54-th Anniversary of Human Space Flight: 8 Facts you didn’t know about Yuri Gagarin

12 April was declared as the International Day of Human Space Flight by the UN General Assembly resolution. The first man in outer space – Russian Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. Gagarin entered history on 12 April, 1961 when the spacecraft "Vostok-1" with the Soviet cosmonaut on board was launched from the Baikonur space centre. There are some unknown facts about the legend of space exploration.

1. Three variants of the Soviet news agency's report on the first manned flight into space were prepared. The first - in case of success of the mission; the second - if the spacecraft did not go into orbit and falls somewhere in a forest or an ocean (this news contained a call for help to find the cosmonaut); the third - about the tragic death of the first cosmonaut.

2. The flight of "Vostok-1" was absolutely automatic as nobody could give a guarantee that the cosmonaut would be able to work in the conditions of weightlessness. Gagarin was given a special code that allowed activation of manual controls of the spaceship in an emergency situation.

3. Gagarin launched from the Baikonur space center at the rank of lieutenant and landed being the most famous major in the world.

4. When the cabin started to crackle in flames and melting metal was running over the illuminator, while entering the atmosphere, Gagarin really believed that his mission was ending.

5. Two days before his flight, Yuri Gagarin wrote a farewell letter to his wife in case of an accident. Gagarin's wife Valentina received this letter not in 1961, but after a flight accident in 1968 that claimed the life of her husband.

6. Although Gagarin was one of the ideals of a Soviet person, he was a believer and offered to restore the Temple of Christ the Savior (destroyed in 1931), speaking at a meeting of the Communist Party Central Committee in 1964.

7. Yuri Gagarin was a family man. He was married young and had two daughters. His younger daughter was born about a month before his historic flight.

8. When Gagarin visited Britain, Queen Elizabeth II made a photo with the cosmonaut contrary to etiquette. She explained this move by saying that Gagarin was not an ordinary man, but a man from space.