10. Yuri Gagarin: The First of Us

Morsel:

On 12th April, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first man to go into space and orbit the Earth.

Meal:

There is an odd tradition amongst Russian cosmonauts before they blast off to the stars. On launch day, a bus carries them from their quarters to the launch pad. When they exit the bus, the cosmonauts head toward the back right-hand tyre, unzip their suits and urinate onto the tyre. Female astronauts also sometimes participate by bringing vials of urine which they splash onto the wheel.

This ritual is one of many done by cosmonauts and the team surrounding them, all in the name of fostering good fortune. They hail from different points in the history of the space age, but this particular tradition was coined by Yuri Gagarin, who became the first man in space. It was he who allegedly asked for the bus to make a small pause so he could relieve himself. It was a sensible request at the time: his suit was not fitted with a diaper like they are nowadays, so he could have inadvertently released droplets of urine that could have become very dangerous to the technical systems. Once he had finished his business, Gagarin continued on his journey to the rocket that would make him a historic figure.

Gagarin was a Soviet Air Force pilot when he was selected as one of over 200 candidates for a top secret “special flight”. The prospective cosmonauts (all men) were chosen exclusively from the Soviet Air Force and needed to meet certain criteria in order to snugly fit into the small capsule: be between 25-30 years of age, be no taller than 1.75 metres, and weigh no more than 72 kilograms.

The piloting skill and experience of the individuals was less of a concern than their physical health. Soviet spacecraft were highly automated and could do the majority of any flight without direct assistance. The man on board would be more of a passenger than a pilot. Even so, the Soviet authorities were extremely worried about the potential adverse effects weightlessness could have on the human body. They had sent dogs and other smaller creatures into space to monitor their condition and of those that returned, many seemed to recover quickly enough, but no one could rightly know what would happen to the pilot until he was up there.

Therefore, the would-be cosmonauts were subjected to further interviews and extremely demanding and rigorous tests, such as being spun in a stationary seat to test their sense of motion. The legion of candidates was then whittled down to a group of twenty. These twenty individuals were permanently transferred to a training centre, where they learnt various space-related academic disciplines and followed daily fitness regimes. Later on, they undertook parachute training, which proved useful for Gagarin later on.

As basic training neared completion, a rudimentary spacecraft simulator was manufactured for the trainees to practise with. As it would be inefficient to train all of the trainees with one simulator, a core group of six pilots (“The Vanguard Six”) was selected to be given accelerated training. By January 1961, all the members had fully completed their training and were given one last test in a simulator, where they had to describe the operation of the spacecraft and were ranked on the results. Gagarin came out first with Gherman Titov as second, who later became the first person to orbit the Earth multiple times and to vomit in space, and Grigori Nelyubov as third.

All three were sent to Baikonur Cosmodrome and of these three, the distinction of being the first man into space was eventually given to Gagarin for a variety of reasons. He had performed flawlessly in all the training regimes and tests. He was extremely intelligent and likeable: when an informal anonymous survey was conducted with the original twenty to determine whom among the group they would like to see fly, all but three chose Gagarin. He also fulfilled an unwritten Soviet requirement of hailing from a purely Russian and working-class background. The others would serve as Gagarin's backups.

On 12^th April, launch day, Gagarin was reportedly nothing but smiles. He suited up with Titov, made a quick journey on the bus to the launch pad – perhaps also stopped for a whizz – and was sitting in the spacecraft by 07:10. While waiting in the cockpit, Gagarin requested that music be played to pass the time and was given Russian love songs, thereby starting another tradition that holds to this day. The music selection is often a bit broader nowadays, however.

At 09:07, lift-off procedures for the Vostok spacecraft began, which were heralded with an exuberant “Поехали!” (Poyekhali—Let's go!) from Gagarin. Roughly six minutes later, Gagarin became the first person to escape the bonds of Earth's gravity and enter outer space.

Gagarin spent most of his time describing in great detail what he saw, what he heard, and the readings and operations of the various instruments. He observed outer space and Earth through the capsule's porthole, commenting on Earth's “beautiful aura” and the striking shadows cast by the clouds onto Earth's surface.

While he could take over the spacecraft if need be, it mostly went through the motions automatically or was controlled from the ground. The Soviet authorities were concerned that the cosmonaut would potentially become too disoriented, or even faint, due to the effects of weightlessness. However, it proved to be of no immediate harm. He later described the feeling of weightlessness “as if you were hanging in a horizontal position in straps. You feel as if you are suspended.”

The spacecraft operated smoothly for the first ever manned orbit, but then hit a major malfunction, when the separation mechanism for the modules did not release as per schedule. It eventually did ten minutes later, preventing a potentially lethally dangerous reentry.

Gagarin remained calm and conscious throughout the gruelling ballistic reentry, where he was subjected to eight times the force of gravity. He described seeing a “bright purple light” appearing at the “blind edges. The same purple light could be observed in the small opening of the right-hand porthole.”. The spacecraft had no means to slow itself down or land safely, so at an altitude of 7,000 metres, the main descent apparatus parachutes opened and soon thereafter Gagarin was ejected from the spacecraft, and parachauted down onto the Saratov region, where he had previously practised parachuting.

At 10:55, nearly two hours later from lift-off, Yuri Gagarin softly touched down from his one and only trip into space, safe and alive, onto Earth and forever into the annals of history.

Recipe:

Hollingham, Richard. 2014. “The Strangest Space Launch Rituals.” BBC Future. Retrieved January 17, 2018.

Siddiqi, Asif A. 2000. Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and The Space Race, 1945-1974.

Rincon, Paul. 2011. “Yuri Gagarin: The Journey That Shook the World.” Retrieved January 17, 2018.

Redd, Nola Taylor. 2012. “Yuri Gagarin: First Man in Space | The Greatest Moments in Flight.” Space.com. Retrieved January 17, 2018.