Noone really knew what a human would experience in space so it was a huge step in the unknown for Yuri and for the whole humankind. Mind, from the seven Vostok spacecraft flights before 1961 only three of them were successful and only two of them actually came back to the Earth. The risk that man was taking was enormous. Not only scientists were unsure if a human would undertake this flight physically but their major concern was if a human would stay sane during and after the flight.
Amazingly enough he managed to keep calm and even joked a lot during his historical flight around the Earth that took 108 minutes. His positive mood helped him to survive through the 10 minutes that he couldn’t communicate with the Mission Control Center while the spacecraft stayed in the shadow of the Earth where no transmission was possible and through another 10 minutes of hell when his landing capsule did not want to separate from the spacecraft.
Space is an exciting topic for anyone from the age of 4 to 100+. There is still so much unknown in space that it is mesmerizing.
So when you are in Moscow don’t miss your chance to visit the Space Museum to see, touch and experience what Russian cosmonauts did.
We offer a Space Museum tour as an extra activity to our Soviet Moscow tour. On the picture: Yuri Gagarin monument, a 42,5-meter high monument made of titan in Moscow