Experts screened several hundred candidates for the first launch of a Soviet man into space, and from a final group about forty men were kept back. This first group was presented to the Commissar in-Chief of the Air Force, Marshall Pavel Verchinin in January 1960. On January 11 Pavel Popovich was the first to be officially assigned to the cosmonaut team. I Volynov was the second. The selection of the 20 men - all Air Force or Navy pilots was finalised on 25 February 1960. Of this group, Gagarin was the last man to be selected
For a short while, the cosmonaut-candidates and their wives lived together in a house in Leninsk Prospect their place of work was the M.V. Frunze Central Airport. Close at hand was Zhukovsky Military Air Academy with laboratories, conference rooms and a swiming pool.
The first training session at the M. V. Frunze Central Airport began at 09.00 on 14 M 1960, and this formed their first base until they moved to Zvezdny Gorodok. The Cosmonaut Training Centre was formed in September 1960.
The cosmonaut's working day began at 07.00 with a session of gymnastics, and after breakfast at 08.30, they continued working from 09.00 - 12.00. They attended lectures on medicine (Professor V.I. Yazdovsky), rocket propulsion (Prof M.K. Tikhonra, celestial mechanics (Professor V.l. Sevastyanov), the construction of space' (Professors K.P. Feoktistov and O.G. Makarov), astronomy (a course at Moscow planetarium), and geophysics. Dinner was at 12.30.
The afternoon was devoted to physical training; it consisted of studies of the cosmonauts abilities to withstand diverse factors of spaceflight. They had to undergo several sessions in the isolation chamber (where they were kept for 7 - 10 days), the thermal chamber (where they experienced temperatures of 70° C (158° F) for up to 2 hours), the decompression chamber (where they underwent a simulated altitude of 12000 m), and the centrifuge (where they under, accelerations of up to 10 G). Vestibular training was conducted in part during gymnastic sessions and also involved sessions in a spacecraft (under the direction of Air F Colonel M.L. Gallai). They also learned the principals of radio communications, mechanics of survival equipment at different landing sites, and got used to wearing a spacesuit during their lessons in the centrifuge, catapult-launchings and parachute jumps. They also performed a simulated flight for three days in a mock-up spacecraft using a spacesuit survival systems.
Of the 20 cosmonauts selected, only twelve subsequently made a spaceflight. Eight were unsuccessful, and were removed from the cosmonaut programme during training. No details of these eight have been released. The final fifteen cosmonauts were: Popovich, Shonin, Titov, Volynov, Anatoli, Dmitri, Grigori, Ivan, Mars, Valentin, Valentin 'Dyed' and Valentin Junior and Yuri Gagarin. Of the 15, 13 were members of the CPSU and 5 were in the Komsomol.
The final five cosmonauts had a quick game of chess before the first launch. Gagarin is in the far background centre behind the alarm clock.
One day before the flight, Gagarin did light simulator work, exercise, played chess with his fellow cosmonauts and studied documents and schedules. Although he did no more practice flying he treated himself and Valentina to a stay in the Cosmonauts Hotel, and just before his flight, he went and planted a tree in a special park saying it was a small sapling for his daughter and a big oak for future Soviet generations.
One hour before launch Gagarin said he felt calm and resolute. "Whatever happens, happens." Gagarin said. "My faith now is in Communism and higher technology.
Once suited up for flight, Gagarin rode out to the launch pad in an air-conditioned bus at 4:30 A.M April 12, 1961 whereupon he was launched into space. Gagarin made a single revolution of the earth and after one hour and forty eight minutes returned home.
To Valentina Gagarina, every second of her husband's space flight seemed eternity. "How can I describe to you what it meant for me when I first agreed to become Valentina Gagarina? In the Russian we put an "a" at the end of our husband's name when we marry. It signifies we are part of our husband."
Patronymics are derived from the name of the bearer's father.The Soviet people do not have 'Christian' names as such. In their system a patronymic is used in addition to the surname. The first name is known as the imya, and the second as otchestvo, or patronymic, which is made up of the father's imya plus the suffix, ich, ovich, shyn or evich in the case of males, and -ovna or -evna in the case of females (i.e. Romanovich, Uzvyshyn, Bilyka, Michoustina, Gagarina)
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