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On 12 April 1961 the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, aged 27, became the first human in space. His Vostok 1 spacecraft circled the Earth once, and the flight lasted 108 minutes from launch to landing.

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Gagarin, who had trained as a foundry worker before becoming an air force pilot, was launched from Baikonur, in today's Kazakhstan. As the rocket lifted off he called out “Poyekhali!” (“Let's go!”). His orbit took him as high as 327 kilometres. On the way back he ejected from the capsule about 7 kilometres above the ground and came down by his own parachute near Engels, in the Saratov region, where a farm worker and her granddaughter were the first to meet him. Because the record rules of the day required pilots to land inside their craft, the Soviet Union claimed he had, and admitted the truth only in 1971. Gagarin became famous around the world. He died in a training-jet crash in 1968, aged 34. Since 2011 the United Nations has marked 12 April as the International Day of Human Space Flight.

Türkçe oku
12 Nisan 1961'de 27 yaşındaki Sovyet kozmonotu Yuri Gagarin uzaya çıkan ilk insan oldu. Vostok 1 adlı aracıyla Dünya'nın çevresinde bir tur attı; fırlatılıştan inişe kadar geçen süre 108 dakikaydı.

Hava kuvvetlerinde pilot olmadan önce dökümcülük eğitimi alan Gagarin, bugün Kazakistan sınırları içinde kalan Baykonur'dan fırlatıldı. Roket yerden kalkarken “Poyehali!”, yani “Haydi gidelim!” diye seslendi. Yörüngede 327 kilometre yüksekliğe kadar çıktı. Dönüşte, yerden yaklaşık 7 kilometre yüksekteyken fırlatma koltuğuyla kapsülden ayrıldı ve kendi paraşütüyle Saratov bölgesinde, Engels kenti yakınlarına indi. Onu ilk karşılayanlar, çiftlikte çalışan bir kadınla torunu oldu. Dönemin rekor kuralları pilotun aracıyla birlikte inmesini şart koştuğu için Sovyetler Birliği, Gagarin'in kapsülün içinde indiğini ileri sürdü; gerçeği ancak 1971'de kabul etti. Gagarin dünya çapında üne kavuştu. 1968'de, 34 yaşındayken bir eğitim uçuşunda geçirdiği kazada hayatını kaybetti. Birleşmiş Milletler 2011'den beri 12 Nisan'ı Uluslararası İnsanlı Uzay Uçuşu Günü olarak anıyor.

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Background reading: Yuri Gagarin
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Next card in the archiveWhen Neil Armstrong radioed “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed” on 20 July 1969, his words reached Earth about 1.3 seconds later. Radio waves travel at the speed of light, and the Moon is about 384,000 km (239,000 miles) away.Read next →