Today, April 12, on Cosmonautics Day, one cannot but recall a man who was one of the first representatives of this unusual profession. This is Yuri Gagarin. He became a legendary personality of the last century and went down in the history of astronautics, what can I say, and in world history, as the first person who made a successful trip to Earth's orbit. However, the life and death of Yuri Alekseevich melt many secrets. Today we decided to shed some light on some of them.
A little about the character of Gagarin
Many acquaintances of the first cosmonaut talked about him. They all said that Gagarin had always been a cheerful, cheerful, strong and responsible person. He was also extremely punctual, which he taught his two daughters, Elena and Galina. He loved his wife Valentina and girls very much. He always gave them gifts, arranged fancy-dress parties at home, in which he also took part, dressing up as various heroes. He was said to be very convincing in the roles he performed and quite artistic.
Born into a simple rural family from the Smolensk region, he managed to become a legendary man, the first cosmonaut in the USSR and in the world to fly into near-earth space. Purposefulness and great diligence helped him in this. In addition, his good looks and a kind smile, which was remembered by the whole world, also served as a positive factor for him when the top management selected the candidate for the first flight into space.
Stories about the legendary pilot-cosmonaut
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The first story is connected with the preparation of the group for the legendary flight. The team consisted of 20 people. Doctors who observed the state of future travelers into outer space conducted an experiment. They secretly planted a drug that stimulates headaches into the team's food. None of the cosmonauts confessed to feeling unwell. And only Yuri Gagarin, not afraid to be suspended from the flight, admitted that he had a headache.
The second interesting fact from the life of the first cosmonaut, and carefully concealed, happened during the flight, more precisely, when returning from it. When Yuri Alekseevich began his return from near-earth orbit, he did not know about the action of the Earth's atmosphere on the rapidly moving capsule. The pioneer cosmonaut saw fire through the window and decided that he would not return home alive. Then he transmitted the only "last" message that he was on fire and said goodbye to all his comrades. But, fortunately, Gagarin was destined not only to land, but to get his well-deserved world fame.
The mystery of the death of the great astronaut
Not only the life of the legendary cosmonaut, and also a test pilot, was covered with legends and secrets, but also his early death. Gagarin lived in this world for only 34 years. There are many versions about his death in 1968. Some of them seem quite realistic, but there are also absolutely fantastic ideas. Among the second - a collision with a UFO, abduction by aliens, and the fact that during the ill-fated flight on March 27, Gagarin did not die at all, but remained alive and then emigrated somewhere to America (the well-known seer Vanga believed there). But, guided by logic, let's return to plausible versions.
The first and official version is that the fighter of Gagarin and his colleague Vladimir Seregin made a very sharp maneuver in the air, which brought the plane into a tailspin and caused a collision with the ground. But this version has been discussed and condemned many times by experts. For example, Alexei Leonov - cosmonaut, pilot, colleague and friend of Gagarin - said later that the "official" version is absolute "nonsense."
In his opinion, the cause of the death of the testers was another plane that was performing an illegal flight and appeared in the area where the missions were being performed. Its pilot violated the regime and flew near the MIG-15UTI at a minimum distance. This led to a misalignment of the aircraft's course. Gagarin tried to "taxi", but the high speed and lack of several spare seconds did not allow him to do this, and therefore the plane fell.
The second hypothesis was that during the flight, Vladimir Seregin, who was much older than Gagarin (during World War II, he was already a pilot who bombed Nazi tanks), became ill. The co-pilot of the fighter began to choke and accidentally hit the lever, which changed the direction of the ship. In order not to betray his colleague and "save" his reputation, Yuri Alekseevich reported on the completed task to the headquarters earlier than it should have, and tried to return the plane to the base at the airfield, but failed.
This version is confirmed by the fact that during the autopsy it was found that there was a lot of oxygen in the tissues of Gagarin's body (that is, he was viable until the last minutes). He was not found in Seregin's tissues, which indicates heart failure, which the pilot had at the time of his death. But if the senior colleague could really lose consciousness and not be able to escape, then Yuri Alekseevich had a chance and every right to eject, but he did not leave his comrade in moments of mortal danger and died with him.
The third version of the terrible tragedy that happened to Gagarin was "secret." She said that the pilot and the cosmonaut did not die by accident, but as a result of a carefully planned operation of the special services or sabotage. Friends of the legendary pilot said that he feared for his life.
In the last year of his life, Yuri Alekseevich had several incidents while traveling by car, in which he was not injured, but the vehicle “accidentally” broke down. The special services could have decided that since it was impossible to "get rid" of Gagarin as a result of a car accident, then there is an opportunity to do this during test flights.
The reason why the KGB could “eliminate” the first cosmonaut was that he knew “secret” information about the death of his colleague Vladimir Komarov, who burned down together with the Soyuz-1 spacecraft. If there is information that Gagarin insisted that the ship was not ready to fly into Earth orbit and it was impossible to send Komarov's mission into space. But the leadership of the Land of Soviets did not take into account Yuri Alekseevich's note, which he handed over to the general secretary, which led to the death of the crew, and made a man with Gagarin who could tell about the government's "unsuccessful" plans.
Almost half a century has passed since the day of Gagarin's death, and the secret of the death of the famous pioneer cosmonaut has not yet been revealed. We have selected several plausible versions of this tragedy, but there are still many blind spots to be established.
Natalie Lee