1961 : FIRST MAN IN SPACE:
On April 12, 1961, aboard the spacecraft Vostok 1, Soviet cosmonaut
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin becomes the first human being to travel into
space. During the flight, the 27-year-old test pilot and industrial
technician also became the first man to orbit the planet, a feat
accomplished by his space capsule in 89 minutes. Vostok 1 orbited
Earth at a maximum altitude of 187 miles and was guided entirely by an
automatic control system. The only statement attributed to Gagarin
during his one hour and 48 minutes in space was, "Flight is proceeding
normally; I am well."
After his historic feat was announced, the attractive and unassuming
Gagarin became an instant worldwide celebrity. He was awarded the
Order of Lenin and given the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Monuments were raised to him across the Soviet Union and streets
renamed in his honor.
The triumph of the Soviet space program in putting the first man into
space was a great blow to the United States, which had scheduled its
first space flight for May 1961. Moreover, Gagarin had orbited Earth,
a feat that eluded the U.S. space program until February 1962, when
astronaut John Glenn made three orbits in Friendship 7. By that time,
the Soviet Union had already made another leap ahead in the "space
race" with the August 1961 flight of cosmonaut Gherman Titov in Vostok
2. Titov made 17 orbits and spent more than 25 hours in space.
To Soviet propagandists, the Soviet conquest of space was evidence of
the supremacy of communism over capitalism. However, to those who
worked on the Vostok program and earlier on Sputnik (which launched
the first satellite into space in 1957), the successes were
attributable chiefly to the brilliance of one man: Sergei Pavlovich
Korolev. Because of his controversial past, Chief Designer Korolev was
unknown in the West and to all but insiders in the USSR until his
death in 1966.
Born in the Ukraine in 1906, Korolev was part of a scientific team
that launched the first Soviet liquid-fueled rocket in 1933. In 1938,
his military sponsor fell prey to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's
purges, and Korolev and his colleagues were also put on trial.
Convicted of treason and sabotage, Korolev was sentenced to 10 years
in a labor camp. The Soviet authorities came to fear German rocket
advances, however, and after only a year Korolev was put in charge of
a prison design bureau and ordered to continue his rocketry work.
In 1945, Korolev was sent to Germany to learn about the V-2 rocket,
which had been used to devastating effect by the Nazis against the
British. The Americans had captured the rocket's designer, Wernher von
Braun, who later became head of the U.S. space program, but the
Soviets acquired a fair amount of V-2 resources, including rockets,
launch facilities, blueprints, and a few German V-2 technicians. By
employing this technology and his own considerable engineering
talents, by 1954 Korolev had built a rocket that could carry a
five-ton nuclear warhead and in 1957 launched the first
intercontinental ballistic missile.
That year, Korolev's plan to launch a satellite into space was
approved, and on October 4, 1957, Sputnik 1 was fired into Earth's
orbit. It was the first Soviet victory of the space race, and Korolev,
still technically a prisoner, was officially rehabilitated. The Soviet
space program under Korolev would go on to numerous space firsts in
the late 1950s and early '60s: first animal in orbit, first large
scientific satellite, first man, first woman, first three men, first
space walk, first spacecraft to impact the moon, first to orbit the
moon, first to impact Venus, and first craft to soft-land on the moon.
Throughout this time, Korolev remained anonymous, known only as the
"Chief Designer." His dream of sending cosmonauts to the moon
eventually ended in failure, primarily because the Soviet lunar
program received just one-tenth the funding allocated to America's
successful Apollo lunar landing program.
Korolev died in 1966. Upon his death, his identity was finally
revealed to the world, and he was awarded a burial in the Kremlin wall
as a hero of the Soviet Union. Yuri Gagarin was killed in a routine
jet-aircraft test flight in 1968. His ashes were also placed in the
Kremlin wall.
history.com/tdih.do
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin becomes the first human being to travel into
space. During the flight, the 27-year-old test pilot and industrial
technician also became the first man to orbit the planet, a feat
accomplished by his space capsule in 89 minutes. Vostok 1 orbited
Earth at a maximum altitude of 187 miles and was guided entirely by an
automatic control system. The only statement attributed to Gagarin
during his one hour and 48 minutes in space was, "Flight is proceeding
normally; I am well."
After his historic feat was announced, the attractive and unassuming
Gagarin became an instant worldwide celebrity. He was awarded the
Order of Lenin and given the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Monuments were raised to him across the Soviet Union and streets
renamed in his honor.
The triumph of the Soviet space program in putting the first man into
space was a great blow to the United States, which had scheduled its
first space flight for May 1961. Moreover, Gagarin had orbited Earth,
a feat that eluded the U.S. space program until February 1962, when
astronaut John Glenn made three orbits in Friendship 7. By that time,
the Soviet Union had already made another leap ahead in the "space
race" with the August 1961 flight of cosmonaut Gherman Titov in Vostok
2. Titov made 17 orbits and spent more than 25 hours in space.
To Soviet propagandists, the Soviet conquest of space was evidence of
the supremacy of communism over capitalism. However, to those who
worked on the Vostok program and earlier on Sputnik (which launched
the first satellite into space in 1957), the successes were
attributable chiefly to the brilliance of one man: Sergei Pavlovich
Korolev. Because of his controversial past, Chief Designer Korolev was
unknown in the West and to all but insiders in the USSR until his
death in 1966.
Born in the Ukraine in 1906, Korolev was part of a scientific team
that launched the first Soviet liquid-fueled rocket in 1933. In 1938,
his military sponsor fell prey to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's
purges, and Korolev and his colleagues were also put on trial.
Convicted of treason and sabotage, Korolev was sentenced to 10 years
in a labor camp. The Soviet authorities came to fear German rocket
advances, however, and after only a year Korolev was put in charge of
a prison design bureau and ordered to continue his rocketry work.
In 1945, Korolev was sent to Germany to learn about the V-2 rocket,
which had been used to devastating effect by the Nazis against the
British. The Americans had captured the rocket's designer, Wernher von
Braun, who later became head of the U.S. space program, but the
Soviets acquired a fair amount of V-2 resources, including rockets,
launch facilities, blueprints, and a few German V-2 technicians. By
employing this technology and his own considerable engineering
talents, by 1954 Korolev had built a rocket that could carry a
five-ton nuclear warhead and in 1957 launched the first
intercontinental ballistic missile.
That year, Korolev's plan to launch a satellite into space was
approved, and on October 4, 1957, Sputnik 1 was fired into Earth's
orbit. It was the first Soviet victory of the space race, and Korolev,
still technically a prisoner, was officially rehabilitated. The Soviet
space program under Korolev would go on to numerous space firsts in
the late 1950s and early '60s: first animal in orbit, first large
scientific satellite, first man, first woman, first three men, first
space walk, first spacecraft to impact the moon, first to orbit the
moon, first to impact Venus, and first craft to soft-land on the moon.
Throughout this time, Korolev remained anonymous, known only as the
"Chief Designer." His dream of sending cosmonauts to the moon
eventually ended in failure, primarily because the Soviet lunar
program received just one-tenth the funding allocated to America's
successful Apollo lunar landing program.
Korolev died in 1966. Upon his death, his identity was finally
revealed to the world, and he was awarded a burial in the Kremlin wall
as a hero of the Soviet Union. Yuri Gagarin was killed in a routine
jet-aircraft test flight in 1968. His ashes were also placed in the
Kremlin wall.
history.com/tdih.do
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