Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Happy Yuri Gagarin Day


Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (Russian: Ю́рий Алексе́евич Гага́рин,[1] Russian pronunciation: [ˈjurʲɪj ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ ɡɐˈɡarʲɪn]; 9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on 12 April 1961.

Gagarin became an international celebrity, and was awarded many medals and honours, including Hero of the Soviet Union, the nation's highest honour. Vostok 1 marked his only spaceflight, but he served as backup crew to the Soyuz 1 mission (which ended in a fatal crash). Gagarin later became deputy training director of the Cosmonaut Training Centre outside Moscow, which was later named after him. Gagarin died in 1968 when a MiG 15 training jet he was piloting crashed.



3 comments:

Sebastian Black said...

He seriously, seriously, should be more of a household name in the U.S.

Points to you for acknowledging him.

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

He forever has my respect for being the first to go up into space in a SOVIET rocket and come home alive. There were many who didn't.

Sebastian Black said...

Which is why they eventually gave up trying to get to the moon. But they'll always have Gagarin.