50 Fun Facts About Yuri Gagarin

On what date did Yuri Gagarin become the first person to travel into space?

The date is now marked as Cosmonautics Day in Russia and the International Day of Human Space Flight worldwide.

What was the name of the spacecraft that carried Gagarin into orbit?

Vostok means 'East' in Russian, and the programme's later flights carried the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova.

How long did Gagarin's spaceflight last?

Long enough for a single orbit of Earth before the capsule came down in Kazakhstan.

How many orbits of Earth did Gagarin complete on his flight?

His backup pilot flew 17 orbits on Vostok 2 four months later.

From which launch site was Gagarin's spacecraft launched?

The pad Gagarin left from, which had also launched Sputnik 1, is now known as Gagarin's Start.

What was Gagarin's radio call sign during his flight?

Kedr means Siberian pine or cedar; later cosmonauts also took bird and tree call signs.

Which Russian word, said by Gagarin at lift-off, came to stand for the start of the Space Age?

It translates roughly as 'Off we go!' and is still quoted in Russia every 12 April.

How did Gagarin actually return to the ground at the end of his flight?

Soviet officials hid this for months because record rules at the time required the pilot to land with the craft.

Which body's landing rules caused a dispute over recognising Gagarin's records?

The FAI eventually certified the records anyway and rewrote its rules.

Whose flight four months later made it apparent that Gagarin had not landed inside his spacecraft?

Titov's Vostok 2 mission in August 1961 made him the second person to orbit Earth.

To what military rank was Gagarin promoted in a special order issued during his flight?

He had lifted off as a senior lieutenant, so he skipped a rank while in orbit.

In which village was Gagarin born?

The nearby town of Gzhatsk was renamed Gagarin after his death in 1968.

What did Gagarin's father do for a living on the collective farm?

His mother worked as a dairy farmer on the same sovkhoz.

Where did the Gagarin family live for 21 months after a Nazi officer took over their home?

The hut measured roughly 3 by 3 metres, and young Yuri spent the occupation sabotaging German tank batteries.

What did the young Gagarin pour into German tank batteries as an act of sabotage?

He also mixed up the chemicals meant for recharging the batteries, after a soldier tried to hang his little brother from an apple tree.

What trade did Gagarin train in as a 16-year-old apprentice at a steel plant near Moscow?

He graduated with honours in mouldmaking, and the British Union of Foundry Workers later gave him a medal.

What machinery did Gagarin study at the Industrial Technical School in Saratov?

While in Saratov he joined a weekend flying club and earned money as a dock labourer on the Volga.

What did Gagarin's flight instructor give him to fix his trouble landing the trainer aircraft?

He was short enough that he simply could not see well over the cockpit rim.

How tall was Gagarin?

The chief designer wanted candidates under 1.70 m and 72 kg to fit the cramped Vostok capsule.

Gagarin's first Air Force posting was to Luostari Air Base, close to the border of which country?

He flew MiG-15bis fighters there for the Northern Fleet in Murmansk Oblast.

Which Soviet Moon probe's 1959 launch sparked Gagarin's interest in space exploration?

Luna 3 sent back the first photographs of the far side of the Moon.

What was the accelerated training group of first-flight candidates that included Gagarin nicknamed?

Also called the Sochi Six; two of its original members were injured and had to be replaced.

When cosmonaut candidates voted anonymously on who should fly first, how many did NOT pick Gagarin?

His peers found him focused and demanding, and the official commission later ranked him best too.

Which Soviet chief engineer set the height and weight limits for the first cosmonauts?

Korolev's identity was a state secret during his lifetime; he was known publicly only as the Chief Designer.

Which highest national title was Gagarin awarded by Nikita Khrushchev at the Kremlin after his flight?

He also received the Order of Lenin and became the first Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR the same day.

Which US president barred Gagarin from visiting the United States?

Gagarin toured about 30 other countries, from Brazil and Cuba to Iceland and Egypt.

In which rainy British city did Gagarin refuse an umbrella and stand up in an open convertible?

He visited Britain in July 1961, taking in London and Manchester.

Gagarin met his future wife Valentina at May Day celebrations in which famous location?

They married on 7 November 1957, the same day he graduated from flight school.

Gagarin's elder daughter Yelena became director general of which institution in 2001?

His younger daughter Galina became a professor of economics.

In which sport did the young Gagarin play as a goalkeeper?

He also coached and refereed basketball at his technical school in Saratov.

Gagarin was backup pilot for which ill-fated 1967 mission that killed his friend Vladimir Komarov?

After the crash, officials permanently banned Gagarin from further spaceflights.

On what subject did Gagarin defend his engineering thesis in February 1968?

He graduated cum laude from the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy just five weeks before he died.

What type of aircraft was Gagarin flying when he was killed in March 1968?

He had learned to fly the MiG-15 as a cadet in 1956; the two-seat UTI version was a trainer.

Where were Gagarin's ashes interred?

He shares the Kremlin Wall Necropolis with Vladimir Komarov and other Soviet heroes.

One crash investigator believed which aircraft breaking the sound barrier nearby sent Gagarin's plane into a spin?

That commission member was running parachute training that day and said he heard two loud booms in the distance.

In what year was the KGB's report on Gagarin's crash declassified?

It blamed airbase personnel for outdated weather information and for leaving external fuel tanks on the aircraft.

What is the international annual celebration held every 12 April since 2000 called?

The UN declared the same date the International Day of Human Space Flight in 2011.

Which Apollo 11 astronauts left a satchel of medals commemorating Gagarin and Komarov on the Moon?

Apollo 15 later left the Fallen Astronaut sculpture, whose plaque also names Gagarin.

Which competition's championship trophy has been called the Gagarin Cup since 2008?

Fitting for a man who played goalkeeper as a boy.

A Gagarin statue unveiled in London in 2011 was later moved outside which institution?

It first stood at Admiralty Arch on The Mall, opposite a sculpture of James Cook.

What is the Moscow monument to Gagarin, unveiled in 1980 on Leninsky Avenue, made of?

It stands on a 38-metre pedestal beside a replica of his descent module.

Which fictional character tied with Gagarin as sixth-most-popular space hero in a 2010 survey?

A Russian docudrama, Gagarin: First in Space, followed in 2013 after his family had blocked earlier portrayals.

Which spacecraft was named 'Gagarin' for its April 2011 launch, 50 years after his flight?

The ISS crew of Expedition 27 also sent a video greeting wearing Gagarin shirts.

How wide is the far-side lunar crater named after Gagarin in 1970?

He was also inducted into the inaugural class of the International Space Hall of Fame in 1976.

Which cosmonaut and artist sculpted the Gagarin statue unveiled in Houston in 2012?

Leonov, the first person to walk in space, painted and sculpted throughout his life.

Which town near Gagarin's birthplace was renamed Gagarin in 1968, after his death?

His family moved there in 1946, and he and his brother Boris learned to read from a discarded military manual at its makeshift school.

Gagarin married Valentina Goryacheva on 7 November 1957, the same day he did what?

He had been commissioned a lieutenant the day before and was soon posted to Luostari Air Base near the Norwegian border.

Beyond playing ice hockey, which sport did the young Gagarin coach and referee in Saratov?

He coached the Saratov Industrial Technical School team while studying tractors there.

In which city did Gagarin attend the First Chkalov Higher Air Force Pilots School from 1955?

He trained on the Yak-18 and then the MiG-15 there, and met his future wife, an Orenburg medical school graduate, in 1957.

The 2011 Gagarin statue at London's Admiralty Arch stood opposite a sculpture of which explorer?

The statue is a copy of the one outside his old school in Lyubertsy and moved to Greenwich in 2013.