When was yuri gagarin

Cosmonaut yuri gagarin during last minute checks of vostok i control systems before launch, In office for less than three months, Kennedy was facing down what he and his advisers suspected to be an untrustworthy Central Intelligence Agency. He would confirm his suspicion toward the end of the month, when Cuban rebels bankrolled by the agency invaded their Communist-held homeland. At a meeting with Secretary of State Dean Rusk and others on April 12, Kennedy had stressed he wanted the invasion to be a Cuban operation as much as possible, and the CIA assured him that the rebels were up to the job.

This is how the human heart adapts to space. The result, a week later, was the Bay of Pigs fiasco, a military and political disaster that would only embolden Fidel Castro and his chief benefactor, the Soviet Union.

Kennedy blamed the Soviets for his bad April. Read More. Khrushchev's answer came 60 years ago, on April 12, , when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin circled the Earth aboard a spacecraft called Vostok 1.

After parachuting from the craft near the Russian village of Smelovka, Gagarin landed a hero — and a major embarrassment for the United States, already stung by the Soviet first-in-the-race launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite four years earlier. Embarrassed in turn by their failure to develop an atomic bomb before the Americans did, the Soviet leadership had poured a huge portion of the country's budget into scientific research, building a testing ground and rocket base in Kazakhstan that, wrote Stephen Walker in his new book " Beyond: The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey into Space ," was four times the size of Greater London.

There, Korolev worked his magic, building a series of rockets over several years. On April 12, , Gagarin was launched into orbit by a Vostok rocket and became the first man in space. After completing one orbit, the spacecraft's automatic controls brought him safely back to Earth.

The CIA reported, accurately, to President Dwight Eisenhower that thanks to Korolev's powerful fleet of intercontinental missiles, the Soviets would be ready to put a satellite into space by The Soviets were ahead of schedule by three months. The first joint U. The shuttle-Mir collaboration paved the way for NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos to become major partners in the International Space Station program, which first launched modules in and continues research today.

Gagarin's importance in the Russian space program continues. Crews using the Soyuz spacecraft participate in a number of prelaunch traditions prior to climbing on to the spacecraft — such as urinating on the launch bus tires — to follow in the footsteps of Gagarin's historic flight.

Beyond that, Gagarin is often held up as an example of character and heroism to younger children in Russia.

The 60th anniversary of Gagarin's flight will be in The space community also commemorates Gagarin's achievement every year with Yuri's Night , a celebration that takes place on his launch date of April Yuri's Night was founded in and attracts thousands of celebrants each year. Editor's Note : This article was updated on Oct. EDT to reflect a correction. Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community space.

Nola Taylor Tillman is a contributing writer for Space. She loves all things space and astronomy-related, and enjoys the opportunity to learn more. On April 14, the cosmonaut was flown to Moscow, where he was greeted by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and driven into town on a highway lined with cheering Russians. He died on March 27, , after the MiG jet fighter he was flying crashed near the town of Novosyolovo. Gagarin had served as back-up pilot for Vladimir Komarov on Soyuz 1.

When Komarov's flight ended in a fatal crash, Gagarin was ultimately banned from training for and participating in further spaceflights. Gagarin was laid to rest in the wall of the Kremlin on Red Square.

You have already liked this page, you can only like it once! The first cosmonaut group of After Soviet Union decided to launch a human being to space, a secret nationwide selection process was started in and Gagarin was chosen with 19 other pilots. The first cosmonauts Gagarin was also a favoured candidate by his peers.

Flight to space In April , Gagarin became the first human to travel into space, launching to orbit aboard the Vostok 3KA-3 Vostok 1. Like Thank you for liking You have already liked this page, you can only like it once! Focus on.