1. DISCOVERING SPACE: YURI GAGARIN

2. Yuri Gagarin No doubt that the main event in the life of Yuri Gagarin was his flight into space (cosmos) on a board of the spaceship “Vostok”. This flight lasted 108 minutes. The rocket flew around the Earth and then came back to the orbit. 108 minutes now seem not a long time spent in space. But just think what that meant for a person who knew that he was the first one to do it. No doubt the flight was connected with tremendous risk.

3. During the times of the Soviet Union, space exploration was one of the main priorities. And a rocket undertaking the first flight into space departed from the USSR. That happened on the 12th of April, 1961. That day became the important day of the history. The cosmonaut on board was the pilot Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin. Let’s find out something about the life of this truly hero. Flight of Yuri Gagarin

4. Before the flight Yuri Gagarin was given an envelope where the secret cipher was – the figure “25”, as it was found out later. This cipher allowed going from planned automatic to manual operation of the spacecraft in case of malfunctions. Why wasn't the message cipher given to the cosmonaut in advance? The reason is that psychologists proved that a person having seen his planet from the space is more likely to go mad. That is why the cipher wasn’t messaged at once so that the cosmonaut wouldn’t start running the craft in madness. Before the flight the informational agency had prepared 3 variants of messages reporting how it went. In the first one it was told that all went successfully. The second one reported that the craft couldn’t leave the orbit and its wreck took place on the Earth. This variant also addressed to governments of other countries and asked for help in searching of the cosmonaut. And the third one declared that the first cosmonaut tragically perished. Fortunately the flight went successfully. Yury Gagarin became the first person in space !!!

5. The End