Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, First Man in Space

^V.e£tern evaluation of man’s greatest exploit and of amazing achievements in the exploration of spade. 32 PA6ES OF ILLUSTRATIONS /' P anther B ooks proudly present the first inde pendent Western evaluation of the Russian space programme and the flight of Major Yuri Gagarin —the first man into space. This is not simply Gagarin’s life story; it is the history of the whole Soviet effort in this field, with its problems, its successes and its failures. FOR THE FIRST TIME: # Gagarin himself, in the first private interview that the Russians allowed with Western journalists, describes his feel ings during his historic 108-minute orbit of the world. # The answers to the questions: Why are the Russians ahead ? What will they do next ? What is their national policy on space research ? Why is the West behind ? # Russian scientists give their opinion of the U.S. efforts, comparing them with their own. # Russian biologists depict fully the extra ordinary training of animals and men for space flight. # Details are given of the construction and equipment of their space-ships, together with an account of the experiments which led up to the final designs and the first prototype of a manned rocket. In this fascinating and important book, the authors have uncovered and presented the facts behind the most momentous event in history. WILFRED BURCHETT and ANTHONY PURDY COSMONAUT YURI GAGARIN F IR S T M A N IN SPACE With 32 pages of half-tone illustrations A PANTHER BOOK Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin First Man in Space A Panther Book First published in Panther Books August, 1961 Copyright © Wilfred Burchett and Anthony Purdy 1961 Printed in Great Britain by Cox and Wyman Ltd., London, Reading and Fakenham, and published by Hamilton & Co. {Stafford), Ltd., 108 Brompton Road, London, S.W.3 CONTENTS I ntroduction: Interview with Professor Fyodorov, one of the leading scientists in charge of the Soviet Space Programme 7 1 Welcome Home i i 2 T ake-off 21 3 U.S. v. U.S.S.R. 29 4 T he First Russian Rocketeer 34 5 Rockets in War and the Early Sputniks 40 6 T racking—N ew Chain of Sky-spies 54 7 Space-dogs, their School and T raining; the H istoric Flight of Strelka and Belka 65 8 Gagarin 87 9 Gagarin: the T raining of a Cosmonaut ioo 10 “108 M inutes” n o 11 Gagarin: the First Interview with Western Journalists 118 12 T he M oon N ext? 124 13 T he Robot Brains that T hink 135 14 Mars? T heories and Probabilities of Life on the Planet 140 15 Venus Probe 155 16 Science F iction in Russia 167 17 Profit and Loss 173 About the Authors 183 Index 185 INTRODUCTION N April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin crashed through a barrier that has kept Man imprisoned since the day when he first learned to walk upright. He is the hero for his courage in risking the unimaginable dangers of the greatest unknown except death itself. But Gagarin’s achievement was the climax of stupendous effort by what is perhaps the greatest team of scientists and engineers ever to pursue one purpose. In back ing from their government, in time, manpower, money and material, their resources were limitless. But still they could have failed. That they did not is apparent; but why they did not, and how they actually performed the feat of putting a man into space . that is a subject to provoke argument for many years to come. Even with all the facts it would be impossible to give a com plete answer. But facts about the Soviet space programme are rare—or, at least, not as abundant as some hard-pressed West ern scientists would like. Wilfred Burchett and Anthony Purdy set out to find every fact they could in order to fill in some of the gaps and answer some of the questions. Burchett has travelled thousands of miles through the Soviet Union, visited scores of laboratories, factories, observatories, universities and research stations. Together they interviewed scores of scientists and space-workers, including Gagarin himself, and read hundreds of thousands of words, from rocket-history to science fiction. 7 8 INTRODUCTION The Russians were courteous, interested, and helpful, within their obvious limits. Here is an account of their first interview, with one of the leading scientists in charge of the space pro gramme, Professor Eugene Fyodorov, who contributed as much as any man to the making of Yuri Gagarin’s 108 historic minutes. We climbed a wide, wrought-ironwork staircase laid out with thick-pile red, white and blue carpet to the first-floor office of Academician Fyodorov. His secretary, a trim, attrac tive, fair-haired girl, dealt with a stream of telephone calls at her crowded desk while the minutes ticked by to three o’clock. Precisely at three she led us into the Academician’s room next door. Fyodorov is a bulky man, with pale blue eyes that are quick to smile, a formidable jaw and forehead and large, capable hands. He looked the picture of an executive scientist; calm, efficient, immensely knowledgeable and cultured. With bis interpreter and ours, we sat at a long highly polished table under a huge map of the world, with five red flags pinned in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Black Sea. “You see,” he joked, “our secret rocket stations.” On another wall was a large-scale geophysical map of Russia; on the third, a portrait of Lenin. “Now,” he said, “we can discuss your questions. Firstly, Gagarin; the results of his flight came fully up to our expecta tions. The chief point, I think, that we established was that in prolonged weightlessness there are no ill effects, no un pleasantness that we did not know about. He worked very well during this period and did everything demanded of him. I am not an engineer, but I know that as a result of the space- shot we were able to improve and elaborate the cabin.” What was his opinion of the U.S. success in putting a man into a ballistic rocket? He shrugged. “Firstly, we are very pleased that they have been able to do this; it represents a new stage in research and a success for American science. We by passed it because, frankly, we considered that this up-and-down INTRODUCTION 9 flight is much simpler than putting a man into orbit, and we were more concerned with such problems as re-entry and descent. “We carried out these up-and-down flights before—not with a man, but with animals, mice and so on, saving the bigger- sized rockets for bigger experiments. As for the Americans claiming to have produced more scientific data from such a flight, I cannot say. I have not seen their data yet. I don’t see the point of the claim concerning the manual control by Com mander Shepard; Gagarin was able to control his space-ship himself if necessary, but it was not.” He discussed a claim in the London magazine, New Scien tist that “absolutely no scientific purpose had been achieved by the flight of Major Gagarin.” With a trace of a smile, he commented: “It is the same with any achievement. Once it has been done, there are always people who say something else should have been done. If Major Gagarin had landed on the Moon, someone would have said: ‘There’s nothing special about that,’ and would have suggested that he should have gone on to some other planet. “We consider that this first flight was essential. Without this first step, others would not be possible.” What have the Russians learned about cosmic radiation following the recent flights? “Very much. A great deal is known in regard to radiation screening with metal jackets and so on. We know enough, for instance, for a flight to the Moon to be possible with passengers.” For such a flight, which did he consider more important scientifically—a manned or robot landing first? “Much fuller results,” he said, “would be achieved by the flight of man. In cosmic research, perhaps in this more than any other field, we can be faced with unexpected circumstances. A man can decide on the spot what to do, whereas with instruments, they per form only a pre-planned programme which cannot take the unexpected into account. 10 INTRODUCTION “It is quite clear, however, that a robot flight is much easier, at the technical level we have reached today, and it is possible that a robot goes initially, followed by a man. A few dozen years ago it was the other way round: first the man explored and machines went in later. In space, instruments probe first.” What contribution can countries such as Britain make to space research, without satellites? “It is not necessary to have sputniks. Any country can add to theoretical research. Jodrell Bank is an important case in point. The radio telescope there is of tremendous assistance in discovering the nature of space. We do not have one of such size in Russia, nor will we have one in the foreseeable future. Of a different kind, perhaps, but Professor Lovell has always helped us in the past when we needed his assistance, so such an instrument would be un necessary here. We do, of course, have much smaller versions, and we have one being planned which will work on a different principle.” Asked about the possibilities of future international co operation, Professor Fyodorov said: “There are two organiza tions working along these lines: the International Astronautical Federation and C.O.S.P.A.R.

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