International Human Space Flight Day
12.04.2018
On the 12-th of April, 1961 Yuri Gagarin made the first orbital flight around the Earth. In honor of this event all over the world celebrate the International Day of Human Space Flight.
108 minutes, held by Gagarin in the near-Earth space, are shrouded in a string of secrets and mysteries. Part of the information on the flight is still classified. In honor of the significant holiday, we found some interesting facts about the heroic events of 50 years ago.
• Gagarin had two substitutes, such as German Titov and Grigory Nelyubov. The first arrived with Gagarin together at Baikonur and in case of an extreme situation was dressed in a spacesuit and was preparing to fly into space instead of him. In the union in general was the idea to replace Gagarin, the father of two small daughters, with the childless Herman Titov, because no one from the medical board gave guarantees that the cosmonaut would return alive. However, Korolev insisted on Gagarin's nomination.
• In early April, Yuri Gagarin wrote a farewell letter to his wife in case of a catastrophe. In 1961, it did not come in handy, it will be handed over to the hero's wife after Gagarin's death in a plane crash on the 27-th of March,
• The launch of the ship was an incredible risk. The flight scheme provided for the rescue of the cosmonaut at all stages, except for the first 20 seconds. In case of fire, the pilot had to jump from the rocket. For his rescue, four people answered, sitting in a shelter with a large nylon net, which were supposed to pop out, stretch the net and save the cosmonaut.
• Another danger is the psychological breakdown that could occur during the flight. So as to control the state of the cosmonaut and protect him from danger, he was ordered to continuously negotiate with the Earth. And Gagarin kept his radio report all the time.
• During the final stage of the flight, Yuri Gagarin said: "I'm burning, goodbye, my friends!". The first cosmonaut of the Earth did not have a clear idea of how the ship will look through the dense layers of the atmosphere. Therefore, when he saw a raging flame in the porthole, he assumed that the ship was glowing. In fact, the friction of the heat-resistant plating of the ship on the atmosphere is a working moment.
According to materials of calend.ru
