Yuri Gagarin – the first man in space
(who came back)
East Carolina University
HMGT 4200
Manuel Chacon
4/27/2008
Introduction
"The rocket now is living a life of its own: it steams, crackles and hisses. In its nerves: the computers, sophisticated instruments and devices, cables, valves, and pipelines, unseen work is being done. And above all this, in a small spherical capsule, called the Vostok Spaceship, the man of the hour is sitting and waiting for his destiny. Everything is going according to plan. At least Gagarin pronounces his, what became famous, Poehali (Russian equivalent to 'off we go'), and the rocket starts to climb up into the friendly sky. Will it remain friendly until the completion of the mission?" (Suvoror, Sabelnikov.1997)
On Aril 12, 1961, astronaut and pilot, Major Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin of the Air Force in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics became the first man to travel to space. He was traveling on the spaceship-sputnik Vostok 3KA (East) that was launched from the Baikonor Comodrome near the Sir Darja river in Kazakhstan. This area of Kazakhstan is known to have extreme temperatures during the summer and winter as well as sand storms and harsh winds, no water and many rodents and plagues around. Despite the natural enviroment on February 2nd 1955, the USSR Council of Ministers decided to build the 'Research and Trials Field #5 of the Defense Ministry (NIIP-5)', then known as the Baikonor Cosmodrome. The multi-stage space rocket obtained orbital velocity and separated from the last stage of the carrier rocket attaining free flight around the earth in a 108 minute orbital flight.
Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space making a new era for space travel. He had to go through various processes that would allow him and make him fit for the flight. Tests with other spaceships and living beings were held and sometimes sacrificed to carry out the task. The whole world was attentive to this day of April 12 of 1961 in which many people, time and money were involved. As of today, space travel is on a new direction and Virgin Galactic, a company started by Richard Branson is planning on sending the first jet tourists into space as early as 2009. Tickets will cost $200,000 a piece, so far, 200 people have signed up for flights, including physicist Stephen Hawking and actress Sigourney Weaver. Then there's Google which recently announced the first 10 teams of competitors in its $30-million Lunar X Prize contest to send a spacecraft back to the moon.
About the first man in space
Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin was born on March 9, 1934, in the Gzhatsk District of the Smolensk Region, which borders the Moscow Region of the Russian Federation. His parents were collective farmers and later his father worked on carpentry and his mother became a housewife. Yuri began elementary school in 1941, but shortly was forced by the Nazi invasion to suspend his schooling. After the war ended he resumed his education and in 1951 he was graduated with honors from a vocational school specializing in the metallurgical trades in Lyubertsy, a town outside of Moscow. During the same period he completed his course at a workers' evening secondary school. In 1951, Gagarin entered a technical school in Saratov, a city on the Volga, and joined the Saratov Aviation Club. "In Saratov Yuri Gagarin accomplished his first flight, in a trainer at the local aero club. But success didn't come easily. He distinctly remembered that evening when he was walking across the deserted airfield, his jaw set stubbornly. He had to overcome the nervous excitement in himself, a tendency to hold his muscles taut, or it would mean the end of his dream... The next time he was at the controls the plane responded to his wishes as it should..." By June 1955, he had been graduated with honors and had also made his first independent airplane flight, as a result of an intensive course of study at the Aviation Club. Then went into the Soviet Air Force School at Orenburg, and following his graduation in 1957 began his service as a pilot in the Soviet Air Force for 2 years. "And just at this time, as if they had been waiting for the young Gagarin, the first Soviet sputniks, one after another, began orbiting the earth." In 1960, he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Yuri Gagarin's wife, Valentina Ivanova , is a graduate of the Orenburg medical school and they had two daughters, Yelena and Galina. (A collection of Translations from Soviet Press Reports. 1961)
To become part of the first manned space flight, a person who volunteered and dedicated all his power, knowledge, and life was needed to complete this mission. Many Soviet citizens sent their applications and scientists had to choose among them through a meticulous scientific basis. Environmental and emotional factors involved during the flight called for the highest qualifications such as the astronaut's health, psychic qualities, general background and technical proficiency. These qualifications can be usually found in pilots. A group was chosen among many pilots that had desire for the space flight. They went into a program of special training and tests that included: plane flight under zero gravity conditions; training in a reproduction of the spaceship's cabin; provide necessary information about the flight; use of equipment and instruments; training in the centrifuge; and parachute jumps from planes. These became fundamentals for rocket and space techniques a program that lasted about one year. Out of this program a few men were chosen and among them was Major Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin, who was selected to conduct the world's first manned space flight into space. The longed waited words were "For you the stratosphere is not the limit."
The Spaceship
Features of Spaceship: VOSTOK 3KA SPECIFICATIONS
Crew size: one REENTRY MODULE
Endurance: 10.0 days Crew size: one
Orbital storage: 30.0 days Diameter: 2.3 m (sphere)
Overall length: 4.4 m Total mass: 2,460 kg
Maximum diameter: 2.4 m
Total mass: 4,730 kg
The designs of the spaceships that carried "passengers" were known as Vostok (East in Russian) and required to eject the "passengers" from the spaceship therefore the astronaut would ground separately from the capsule. Trials were held before the actual flight and various animals, plants, and "Ivan Ivanonich, a dummy pilot", was used. They put Ivan in the astronaut's seat, his legs, arms and head were made with synthetic material trying to imitate human skin. The legs and arms could also be moved because it had joints that allowed it to do so. These were the last stages before the real flight with a human being. "March 25, 1961Baikonur. Still another spacecraft is on the way into the Earth's orbit. Now it carries away a dog named Zvezdochka and again Ivan Ivanovich…Everyone on the Cosmodrome and the facility were overjoyed: two consecutive flights were totally successful. Now it was apparent that we should expect the main event, the launch of a spaceship with a man onboard, in the near future!" (Suvorov, Sabelnikov 1997.)
Actual Flight
Vostok Spaceship was launched at 9:07 A.M. Moscow time, on April 12, 1961. In this first stage he kept contact by radiotelephone with the flight center. After the condition of weightlessness Gagarin found himself unusual and unaccustomed to it but soon became familiarized to it. "10:15 A.M. "Flight proceeds normally. Withstanding weightlessness well."" He had to keep watch on the spaceship's equipment, maintain communication with earth, sent reports to earth via telephone and telegraph, record observation data on his log book and on a tape, as well as taking in food and water.
"The stars look brighter and clearer against it than they do from the earth. The earth was very beautiful pale-blue halo, and on the horizon the colors change from a delicate light blue through ultramarine, dark blue, violet, and finally to black sky. When emerging from the shadow, a vivid orange flash, which then passed through all the colors of the rainbow, could be observed at the earth's horizon." (A collection of Translations from the Soviet Press Reports, 1961)
At 10:35 A.M. the spacecraft reentered the atmosphere. 10:55 A.M. Moscow time after carrying the first manned space flight, Vostok landed in the designated area. This flight has proven that man can fly into space come back and survive. It also proves that man can survive weightlessness keep command of his capacities, coordinate movements, and think clearly. Vehicles that transport men and women can be built giving a whole new era for space travel. During an interview by G. Ostroumov on April 14 written on A collection of Translations from the Soviet Press Reports, 1961, Gagarin was asked :
Question: What were your sensations when the feeling of weight began to disappear after the launching and when it began to reappear?
Answer: I felt fine when weightlessness set in. It became easier to do everything. This is natural. Your hands and feet weigh nothing. Things floated in the air. And I myself was no longer seated in my chair as before but floated in the air. I ate and drank during weightlessness and everything was just as it is on earth. I worked and wrote down my observations. My handwriting was the same although my hand weighed nothing. The transition from weightlessness to gravity and the appearance of gravitation were gradual. My hand and feet felt the same as in zero-gravity, only they began to weigh something. And I myself no longer floated above the chair but regained my seat in it.
Conclusion
In the year 2008 space travel has surpassed many goals and objectives and yet still has a lot more to do before it can send more 'tourists' into outer space. As Roger Launius says in the article of First Second-generation space traveler gets fatherly advice, "The fact that it took so long – the first human to launch off the Earth did so in 1961 – also drives home a different point: the risks and costs of space missions remain high. No child of an astronaut is even in training at NASA. It does show how far we have not come, Launius says. The fact that there is such a small number of people (who've been to space)…shows just how difficult it has been".
The truth is Space travel started for military purposes and after Gagarin's travel to space the world just came closer with technological advances. Now space adventure companies are starting, there is a lot of interest in the international community for this kind of tourism and making it commercially viable. Due to Gagarin's trip and many others that followed, Sergey Volkov, the first second generation space traveler can say, "Now I know maybe a little bit more than he", the son says with satisfaction.
References
A Collection of Translations from Soviet Press Reports (1961) The First Man in Space. New York, Crosscurrents Press Inc.
Suvorov, Vladimir and Sabelnikov, Alexander (1997) The First Manned Spaceflight. Commack, New York, Nova Science Publishers, Inc.
Woyke, Elizabeth (03/05/08) "Billionaires in Space" The Worlds Richest People, Retrieved from the World wide web on April 26, 2008 from the world wide web: http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/03/05/space-tourists-billionaires-tech-billionaires08-cx_ew_0305space.html
Braeunig, Robert A. (August 2004) "Vostok". Retrieved from the world wide web on April 25th, 2008, at http://www.braeunig.us/space/specs/vostok.htm
http://www.kosmonaut.se/gagarin/frames_index.html (1977) Yuri Gagarin, retrieved from the world wide web on April 25th 2008, at http://www.kosmonaut.se/gagarin/frames_index.html
Watson, Traci (2008), "First Second-generation space traveler gets fatherly advice" USA Today. April 7
