Dear Editor,
April 12 marked the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s flight into outer space, the first human to enter God’s universe. This historic event in 1961, as a boy of 12 years old, has been etched in my memory ever since. The heroism of this first lone traveller, with all the dangers and risks, making that journey into outer space, was, to our generation, a glorious, fantastic and awe-inspiring accomplishment. I remember that many schools in Guyana gave a half day off to celebrate this historic event. My Dad, President Cheddi, on that day, was smiling and proud of this achievement of socialism in science and technology, and later brought me from Russia many artifacts of Gagarin and his flight. Editor, Col Gagarin was born on a collective farm just outside Moscow, and grew up in a peasant family, at one time living in a mud hut. He joined the Soviet Air Force in 1955 and in 1957 received top honours in the Soviet Air Force Academy . He was selected for cosmonaut training in 1959, and then became the leading candidate for the 1961 historic flight into outer space.
On April 12, 1961, Gagarin blasted off our planet in Vostok 1, his small and cramped spacecraft, for a flight which lasted for 108 minutes and took him once around the planet, and at the highest point, 327 kilometers above Earth. Vostok 1 travelled at a speed of 27,400 km/hr and the blast off and re-entry caused Gagarin’s body weight (with the gravitational forces) to increase the equivalent of five times, the first time a human being had faced that kind of gravitational pressure.
Col Gagarin, once in orbit around our planet, had no control of the spacecraft because there was computer control from Soviet technical staff on the ground; upon re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, Col Gagarin ejected and landed using parachutes. On his re-entry, certain system failures almost destroyed the craft as he was subjected to tremendous shaking and bumping. Gagarin’s first words as he entered space orbit were: “I see Earth. It’s so beautiful.”
Editor, Yuri Gagarin was received by every nation on our planet as a hero, just as Lindbergh was in 1927 after crossing the Atlantic from New York to Paris in an airplane alone. Everywhere Gagarin travelled he was hailed as a hero, with huge crowds with the most powerful personages lining up to take pictures and touch this space pioneer. Later in 1961, when he visited the Queen of England, who was then 37 years old, Gagarin, with a farmer’s background, struggled to grasp the rules of etiquette in the Royal Household at Buckingham Palace. When faced with the cutlery placed in front of his dinner place at a reception given by Queen Elizabeth it is reported that she told him: “My dear Mr Gagarin, I was born and brought up in this palace, but believe me, I still don’t know in which order I should use all these knives and forks.” She added in a whisper, “each time you take the knife and fork that lie on the outer edge.” Editor, this year, to mark this great event 50 years ago, a statue of Col Gagarin is to be erected in the Mall in London, one of the most visible and treasured spots in that city.
Similar events and tributes to this great hero are being done all over the world.
On March 27, 1968, Colonel Yuri Gagarin, 34 years old, died in a MG-15 fighter aircraft while training for his second space mission. Just one year before, in a terrible accident which destroyed a Russian craft and its cosmonaut, a good friend of Gagarin brought him in conflict with the Soviet authorities. He was very involved in that mission in a back-up position and he had complained to the communist authorities about serious flaws in the spacecraft. When nothing was done, he tried to replace his friend, Major Kamarov, as the one to go into space three hours before blast off, knowing full well that death was a possibility, but those above him refused and he was forced to see his friend die a horrible death, burning up in re-entry to Earth. The New York Times reported recently in an article on Gagarin, that he aggressively confronted the Soviet leader, Leonid Breznev, who knew of the 230 defects in the spacecraft but still went ahead for the political aim of showcasing 1967 with the first ‘docking’ of two Soviet spacecraft, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1917 communist revolution.
Editor, Col Yuri Gagarin will always be remembered as a hero who fired the imagination of our planet and opened the eyes of humankind to limitless possibilities, as after his historic flight the exploration of space became the cutting edge of science and technology. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, in his first steps on our nearest planet, deposited a plaque and marker for Yuri Gagarin, the ‘Columbus of the Cosmos’ as he is referred to today. Fifty years after his great voyage, we can still sit back and marvel at this man’s bravery, coolness under extreme pressure and humility in his fame. Colonel Yuri Gagarin will stand out in history a thousand years from now as a pioneer and hero of our species.
Yours faithfully,
Cheddi (Joey) Jagan (Jr)
