Yuri Gagarin

Yuri Gagarin was the first human being in space, and he was twenty-seven when he did it. He was born in a village west of Moscow to a carpenter and a milkmaid, and the family spent the German occupation living in a mud hut after their house was taken; two of his siblings were deported to Germany for labour. He trained as a foundryman, then as a pilot, and was selected for the first cosmonaut group in 1960, partly on ability and partly because at five foot two he fitted the capsule. Vostok 1 launched on 12 April 1961 and made one orbit in 108 minutes. Almost nothing about the flight was as announced: he did not land in the capsule but ejected at 7,000 metres and came down by parachute, which was concealed for years because the international record required a pilot to land with the craft, and the first person he met was a farmer's wife who asked whether he had come from space. He became the most recognisable man alive, toured thirty countries, and was kept from flying anything demanding because the state could not afford to lose him. He argued his way back into training and was killed in 1968 when the MiG-15 trainer he was flying with an instructor crashed near Kirzhach. The cause was classified for decades and is now generally attributed to a near-miss with another aircraft. His ashes are in the Kremlin wall. The town he trained in was renamed Gagarin and the cosmonaut training centre still carries his name, and every Soyuz crew visits his office and signs the book before launch. The phrase he is supposed to have said at lift-off, poyekhali, off we go, became the most quoted line in Soviet spaceflight.

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