Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin
And again, in different sources there is information that Gagarin was offered to stay in the academy as an instructor, and he was even proposed to serve in the Ukraine, in the south.
On November 5 of 1957, Y. A. Gagarin, upon finishing the training was assigned to be under the Air Force commander of the North Fleet (NF).
On November 6 of 1957, there was a wedding of the young lieutenant with Valentina Ivanovna Goryacheva, who became Gagarina. Valentina Ivanovna, when they met, was working at the telegraph, and later she began to study at a medical college. So, after the wedding, came separation. Gagarin went to the place of his service and Valya stayed back to finish her medical education.
Since December 29 of 1957, he becomes a pilot of the 769th extinguishing air regiment in the 122nd extinguishing air division of Air Force of the North Fleet, stationed in village New Luostari of the Murmansk region.
First, before his wife arrived, Gagarin was accommodated in a dormitory together with Valentin Zlobin – they studied in the same academy – and with Saligdjan Baibekov.
According to some sources, Gagarin made his first individual flight in the trans-polar conditions on March 21 of 1958. According to others, for example, in the book written by A. T. Gagarina it is noted, that his first individual flight in the trans-polar conditions Y. A. Gagarin made on April 6 of 1958.
On August 5 of 1958, his wife Valentina Ivanovna joined him.
In 1959, while the XXI summit of CPSU was in session, Y. A. Gagarin came up to Anatoly Pavlovich Roslyakov, who was a military captain at the time and secretary of the party organization of the regiment, and declared his desire to join the ranks of the Lenin’s party. Soon, at the general gathering of communists he was accepted as a candidate into the members of CPSU. He was recommended to the party by Anatoly Pavlovich Roslyakov and Vladimir Mikhailovich Reshetov, who was at the time the commander of the regiment where Y. A. Gagarin was serving. There was also a recommendation from the regiment’s VLKSM committee. One year later – on June 16 of 1960 – Y. A. Gagarin was accepted into the party and received party membership card № 08909627. At this point, there were already three recommending persons: Anatoly Pavlovich Roslyakov, Vladimir Mikhailovich Reshetov, and Anatoly Pavlovich Ilyashenko.
On April 17 of 1959, the Gagarins family had a daughter, whom they named Yelena. In the summer, Y. A. Gagarin became sick with measles – it was all very unexpected and happened just after they had been fighting a fire. Naturally, Valentina Ivanovna thought at first that he got burns from that fire. His illness, though, did not last very long.
On October 24 of 1959, Y.A. Gagarin was opted for the position of a senior pilot, having had by October of 1959 the experience of 265 hours of flying in total.
There is a kept record in the Gagarin’s diary dated November the 10th, 1959, “Yesterday, I made fifteen kilometers on skis. Today, Valya and I, as usual, having left Yelena under the care of our neighbours, ran on “Norwegian skates” a few circles on the regiment’s skating rink. We are in an excellent mood!…”
It is necessary to say, that Gagarin always kept diaries, where he recorded some events of his own life, some impressions of what he had seen or read. Sometimes, he wrote out some extracts, among them there were poems that struck him in some way. For example, to my own surprise, I found in these excerpts portions from Afanasy Fet, Yakov Kniazhnin, Eduard Bagritsky. To say the truth, those, who spoke with Gagarin, marked out his proper, grammatically accurate speech with rich vocabulary. I remember the story told by Vladimir Borisovich Kraskin about one of his encounters with Gagarin during the watch, when V. V. Tereshkova and V. F. Bykovsky were in the space flight. The conversation was not about their service, and Vladimir Borisovich was pleasantly amazed at how quickly Gagarin could win the favour of his interlocutor and how amusingly and lively he was speaking, how rich and varied his speech was.
The order to start the medical stage of the candidates’ selection for a rocket flight was signed on September 30 of 1959. Y. A. Gagarin was included into the first group.
In October of 1959, Y. A. Gagarin was sent for an examination in CNIIVAG to be selected as a candidate for the flight in a rocket.
During the examinations on October 19, Y. A. Gagarin and V. F. Bykovsky were tested in an altitude (pressure) chamber. Ascending to the altitude of 5,000 meters and staying there for 30 minutes was imitated. On October 23, with V. F. Bykovsky again, it was the ascent to 6,000 meters, where they remained for 15 minutes.
On October 31 of 1959, Gagarin was tested to see how he would bear the flight at very high altitudes. For this purpose, desaturation was carried out during 65 minutes while he was breathing pure oxygen in an oxygen machine KP-28; then they staged the experiment itself. After the “descent” no pathological changes were registered with Y. Gagarin.
On November the 2nd, the final test in the pressure chamber was carried out. At first, Y. Gagarin breathed pure oxygen through the mask of the oxygen machine for 95 minutes. To pass the time, he was reading a book. Then there was an “ascent” to the altitude of 15,000 meters. The duration of his stay there was 20 minutes. The speed of ascending and descending was 20-45 meters per second. Gagarin did not utter any complaints. He felt well. His appearance and demeanor were normal. Aches in joints and muscles, skin itching and swelling of abdomen were absent. At the altitude of 15,000 meters his pulse was fluctuating in the range between 116 and 124 beats per second, his arterial blood pressure was 155/95. The electrical cardiogram, recorded at the height of 15,000 meters, showed sinusoidal tachycardia.”
When twenty minutes of staying at the 15,000 meters platform passed, Georgy Petrovich gave the order to begin the descent. When the door of the pressure chamber was opened, Gagarin had been already sitting without an oxygen mask. Laboratory assistant took down his physical data, which practically did not differ from the initial characteristics. G. P. Mihailovsky wrote down in the protocol, “Endurance of barometrical tests is good.”
Besides this, Gagarin and his fellow-pilots passed other tests in the pressure chamber when they had to breath in a mixture of vitiated air (9 – 10% of oxygen), and stay under the overpressure of oxygen in the on-ground conditions (up to 30 millimeters of mercury).
There were also tests in a centrifuge, which had two arms with a radius of 3.6 meters.
Before, during and after the tests in the centrifuge, electrical cardiograms, encephalograms (bioelectrical activity of the brain) were registered, arterial blood pressure was measured with the help of special sensors, and hemodynamic data was taken.
Before the tests, control weighing was done to determine the load of the counterweight. Gagarin’s weight was 68 kilograms.
At first, Gagarin was trained to use the equipment in the centrifuge. Then the tests began.
The first stage was to test the effect of acceleration along the head-pelvis axis of three, five, six and seven G-units during 30 seconds. Gagarin passed this test well. Then there was the application of acceleration for the durability test. The direction of acceleration was head-to-pelvis with 15-20 minute breaks for rest between the spins. Gagarin passed the 6g acceleration test during 90 seconds and the 8g test during 27 seconds. These were good results.
During the last series in the centrifuge, acceleration was applied along the breast-spine axis with the tilt of the chair of 65 degrees. Gagarin thoroughly prepared for this test. The spin of the centrifuge was executed according to the following plan: seven g-units – for three minutes, nine and ten g-units – two minutes. One spin was carried out in one day. The interval between the tests was several days.
During these tests Gagarin developed some shortness of breath, it was difficult to move his arm or his head, but he did not register any painful feelings during the spins. Gagarin passed these difficult tests well.
After this, he heard Y. A. Fedorov saying, “Yes, You have successfully passed the tests of the medical commission in the first stage. Stratosphere is no longer a limit to You.”
Gagarin began the second stage of examinations on January 20 of 1960.
The doctors gladly welcomed him. He moved into the same ward, took the same “lucky” bed. At this stage, they checked the body’s tolerance of the factors in the space flight.
Gagarin was tested on a vibration stand, in a pressure chamber; he was spun in a centrifuge. The pilots could voluntarily refuse the tests they were presented with, and leave the hospital. The principle of good will would be strictly practiced all the way in the future.
Vibration stand tests were as follows: the frequency of vibrations was 70 Hertz, the amplitude – 0.4 millimeters during 30-40 minutes. These tests were done with a purpose of discovering hidden problems with kidneys or ureters. Gagarin took the vibration well. There was no pain in the region of his abdomen or spine. His blood and urine tests were normal.
This were the tests that those who were included in the first group had to go through.
On March 7 of 1960, by the order of the General Commander of the Air Forces № 267, Y. A. Gagarin was enrolled as a student-spaceman to the group of spacemen CPK of the Air Force, but it takes a special story to tell you about the way that brought Gagarin to the space training, about the training itself and the flight into the outer space.
During the practices in the summer of 1960, Gagarin cut his foot with a piece of glass when he was swimming. It was an alarming and unpleasant moment. But quite soon he recovered.
Before his flight to the outer space, Y. A. Gagarin had been at the space launching site only once – during a business trip related to the preparation and launching of the spaceship-satellite with a dog named Little Star onboard in March of 1961. There is a documentary, shot at that time, where during a collective discussion Gagarin proposed to nickname the dog Little Star.
On the eve of the space flight, Y. A. Gagarin, member of a “hit-team” of six people came to the launch site on April the 5th of 1961. Days before the launch were full of classes and training practices.
Eventually, on April 10, there was held an official meeting of the State Committee, which finally approved first lieutenant Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin as the pilot of the first space flight. German Stepanovich Titov and Grigory Grigoryevich Nelyubov were appointed to be his back up substitutions.
On April 10, Y. A. Gagarin wrote a farewell letter to his dear ones.