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The eventAt Moscow time 09:07 a.m. a voice from a loudspeaker somewhere at the Baykonur Cosmodrome in central Kazakhstan, U.S.S.R., said "Zazhyganiye" (Russian for "ignition") and the first manned space adventure begun. The most powerful rocket at that time carried a young jet fighter pilot, parachutist and, moreover, cosmonaut into space. His name was Yury Alexeyevich Gagaring, 27 years old, married, with two children. Yury was born in Klushino, a village near Smolensk, of the western Soviet Union. In 1959 he joined as volunteer to a group of about 3,000 men for a new amazing project. Eventually 20 cosmonauts were selected and Yury was one of them. |
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The flightThirty-two engines ignited at the rocket's base and the spaceship begun its climb to sky. The increasing speed generated a force of six times Earth's gravity. After strap-on boosters separeted the explosive bolts move away the protective shroud covering the "Swallow". Now Yury saw for the first time the blue Earth and the black sky above it. Few minutes later the second stage separeted from the ship leaving it alone orbiting our planet at an altitude as high as 302 km at the orbit's highest point. Eighty-nine minutes later the Vostok's engine performed the de-orbit burn that brought Yury home again. Eventually he was ejected from the Vostok and opened his own parachute. The man hit the ground running and his mission was completed not far from the little village of Smelovaka. |
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Listen to Gagarin's voice form orbit! |
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Click here to download a 38 kb - 8 bit - mono - 11MHz wav file |
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