Yuri Gagarin was a childhood hero for many, he represented the excitement and the adventure for many people around the world at the leading edge of the race into space, the stuff of dreams, he represented all that was good in the human makeup, the need for knowledge, excitement, exploration, he made the spirit of “Where no man has gone before” so relevant and so true before the phrase was used by Gene Roddenberry in Star Trek in 1966.

From 6:00 GMT April 12th to 6:00 GMT April 14th

x4 RP gain for the first victory for all nations

-20% for purchase of all jet aircraft

-20% for crews accelerated training for Golden Eagles

Rewards for the following achievements increased:

+20% Silver Lions for the "First Strike"

+50% Silver Lions for the "Final blow"

Gagarin was born in the small village of Klushino, near Gzhatsk (renamed Gagarin in 1968 after his death) on the 9th of March 1934, he was forced to live, with his family, in a small mud hut in the back garden of the Gagarin residence whilst German officers lived in the main house during the occupation of of Klushino during the German advance on Moscow in November 1941.

Yuri was a “foundryman” in Moscow in 1950. After graduating from technical school in 1955, the Soviet Army drafted Gagarin he eventually soloed in a MiG-15 in 1957. In 1960, Yuri Gagarin was chosen with 19 other pilots for the Soviet space program.

On the morning of 12 April 1961, at 5:30 a.m. Moscow time (2:30 UTC), cosmonauts Yuri Gagarin and his backup Gherman Titov were woken in their hut at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. They had breakfast, were helped into their spacesuits, and then were transported to the launch pad. Gagarin entered the Vostok 1 spacecraft and at 07:10 local time, radio communication system was activated.

At 09.07 (after some technical difficulties with the hatch) Launch occurs from the Baikonur Cosmodrome Site No.1. control radioed,

"Preliminary stage..... intermediate..... main..... LIFT OFF! We wish you a good flight. Everything is all right." Gagarin replied, "Poyekhali! (Off we go!)."

Vostok 1 passed over the Kamchatka peninsula and out over the North Pacific Ocean. Gagarin calls,

"...the lights are on on the descent mode monitor. I'm feeling fine, and I'm in good spirits. Cockpit parameters: pressure 1; humidity 65; temperature 20; pressure in the compartment 1; first automatic 155; second automatic 155; pressure in the retro-rocket system 320 atmospheres..."

Vostok 1 is still 7 km from the ground when the hatch of the spacecraft is opened, two seconds later Gagarin ejects in his seat to leave the capsule. At 2.5 km altitude, the main parachute is released from the Vostok spacecraft.

At 11:05 Gagarin lands using his own parachute, which opened immediately after ejecting from the spacecraft ten minutes earlier. Both he and the spacecraft landed 26 km south west of Engels, in the Saratov region.

Two schoolgirls witnessed the Vostok 1 capsule falling to the ground and describe the scene:

"It was a huge ball, about two or three metres high. It fell, then it bounced and then it fell again. There was a huge hole where it hit the first time."

A farmer and her daughter watched the strange sight of a figure in a bright orange suit with a large white helmet landing near them by parachute.

Gagarin later recalled,

"When they saw me in my spacesuit and the parachute dragging alongside as I walked, they started to back away in fear. I told them, 'Don't be afraid, I am a Soviet like you, who has descended from space and I must find a telephone to call Moscow!'"

Yuri Gagarin died On 27 March 1968, while on a routine training flight from Chkalovsky Air Base, he and flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin died in a MiG-15UTI crash near the town of Kirzhach. The bodies of Gagarin and Seryogin were cremated and the ashes were buried in the walls of the Kremlin on Red Square.

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