Yuri Gagarin was a Soviet cosmonaut and the first man to travel into space.
He was born in 1934 and before starting small-aircraft flights, he worked in a foundry. In 1955 he entered a pilot school from where he graduated two years later with honors.
He then became a tester-pilot flying new and experimental aircrafts. In 1959 he was selected along with 20 others to train as a cosmonaut. This was followed by a rigorous selection and training test from which only two were finally candidates for the first space trip. He was finally chosen.
In 1961 he became the first man to fly into space and enter orbit around the Earth. 25 minutes after the launch, it entered orbit at a speed of 7.61 kilometers per second. There he did not have control of his spaceship as it was not known how a man is affected mentally and biologically when he is in those conditions. That is why it was controlled by technicians on Earth. After 67 minutes in orbit, the process of entering the atmosphere began. In the end, he did not land with his capsule but with a parachute. The whole flight lasted 108 minutes.
His flight to Vostok 1 was the only one. However, he served as a member of the alternate crew and as a consultant for Soyuz 1.
He also acquired the position of deputy director of education at the Cosmonaut Training Center, which was eventually named in his honor.
He was awarded a large number of distinctions and awards, such as the ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’ which was the highest distinction of the country.
He died in 1968 when he was flying a MiG-15 during training. It crashed due to mechanical failure. He stayed on the plane until the end so as not to fall on a school.
The Gagarin Prize was established in his honor and his birthplace was renamed after him.
[Source: el.wikipedia.org]
