...Ground control to......

Privyet moy padruga!

50 years ago tomorrow, on April 12th 1961 this man did what no-one before had ever done.

Aboard Vostok 1, Senior Lieutenant Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin lifted off from Star City at the Baikonor Space Centre and became the first person to journey into space, orbiting the planet once before returning to Earth.

Born in Klushino, near Gzhatsk, Gagarin was the son of workers on a collective farm.
In 1955 he entered Military Flight training, in 1957 he graduated as a MiG-15 pilot and in 1960 he was selected for Cosmonaut training.

He was chosen, together with Gherman Titov, as pilot for the first space flight. Many believe that Gagarin got the nod over Titov because at only 5ft 2 inches (1.57 metres) tall he was better able to fit into the tiny cockpit of the Vostok.
His call sign for the flight was "Siberian Pine", engraved on the far right of the coin in the blip.

It was claimed that Gagarin, while in space, said, "I don't see any God up here", but as a devout member of the Russian Orthodox faith he would never have said such a thing. However, Nikita Kruschev did once say "Gagarin flew into space and he didn't see any God".

After the flight Gagarin went on an extensive "world" tour and visited the U.K. 3 months after the flight, calling at London and Manchester. He later said that Manchester was one of his favourite cities.

He was promoted to Lt. Colonel in 1962 and full Colonel in 1963. Shortly after he was banned from ever flying in space again for fear of an accident killing a "true Hero of the Soviet Union."

Gagarin died March 27th 1968 in a routine training flight accident, he was cremated and his ashes are interred in the wall of the Kremlin, in Red Square, Moscow.

This coin was minted in 2001 and is a 10 rouble coin. It was given to me when we had our Russian visitors in 2008, by Valeriy, and it was pure luck that I received this coin as all six of us got one from him. He was amazed and delighted that I recognised Gagarin straight away.

So, sometime tomorrow look up at the sky and think what a brave man Yuri must have been to go up there, alone, in a form of transport that exploded more often than it flew.

Das vidanya moy padruga!

Oh, a bit of space trivia for you:
In the 2010 Space Foundation survey Gagarin was voted 6th most popular space hero.........tied with Captain James Tiberius Kirk of the Starship USS Enterprise! The first man into space tied with a fictional character!!!

p.s Lady Lala.........yes I probably will be having a vodka in memory of Yuri tonight.

In response to hebs query the full list of Top 10 Space Heroes is;
1. Neil Armstrong
2. NASA Flight Director Gene Krantz (directed Apollo 13 rescue)
3. John Young (Gemini, Apollo and Shuttle pilot, walked on the Moon, piloted first Space Shuttle)
4. James Lovell (commander Apollo 13)
5. John Glenn (first American to orbit Earth, oldest person to fly in space aboard the Shuttle)
6 Yuri Gagarin/James T. Kirk
7. NASA administrator Michael Griffin
8. Carl Sagan, author
9. Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin (second person on Moon)/Virgil "Gus" Grissom (2nd American in space, first person to fly in space twice, died in Apollo 1 launch pad fire)/Alan Shepard (first American and second person to fly in space)
10. Wernher Von Braun ("greatest rocket scientist in history")