Reported by: Emon CRWE Newswire Middle East correspondent.

Yuri Gagarin did not prepare a speech or witty jokes to highlight his moment in history - the first human space flight, which took place on April 12, 1961 at 09:07 am, Moscow time.

Boarding the spaceship Vostok-1, he simply shouted, “Let’s go.” Then, with a smooth problem-free flight, he made one revolution around the Earth and landed safely at 11.00 am, in the Saratov region, near the village of Smelovka.

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was born on March 9, 1934 in Klushino, a village in the Smolensk region of the former Union Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). His father, Alexey Ivanovich Gagarin, was a skilled carpenter and also worked on a collective farm with his wife, Anna Timofeyevna Gagarina. Yuri had two brothers and a sister. His family moved to the town of Gzhatsk in the northeastern part of the Smolensk region during World War II.

Gagarin began his higher education in Lyubertsy, near Moscow, at a manufacturing trade school and was qualified as a metalworker by a technical school. He joined a flying club in Saratov and learned to pilot a plane. He joined the Soviet Air Force in 1955 on the recommendation of his flying club instructor. In 1960, Gagarin applied for the cosmonaut screening process and was chosen for Vostok 1.

Yuri Gagarin was a young and brave Russian. He underwent very rigorous training before his historic 108-minute space flight. He was not bound by law to undergo this difficult training and, therefore, could have quit at any time. But he wanted to be the first man in space so he followed the process through to its end.

During his training, Gagarin did intensive parachute jumps into jungles and oceans. Sometimes, he was told to open the parachute at a close distance to the ground. He was placed in a chamber in very high temperatures to increase the defense mechanisms of his body. He was also placed in a room and was told to write his name as all the air was slowly pumped out and he loses his senses.

Experts observed his every move. Gagarin was laid on a table that vibrated at the rate of 200 vibrations per minute. He was tied to a centrifugal chair that went round and round at a great speed. He could hardly breathe, yet he was asked to solve some mathematical problems.

Sometimes Gagarin was given memory tests, prompted by loudspeakers giving him wrong answers. He experienced weightlessness for a few seconds by diving from a airplane in a curve and was given questions to answer during that short period. These and many other experiences were necessary to train him for a mission in space.

When the countdown began with the number 20 at 9:06 am, the day of his space flight, Gagarin was well-prepared. Everyone was waiting for the historic moment to begin - 20, 19, 18 …then, finally, 3, 2, 1, liftoff. The rockets of Vostok 1 fired and the spaceship shot upward. It was an awesome scene. But to Gagarin, the scene was quieter. Soon, he felt the air pressure increasing in his cabin and the speed of Vostok 1 increased to 18,000 miles per hour. As the spacecraft reached its orbit, the pressure of the air on Gagarin ended and he became weightless.

Gagarin orbited at a distance that was 200 miles from Earth. He saw two dawns in the same day. He saw morning and evening, day and night, all in the108 minutes he was in space. He saw the sun and the stars shinning very brightly in the sky. He ate and drank from food tubes. He could float, being weightless.

Then, the front rockets fired and the spaceship’s speed began to decrease. Gagarin’s weight returned and he felt very uneasy. As Vostok 1 began to circle round and round just like a centrifugal chair, the upper part of the ship caught fire but Gagarin’s room temperature remained normal. Soon the parachutes opened, and he landed at a place far away from the launching station.

An old lady, who was digging potatoes in the field with her granddaughter, became afraid when she saw the parachute coming down. But when Gagarin came out and talked to her in Russian, she lost her fear. A few tractor drivers came over and shouted with joy, welcoming the first man in space.

Gagarin’s wife was Valentina Gagarin, who gave birth to two daughters, Elena and Galya. Gagarin died at the age of 34 on March 27, 1968 in a plane crash during training.

Gagarin was awarded the Order of Lenin and given the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The name of his hometown, Gzhatsk, was changed to Gagarin. April 12th is known as Cosmonautics Day in Russia and is internationally known as Yuri’s Night.

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