Yuri Gagarin - Biography

Born: 9 March 1934
Birth Place: Klushino, Smolensk Province, Russia
Death: 27 March 1968
Nationality: Russian

Yuri Gagarin was born in the village of Klushino, some 161 km West of Moscow, situated near the town of Gzhatsk (now named Gagarin in his honour). His father was a collective farmer and his mother a dairymaid. He started school in Gzhatsk but his studies were interrupted by the 1941 Nazi invasion of Russia. The Gagarin house was occupied, and family had to live in a dug-out.

When he was fifteen he became an apprentice foundryman in an agricultural machinery plant at Lyubertsky outside Moscow. At the same time he enrolled in evening school. In 1951 he transferred to the Saratov Industrial Technical School. He graduated with honours as a foundryman-technician in 1955. In that same year he joined the Saratov Flying Club and earned his wings.

He decided not to take up his career as a foundryman but rather to become a pilot. He spent the summer learning to fly the Yak-18 before enrolling as a cadet at the Orenburg Pilot Training School. He graduated from there two years later. He immediately joined the Soviet Air Force as a fighter pilot.

Gagarin was not tall and his lack of height caused him some problems when he was assigned to MiG fighters; he had to resort to a cushion to raise himself slightly. In 1957 he was promoted to Lieutenant.

In late 1959 he applied to join the Soviet cosmonaut training programme. On his 26th birthday he was transferred to the cosmonaut team. He was selected to be the first man in space.

On 12 April 1961 Vostok I with Gagarin on board was blasted into space. He made a single revolution of the Earth before returning after a flight that lasted one hour and forty-eight minutes. Upon his return he was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union and received the Order of Lenin. These were the first of many awards he received during a series of world tours.

In later years Gagarin served as an instructor to the other cosmonauts, and became the official deputy to Lieutenant-General Nikolai Kamanin, the chief of the Soviet space programme commission. In 1963 he became Commander of the Cosmonaut Detachment. He was also made responsible for all projects connected with lunar exploration. He often said that he would make other space flights and his responsibility for the Soviet moon programme convinced many people that he was been prepared for this mission – Soyuz 3.

By August 1966 he was back in the active space programme again following his appointment as back-up to Vladimir Komarov, the Soyuz 1 pilot. Sadly the Soviet space programme suffered a major reverse when Komarov was killed during the return to Earth.

Colonel Gagarin died on 27 March 1968 when the MiG-15 he was piloting crashed near Moscow.