In this article, we would like to tell you about a great person who was the first man to fly into space. 50 years ago, on March 27th, Yury Gagarin, the first cosmonaut in the world, died.

Jury Alekseyevich Gagarin was a famous Soviet pilot and the first man to travel into space.  The Pilot Cosmonaut won the worldwide glory to his country and became a legend, as well as he set the example for people in both the USSR and the whole world. Gagarin brought a new era in the space exploration by the humanity and made a quantum leap in its research.

Biography

Jury Alekseyevich Gagarin was born on March 9th, 1934 in a small village of Klushino (western region in the USSR) in the family of villagers. There were four children in the family. Yury was the third child in the family

At the age of 6, Yury went to school. But as soon as he finished the first class, the Great Patriotic War broke out. The German army occupied part of the USSR’s territory. It also affected the Gagarin family, so they were forced to flee.  The German Army took young men and women as prisoners. Yury’s elder brother and sister were taken as prisoners.

After the war finished, the Gagarin family moved to Gzhatsk, and Yury continued his education. He had always been a talented and inquisitive young man who was involved in a lot of activities.

Cosmonautics

After Yury Gagarin had completed his education, he joined the Air Force cadet school where he easily achieved all tasks set. Then he was promoted to a 1st class military pilot.  At the same time, Gagarin got to know about the search for and selection of candidates for space flights.  Gagarin decided to take his chance and handed in the application.

Excellent physical form was not the only criterion for selection of candidates. Than time first spacecrafts were not big and they were of low cargo capacity. Therefore, the fact that Gagarin was not really tall was an advantage. Later, after a numerous tests, Gagarin was shortlisted as one of the 20 would be cosmonauts.

Despite the great rivalry, he was able to win the heart of even his competitors with his charm and kindness.  Gagarin used to love the sky, and was fully immersed in complicated trainings.  There was also an opinion poll among the candidates, where they named Yury as a person who was the most suitable to first travel into space.

First Space Flight

The flight was done on the spacecraft “Vostok”. It was a really high risk for Yury, as on the spacecraft there were a few extremely important systems missing – an emergency system and a non-destructive landing system. The chances for Yury Gagarin to die were very high. So, the first long awaited flight into space happened on April 12th, 1961.  Despite a few problems, Yury returned safely back to Earth.

World Fame

As soon as the information about his successful return was spread, Yury Gagarin immediately became a world star. There was a huge event in his honour on April 14th, 1961.

For the following few years, the famous cosmonaut was engaged only in social activities.  He invested a lot of effort to promote space exploration and was preparing to become a member of the lunar space crew.

Yury Gagarin’s Death

On March 27th, 1968, during a training flight, for unknown reasons, Gagarin made such a maneuver, from which he could not get out. According to one version, the plane immediately fell down to the ground, Gagarin and his instructor were killed. The true reason why the great cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin died still remains unknown.