, then I ask you, and first of all you, Valyusha (Valentina is the wife of Yuri Gagarin.), Do not be grief-stricken ... I hope that you will never see this letter ... Valya, please, do not forget my parents, if possible, help with something. Give them my big greetings, and let them forgive me for not knowing anything about it, and they were not supposed to know ”- such a letter Gagarin wrote to his relatives in case of his death.

"Go!" - shouted Yuri Gagarin (call sign - Kedr) at the time 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 of the missile forces Anatoly Kirillov - he gave commands for the stages of the rocket launch and monitored their implementation, observing the rocket through the periscope from the command bunker. His understudy at the second periscope was rocket scientist Leonid Voskresensky

The first stage of the launch vehicle separated, and the second stage started working. “I was literally pushed into a chair,” wrote Gagarin. - As soon as the "Vostok" broke through the dense layers of the atmosphere, I saw the Earth. The ship flew over a wide Siberian river. The islets on it and the sunlit wooded shores were clearly visible. I looked at the sky, then at the Earth. Mountain ranges and large lakes were clearly distinguished. Even the fields were visible. The most beautiful sight was the horizon, a rainbow-colored strip dividing the Earth in sunlight from a black sky. The bulge, roundness of the Earth was noticeable. It seemed that all of it was surrounded by a halo of pale blue, which, through turquoise, blue and violet, turns to bluish-black. "

Launching of the launch vehicle nose fairing. Gagarin's voice was heard on the air: "I see the Earth ... What a beauty!"

Branch of the second launch vehicle, the third stage has started working.

The spacecraft exits into low-earth orbit.

Gagarin announced that a state of weightlessness had come. “Weightlessness, which I quickly got used to, played a cruel joke on me,” the astronaut recalled. - After one of the entries in the logbook, I let go of the pencil, and it floated freely around the cockpit along with the tablet. But suddenly the knot of the lace on which the pencil was fastened untied, and he dived somewhere under the seat. From that moment on, I never saw him again. Further observations had to be transmitted by radio and recorded on a tape recorder.

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

“Before entering the shadow of the Earth, the tape recorder ran out of tape,” recalled Yuri Gagarin. - I made the decision to rewind the tape in order to make further recordings. I switched it over to manual control and rewound it. In my opinion, I did not rewind it completely. And then, when I made reports, I made the recording on the tape recorder manually, since during the automatic operation of the tape recorder, it works almost all the time and, naturally, consumes a lot of tapes. This is due to the high noise level in the cab. "

The spacecraft entered the shadow of the Earth. “The entrance to the Earth's shadow is very sharp. Before that, it was necessary at times to observe strong lighting through the emergency window. I had to turn away or cover myself to keep the light out of my eyes. And then I look through one porthole - nothing is visible on the horizon. Dark. In another, "Gaze", I also look - it's dark. The solar orientation system has turned on ”- this is how Gagarin described his impressions of the dark side of the Earth.

“The air began to be consumed. By the time it emerged from the shadow, it was approximately 150-152 atm. I felt that when the attitude control system was activated, the angular movement of the ship changed and became very slow, almost imperceptible. On the very horizon, he observed an iridescent orange stripe that resembled in color the color of a spacesuit. Further, the color darkens a little and the colors of the rainbow turns into blue, and the blue turns into black ... Soon the ship acquired a stable starting position for descent. At that time I had a very good orientation according to the "Vzor". In the outer ring, the entire horizon was inscribed perfectly evenly. The objects I saw were moving strictly according to the arrows of the Vzor ... I got ready for the descent. Closed the right porthole. He pulled himself with the belts, closed the helmet and switched the lighting to the working one. "

Gagarin said that he was flying over America.

There was a TASS message about the launch of the spacecraft. “On April 12, 1961, the first in the world spacecraft-satellite“ Vostok ”with a man on board was launched into the Earth's orbit in the Soviet Union. The pilot-cosmonaut of the Vostok spacecraft is a citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, pilot Major Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin. The launch of the multistage space rocket was successful, and after gaining the first space speed and separating from the last stage of the launch vehicle, the satellite spacecraft began free flight in orbit around the Earth ... time feels good. The systems providing the necessary living conditions in the cockpit of the satellite ship function normally. The flight of the satellite Vostok with the pilot-cosmonaut Comrade Gagarin in orbit continues. "

The spacecraft has emerged from the shadow of the Earth.

Teletypes (electromechanical printing machines used to transmit text messages between two subscribers over the simplest electrical channel) completed the transmission of the first TASS message. Hundreds of correspondents from around the world stormed the building of the Telegraph Agency

Gagarin said that he was flying over Africa. “I fly, I look - the northern coast of Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, everything is clearly visible. Everything is spinning like a wheel - head, legs, ”Gagarin recalled.

The braking propulsion system was activated, and the ship went downhill. “At 10 hours and 25 minutes, the braking device was automatically turned on,” wrote Gagarin. - The ship entered the dense layers of the atmosphere. Through the curtains that covered the portholes, I saw the crimson reflection of the flames raging around the ship. Weightlessness disappeared, the growing overloads pressed me back to the chair. They increased and were stronger than during takeoff. "

Separation occurs. “At 10 hours 25 minutes 57 seconds there should be a separation, but it happened at 10 hours 35 minutes, - wrote Gagarin. - I sharply felt the division. Such a clap, then a push, the rotation continued. All indices on the BMSC went out, only one inscription "Prepare for bailout" turned on. Then it is felt, braking begins, some kind of weak itching in the structure goes, I noticed this, putting my feet on a chair. Then this itching goes away. Here I have already taken a position for ejection, I sit, wait. "

“The ship's rotation begins to slow down, along all three axes. The ship began to oscillate about 90 degrees to the right and left. There was no complete turnover. On the other axis, there are also oscillatory movements with deceleration. At this time, Vzor's porthole was closed by a curtain, but such a bright crimson light appears along the edges of this curtain. The same crimson light was observed through a small hole in the right window. A crackling sound is heard. I do not know, or the design, or maybe the thermal shell expands when heated, or something else, but it does not crackle often. So, in one or maybe two or three minutes it will crack sometimes. In general, it is felt that the temperature was high. "

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

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

The implementation of a manned flight into outer space opens up grandiose prospects for the conquest of space by mankind. "

“I must have looked strange in a bright orange spacesuit,” Gagarin shared. - The first "earthlings", a woman and a girl, were afraid to come closer to me. They were Anna Akimovna Takhtarova and her granddaughter Rita. Then machine operators ran up from the field camp, we hugged and kissed. During those incomplete two hours that I spent in space, the radio brought the news of the launch here and to all ends of the Earth. My surname was already known to those who met me. "Vostok" descended a few tens of meters from a deep ravine, in which the spring waters rustled. The ship turned black, burned, but that is why it seemed to me even more beautiful and dear than before the flight. The forester's granddaughter Rita Takhtarova is now attending 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 reports on the launch of a man into space - including the news of the tragic death of the cosmonaut and the news of the absence of the satellite ship into orbit and its emergency landing (it also contained an appeal to foreign countries with a request assist in the search and rescue of the astronaut).

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

“The nationwide jubilation on April 12, 1961 is compared in scale to the Victory Day on May 9, 1945. Such a comparison, despite the outward resemblance, seems to me to be inappropriate. 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 Germany's unconditional surrender - served as a signal for the open expression of enthusiasm and grief. The mass celebration was historically logical, - said Boris Chertok. The preparations for a manned space flight were classified, like all our space programs. The announcement of the flight into space of the unknown Major Gagarin for the inhabitants of the Earth was a complete surprise and caused jubilation throughout the world. Muscovites took to the streets, filled Red Square, smiled, carried homemade posters: "Everyone in space!"

However, after the flight of Major Gagarin, it was impossible to call it unknown to anyone. “Now it is already difficult for me, as before, unnoticed and unrecognized by anyone, to walk around the evening Moscow, to come to Red Square,” recalled the world's first cosmonaut. - Popularity is an irreparable thing. You just have to think: what and to whom do you owe her. One foreign correspondent asked me: “Aren't you tired, Gagarin, of the fame that your name received after April 12, 1961? Now, perhaps, you are guaranteed rest for the rest of your life ... "-" Rest? - I objected to him. - We all work 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 really marked the beginning of a new stage of work. “The day after the launch of Gagarin, we, who remained at the test site by“ the evil will of the Queen, ”as Kalashnikov put it, joined in the jubilation of the whole country, occasionally including the receivers. I consoled my friends that we, too, were “the first in the world” to have the opportunity to study the telemetric recordings of the flight behavior of the systems of the historical carrier and the ship, ”writes Boris Chertok in his book. - We learned the details about the demonstrations in Moscow, the reception in the Kremlin and the enthusiastic responses of the world from the reports of Levitan and the BBC! The resentment against Korolyov intensified even more after we learned from the officer on duty in Podlipki from the conversation on HF that the government service from the Kremlin had delivered invitations to Mishin and me at my house "to welcome to an evening reception with my spouses."

And the house? Family? .. No, he did not live his thirty-four springs in vain. And words cannot convey all the wealth and beauty of the soul of this person. "

But all this is only part of his business. Preparation for flights, training of crews, a meeting at the design bureau, visits to factories, studies. Can you list everything with which he was connected!

But I can’t say about one thing. 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 ... frontier ...

Alexei Leonov, the cosmonaut who made a spacewalk for the first time in the world, also recalled Gagarin's life after the flight. “You can talk a lot about him. Yura is an open soul, no tricks, no dirty tricks. He's all in sight ...

We conclude 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! "