In 1961, a new era began in the development of mankind. On April 12, Yuri Gagarin made the first flight into space in the history of the planet and saw the Earth from a height of three hundred kilometers. The flight of the Soviet cosmonaut was not long, but it remained forever in the memory of grateful descendants.
How long did Yuri Gagarin's flight last?
Yuri Gagarin spent one hour and forty-eight minutes in flight. But this short period of time radically changed the idea of humanity about what is possible and what is impossible. Distant space has become closer, and the stars now began to shine with a special alluring brilliance. Not only the inhabitants of the USSR, but the whole world applauded the first person who rose so high above the surface of the planet.
In April 1961, Soviet scientists and designers set a new goal for their foreign colleagues - to conquer interstellar space. The famous French writer Louis Aragon in those days even expressed the opinion that now the chronology will have to start from the moment of the conquest of space.
In one hundred and eight minutes, a simple Soviet guy, Yuri Gagarin, turned into a legendary man.
Space flight: pushing the boundaries of what is possible
Eyewitnesses recall that a few months before the first space flight, the pilots selected for testing met with designer S. P. Korolev. Future astronauts had the opportunity to look at the first spacecraft, which was a silvery ball more than two meters in diameter. Yuri Gagarin was the first to express a desire to inspect the ship from the inside.
It was at this moment that Sergei Korolev noticed an inquisitive pilot, suggesting that he would be the first cosmonaut.
None of the pilots, engineers and designers created illusions about the prospects for the first flight into space. Everyone understood that the ascent to the stars could end not only in triumph. In case of failure of the technique, the silvery ball could well turn into a shiny sarcophagus. But Gagarin was confident in the perfection of the aircraft and believed that the technology would not let him down.
It is difficult for a modern man, far from space technology, to understand how many problems the designers of the first apparatus had to face, which was to lift a man above the planet. How will the ship behave? Will the pilot be able to cope with the G-forces and endure weightlessness? Will extreme conditions affect the mental state of the astronaut?
None of the leading experts could provide an answer to these and other questions. Only practice could confirm the correctness of the scientists' assumptions. Gagarin's successful flight dispelled the fears of specialists, for whom the historical one hundred and eight minutes turned into an endless agonizing wait.
Why did the flight take place on April 12? The time for the launch of the Soviet spacecraft was deliberately chosen. The Soviet leadership had information that the Americans planned the first launch of the apparatus with a man on board in the last days of April of the same year. In conditions of tough competition between the two world systems, it was decided to get ahead of overseas colleagues. It was impossible to give them primacy in space exploration.
