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First Human in Space
| title |
First Human in Space |
| date |
04.12.1961 |
| description |
On April 12, 1961 Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. News of his successful launch stunned the world and spurred the American space program to catch up. The name of his spacecraft was Vostok 1. Vostok 1 had two sections. One section was for Yuri. The second section was for supplies needed for Gagarin to live such as oxygen and water. Vostok 1 circled Earth at a speed of 27,400 kilometers per hour. The flight lasted 108 minutes. Vostok's reentry was controlled by a computer. Gagarin did not land inside of Vostok 1. He ejected from the spacecraft and landed by parachute. Born near Moscow, Russia on Mar. 9, 1934, Gagarin joined the Soviet Air Force in 1955. By 1959, he was training to be a cosmonaut. Gagarin was killed in a plane crash on Mar. 27, 1968. He was 34. *Image Credit*: NASA |
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Memorial Plaque for Yuri Gag
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| Title |
Memorial Plaque for Yuri Gagarin |
| Full Description |
Dr. George M. Low, acting administrator of NASA, presented to the USSR on January 21, 1971, a plaque in memory of Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin who made the first flight into space on April 12, 1961. Accepting the plaque at the Moscow ceremony was Soviet Gen. Kuznetsov, commander of the USSR's Star City space base, where cosmonauts have been training since 1960. Gagarin, who made history with his 1 hour and 48 minute flight, lost his life in a training accident on March 27, 1968. |
| Date |
01/21/1971 |
| NASA Center |
Headquarters |
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Mission Profile for April 12
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| Title |
Mission Profile for April 12, 1961 Vostok Flight |
| Full Description |
The mission profile for Yuri Gagarin?s pioneering flight into space. The flight took place on April 12, 1961 in the Vostok spaceship. |
| Date |
UNKNOWN |
| NASA Center |
Headquarters |
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NASA Press Conference Regard
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| Title |
NASA Press Conference Regarding Vostok 1 Flight |
| Full Description |
After the successful spaceflight of Yuri Gagarin, the first person to fly in space, as well as orbit Earth, NASA held a press conference at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC to respond to questions concerning Gagarin's flight and the status of the American space program. From left to right: Dr. Robert C. Seamans Jr., Associate Administrator, Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, Deputy Administrator, Mr. James E. Webb, Administrator, and Dr. Abe Silverstein, Director of Space Flight Programs. |
| Date |
04/12/1961 |
| NASA Center |
Headquarters |
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Original 1960 Group of Cosmo
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| Title |
Original 1960 Group of Cosmonauts |
| Full Description |
The original 1960 group of cosmonauts is shown in a photo from May 1961 at the seaside port of Sochi. The names of many of these men were considered state secrets for more than twenty-five years. Sitting in front from left to right: Pavel Popovich, Viktor Gorbatko, Yevgeniy Khrunov, Yuri Gagarin, Chief Designer Sergey Korolev, his wife Nina Koroleva with Popovich's daughter Natasha, Cosmonaut Training Center Director Yevgeniy Karpov, parachute trainer Nikolay Nikitin, and physician Yevgeniy Fedorov. Standing the second row from left to right: Aleksey Leonov, Andrian Nikolayev, Mars Rafikov, Dmitriy Zaykin, Boris Volynov, German Titov, Grigoriy Nelyubov, Valeriy Bykovskiy, and Georgiy Shonin. In the back from left to right: Valentin Filatyev, Ivan Anikeyev, and Pavel Belyayeu. Four cosmonauts were missing from the photograph, Anatoliy Kartashov and Valentin Varlamov and had both been dropped from training because of injuries. Valentin Bondarenko died in a training accident a few months before. Vladimir Komarov was indisposed. I. Snegirev took the original photo. |
| Date |
05/1961 |
| NASA Center |
Headquarters |
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Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin
| Title |
Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin |
| Full Description |
Yuri Gagarin was born on March 9, 1934 in a town outside of Moscow, Russia. After graduating from secondary school in 1949, Gagarin went to several technical schools before joining the Orenburg Higher Air Force School in 1955. He began his cosmonaut training in 1960, along with 19 other candidates. On April 12, 1961 at 9:06 am Gagarin lifted off in the Vostok 1 spacecraft and after a 108-minute flight of extended microgravity, he parachuted safely to the ground in the Saratov region of the USSR. As the first human to fly in space, he successfully completed one orbit around the Earth. After his historic flight, Gagarin became an international symbol for the Soviet space program and in 1963 was appointed deputy director of the Cosmonaut Training Center. In 1966 he served as a backup crewmember for Soyuz 1 and on February 17, 1968, completed a graduate degree in technical sciences. Tragically, during flight training in a UTI-MiG-15 aircraft on March 27, 1968, Gagarin was killed when his plane crashed. |
| Date |
UNKNOWN |
| NASA Center |
Headquarters |
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Gagarin on his way to Vostok
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| Title |
Gagarin on his way to Vostok Launch |
| Full Description |
A pensive Yuri Gagarin is in the bus on the way to the launch pad on the morning of April 12, 1961. Behind him, seated, is his backup, German Titov. Standing are cosmonauts Grigoriy Nelyubov and Andrian Nikolayev. Yuri Gagarin was born on March 9, 1934 in a town outside of Moscow, Russia. After graduating from secondary school in 1949, Gagarin went to several technical schools before joining the Orenburg Higher Air Force School in 1955. He began his cosmonaut training in 1960, along with 19 other candidates. On April 12, 1961 at 9:06 am Gagarin lifted off in the Vostok 1 spacecraft and after a 108-minute flight of extended microgravity, he parachuted safely to the ground in the Saratov region of the USSR. As the first human to fly in space, he successfully completed one orbit around the Earth. After his historic flight, Gagarin became an international symbol for the Soviet space program and in 1963 was appointed deputy director of the Cosmonaut Training Center. In 1966 he served as a backup crewmember for Soyuz 1 and on February 17, 1968, completed a graduate degree in technical sciences. Tragically, during flight training in a UTI-MiG-15 aircraft on March 27, 1968, Gagarin was killed when his plane crashed. |
| Date |
04/12/1961 |
| NASA Center |
Headquarters |
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Man Enters Space
| Title |
Man Enters Space |
| Explanation |
Forty years ago, on April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alexseyevich Gagarin [ http://www.kosmonaut.se/gagarin/index_article.html ] became the first human in space. His remotely controlled Vostok 1 spacecraft [ http://www.rocketry.com/mwade/project/vostok.htm ] lofted him to an altitude of 200 miles and carried him once around planet Earth. Gagarin was strictly a passenger on this flight [ http://www.users.wineasy.se/svengrahn/histind/Vostok1/ Vostok1X.htm ]. As a precaution against the unknown physiological effects [ http://library.thinkquest.org/C003763/ index.php?page=adapt02 ] of spaceflight on piloting skills and judgement, his onboard controls were locked out by a secret combination. In case of emergency he carried the combination in a sealed envelope. After reentry, Gagarin ejected from the Vostok [ http://nauts.com/histpace/vehiclesNT/histvostokNT.html ] at an altitude of 20,000 feet and parachuted to Earth. How was the first view from space [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/ ]? He reportedly commented, "The sky is very dark, the Earth is bluish. Everything is seen very clearly". Coupled with other accomplishments [ http://www.russianspaceweb.com/chronology.html ], this flight confirmed the early Soviet lead in the space race -- the first US astronaut [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980724.html ] would not be launched until almost a month later and then on a comparatively short suborbital flight. Born on March 9, 1934, Gagarin was an air force jet pilot before being chosen for the first group of cosmonauts [ http://howe.iki.rssi.ru/GCTC/gctc_e.htm ] in 1960. As a result of his historic flight he became an international hero [ http://www.users.wineasy.se/svengrahn/histind/gagarin/ gagarin.htm ] and legend. Killed when his MIG jet crashed during a training flight on March 27, 1968, Gagarin was given a hero's funeral, his ashes interred in the Kremlin Wall. |
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Shepard Flies Freedom 7
| Title |
Shepard Flies Freedom 7 |
| Explanation |
Forty years ago today (May 5, 1961 [ http://www.thespaceplace.com/history/mercury/ mercury03.html ]), at the dawn of the space age [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/sputnik/ index.html ], NASA controllers "lit the candle" and sent Alan Shepard arcing into space atop a Redstone rocket [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980404.html ]. The picture shows the pressure-suited Shepard before launch in his cramped space capsule [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/diagrams/ mercury.html ] dubbed "Freedom 7" [ http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/images/pao/MR3/ 10073523.htm ]. Broadcast live to a global television audience, the flight of Freedom 7 [ http://www.nasm.edu/galleries/attm/nojs/rm.ey.f7.1.html ] - the first space flight by an American - followed less than a month after the first human venture into space by Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010414.html ]. Freedom 7's historic flight [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/40thmerc7/ intro.htm ] was suborbital, lasting only about 15 minutes, but during it Shepard demonstrated manual control of his capsule. Naval aviator [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/40thmerc7/ shepard.htm ] Shepard was chosen as one of the original seven Mercury Program [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4201/ toc.htm ] astronauts. He considered this first flight [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4201/ch11-4.htm ] the greatest challenge and actively sought the assignment. Shepard's career as an astronaut spanned a remarkable period in human achievement and in 1971 he walked on the moon [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/a14/ a14.crew.html ] as commander of the Apollo 14 mission. A true pioneer and intrepid explorer, Alan Shepard died in 1998 [ http://www.nasa.gov/shepard.html ] at age 74. |
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Frosty Dunes
PIA08069
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
| Title |
Frosty Dunes |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
12 April 2006 Today, the MOC Team celebrates the 45th anniversary of the first human flight into space, that of Yuri Gagarin on 12 April 1961, and the 25th anniversary of the first NASA Space Shuttle flight on 12 April 1981, by briefly pondering the wonders of our Solar System and the opportunities of the age in which we live. Although humans have not ventured to the Moon in more than 30 years, and have not yet gone to Mars, we can all go there through the eyes of our robotic explorers. Mars, perhaps the most Earth-like (yet so very different!) planet in our star's system, is tilted on its axis by about 25°-not all that different than Earth's ~23.5°. Thus, Mars, like Earth, experiences a changing of seasons as the planet revolves around the Sun. At high latitudes in each hemisphere during autumn and winter, carbon dioxide frost accumulates on the surface. This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows dunes covered and delineated by seasonal frost in the north polar region of Mars. The winds responsible for the formation of these dunes blew primarily from the northwest (upper left), with additional influences from the north and northeast. During the late spring and summer seasons, these dunes would look much darker than their surroundings, but in this late winter image, the dunes and the plains on which they occur are all covered with carbon dioxide frost. "Location near": 78.4°N, 76.7°W "Image width": ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": lower left "Season": Northern Winter |
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