The third in a brood of 4 children, Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was born on March 9, 1934, in the town of Klushino. Both his …show more content…
It was at this time that Gagarin was chosen, after a rigorous selection process, to join 19 other Soviet pilots as a candidate for the Soviet space program. Along with his fellow cosmonaut candidates, Gagarin underwent rigorous testing and experiments which were designed to test the limits of both their physical and mental limits. Towards the end of the testing program, the candidates were asked who they would choose among themselves to be the first pilot for the program. Almost all of them chose Yuri Gagarin.
Finally, the selection was down to Gagarin and Gherman Titov who both excelled during the earlier phases. One main criterion which helped them reach the final two spots was their height, with Gagarin standing at 1.57 meters tall. The spacecraft that was going to be used was called the Vostok 1 and the cockpit had limited room to maneuver in which made Gagarin’s smaller stature a positive …show more content…
Moscow along with other cities within the USSR celebrated the achievement with numerous demonstrations attended by countless people. After parading along the streets of the capital, Yuri Gagarin was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union by Nikita Khrushchev during an extravagant ceremony in the Kremlin. Taking advantage of the situation, the Soviet Union arranged for Gagarin to tour around the world. During the subsequent months after his return from space, Gagarin visited the United Kingdom, Japan, Egypt, Canada, Brazil, Germany, and Italy, in order to promote the success of the Soviet Union’s space program.
Between 1962 until 1968 Gagarin returned to the cosmonaut training base known as Star City. There, he spent the next few years researching on the designs of a reusable spacecraft while the Soviet party kept him away from any further space flights due to their fear of losing a national hero. During this time, he also reached the rank of