[BRIEF NOTE] Yuri Gagarin, fifty years ago today

[rfmcdonald]

Below is Yuri Gagarin, the Soviet cosmonaut who was the first man in space, fifty years ago today.

Yuri A. Gagarin was born in a village of Klushino near Gzhatsk (now in Smolensk Oblast), Russia, on March 9, 1934. His father was a carpenter. After graduating from secondary school in 1949, Gagarin went to several technical schools before joining the Orenburg Higher Air Force School (Russian Air Force) in 1955. He graduated with honours from the Soviet Air Force Academy in 1957. Soon afterward, he became a military fighter pilot. By 1959, he had been selected for cosmonaut training as part of the first group of USSR cosmonauts. He began his cosmonaut training in 1960, along with 19 other candidates.

Yuri Gagarin flew only one space mission. On April 12, 1961 he became the first human to orbit Earth. Gagarin's spacecraft, Vostok 1, circled Earth at a speed of 27,400 kilometers per hour. The flight lasted 108 minutes. At the highest point, Gagarin was about 327 kilometers above Earth.

Once in orbit, Yuri Gagarin had no control over his spacecraft. Vostok's reentry was controlled by a computer program sending radio commands to the space capsule. Although the controls were locked, a key had been placed in a sealed envelope in case an emergency situation made it necessary for Gagarin to take control. As was planned, Cosmonaut Gagarin ejected after reentry into Earth's atmosphere and landed by parachute.

In his honour, I'd like to share with you French electronic composer Jean-Michel Jarre's song "Hey Gagarin", off of his 2000 album Métamorphoses.

"Walking across the last crossing at Yonge and Eglinton in the pouring rain" (Watch on YouTube)

I can fly, I fly like a sputnik,
listen to the music spin,
around the planet and lets, dance together,
listen to the music spin,
around the planet and lets, come together, together, together.

The thrill might be gone, but the romance of space yet remains.