At the time, he was training hard to become a pilot-engineer, mastering the streamlined, potent MIG fighters, and air gunnery.
This was an era of growing Soviet confidence, after the calamity of the invasion by Germany. The success of Sputnik, travelling at 8,000 metres a second in orbit, had boosted this national pride.
Now, Vostok 1 is making more history.
Focus on the mission, Cosmonaut One! he thinks to himself, as he suddenly realises his journey of a lifetime is about to come to an end. Many preparations now have to be made. He considers the dangers just ahead.
One hour and eighteen minutes into the flight, the automatic system brings Vostok 1 into alignment for its retrofire in preparation to re-enter the atmosphere.
As his spaceship glides northwards over Africa, Gagarin immediately thinks of Hemingway’s novel The Snows of Kilimanjaro which he’d loves. When he sees the Congo region far below him, with its recent bloody colonial history, he remembers Heart of Darkness.
“Flight proceeding normally,” he radioes. “Am bearing the state of weightlessness well.”
So far, the inaugural spaceflight has been a triumph of automation. Computerised systems have guided the rocket and spacecraft along a predetermined trajectory, successfully discarding the expended rocket stages. They’ve controlled speed and direction. They’ve managed cabin temperature. They’ve analysed a range of measurements to keep the mission on track.
Next stop, Gagarin believes, will be a manned flight to the Moon. And what about Mars after that? He sees his journey into orbit as a way of opening up the skies for deep-space exploration.
Although the cosmonaut has a growing respect for the automation operating the vehicle, he’s ready to assume manual control if need be. He rehearses in his mind the steps he’ll need to take to guide the ship home to a safe landing area. Automation is Plan A. But he is Plan B.
He’s especially anxious about the overwhelming temperatures to which the spaceship will soon be subject on re-entering the atmosphere. Will the external plating resist such heat intensity? And will the spaceship withstand the g-forces of its incredible speeds as it falls through the sky?
If any aspect of the spaceship’s systems fails to operate during the re-entry and descent, he’ll be doomed.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
GAGARIN PEERS through the central view of the Vzor periscope device mounted on the floor. Far below, the planet’s sunlit surface flows rapidly by. This line of sight is supported by eight ports arranged in a circle around this centre. To align the spacecraft manually in relation to the horizon and the Sun at that specific time of day, he simply needs to ensure the eight ports are all lit up, showing the craft to be at the correct angle for re-entry.
Vostok 1 has been designed with a solar orientation system. A set of transducers picks up the sun’s rays and keeps the rocket in the right attitude with its retrorockets facing at the correct angle. There are also infrared horizon sensors.
Gagarin checks the clockwork globe on the instrument panel which shows his current position. He notes that Vostok 1 is still right on its pre-planned trajectory.
As he’s going over in his mind what would happen, step by step, if he must take over control of Vostok 1, the programmed retrofire occurs. By now, he’s flying over the west coast of Africa, near Angola. The liquid-fuelled rockets fire for about 42 seconds, taking the spacecraft to within 5,000 miles of its desired landing point.
Now the flight is approaching its most critical and difficult phase. Gagarin reflects on his training at the Cosmonauts’ Training Centre. It must have steeled him for this very moment. Aviation had always required a standard of zero tolerance for error. Aviators, too, had to be as well-programmed as the machines they were flying. A spaceman like him could only survive working as one with precision space technology.
Now the spacecraft’s braking system switches on and deceleration breaks Vostok 1’s orbital path. Ten seconds after this retrofire, commands are sent by the automatic system to separate the service module from the ball-shaped capsule he occupies. In addition, a few small explosive charges are automatically detonated to snap off the four metal straps wrapped around the space capsule ball.
After these explosions, the equipment module unexpectedly remains attached by a cable, a dense bundle of wires which has carried data and power to the cabin. The cable was supposed to come loose at the same time as the metal straps. But it didn’t. The first malfunction of the mission has occurred – and at the worst possible time.
Vostok 1, now in some unexpected trouble, is approaching the skies above Egypt.
Gagarin braces himself to leave the peaceful celestial orbiting route and plunge into a fiery re-entry. As the ship hits the dense air of the atmosphere it smashes against powerful forces which ignite extreme heat energy. The shield of his capsule becomes molten hot. Flames flicker outside the cabin in a crimson explosion. Vostok 1 has become a ball of fire.
The cosmonaut is concerned that the ablative material covering his craft may not absorb such immense temperatures. By now, the g-forces are rising and his weight reappears as if it’s been pumped back into him by the air.
The ball-shaped space capsule and the service module are still joined by the umbilical cable which has failed to snap. As a result, the two halves of the space vessel gyrate violently, as the super-hot Vostok 1 hurtles through Earth’s atmosphere.
Gagarin is alarmed that his capsule is being pulled in all directions. Everything seems upside down, scenes of sky and Earth flipping and flashing outside the spacecraft. Loosely connected, the capsule and the equipment section are banging against other.
The cosmonaut senses that the coating around the capsule is burning. He can hear some unidentified crackling sound. The heat is building up rapidly inside the cabin, too.
The unbalanced spacecraft spirals and shudders, rotating as it falls. G-forces become even more intense than during the ascent. Gagarin fears he’ll lose consciousness.
“Swallow here. G-forces rising, ship rotating at high speed,” he reports, his voice shaking, as he tries with all his might to stay focused.
But there are no reassuring messages from Ground Control. Since Vostok 1 is now highly ionized due to the atmospheric heating, all radio waves are blocked out.
Finally, the hot atmosphere burns through, and snaps, the cable holding the two modules precariously together. The cone-shaped equipment module falls away, sending the ball of the space capsule itself spinning at a tangent, making Gagarin even dizzier.
The indicators on the control panel in front of him become fuzzy. His consciousness begins to drift. He grimaces with exertion as everything around him continues to shake, shudder, rattle and blur. The temperature in the interior of the cockpit has soared.
At that moment, he experiences a flashback, remembering the time when he was a sixteen year-old apprentice foundryman at the Lyubertsy Steel Plant in Moscow. He recalls how much he’d loved working with the molten steel, shaping it into something useful. Suddenly, his larger-than-life foreman at the plant, Vladimir Gorinshtein, is shouting at him in the midst of dust, smoke and heat: “Fire is strong, water is stronger than fire, Earth is stronger than water, but man is the strongest of all!”
Gagarin is encouraged by this flash of memory. Finding some hidden strength and regaining some confidence and belief, he focuses on the altitude readings, knowing that each reading will bring him closer to home. He’s digging deep into his psyche. Humans must overcome!