Russia today published for the first time the photos of the place of the plane crash in which the first cosmonaut in history, Yuri Gagarintragedy of which today marks 55 years.
In the photos you can see the remains of the fuselage of the MiG-15 aircraft piloted by Gagarin on March 27, 1968 in the Vladimir region, not far from Moscow.
The images have been published on its website by the Russian State Archive of Scientific-Technical Documentation.
Gagarin, who was 34 years old at the time, killed himself along with the test pilot, Vladimir Seroginafter taking off from the Chkalovsky airfield.
The training was supposed to last twenty minutes, but after twelve Gagarin requested permission to return to the base.
However, a minute later his plane plunged to the ground, an accident that a government commission considered a human error, not a mechanical one.
Since then, the Soviets and Russians have considered all kinds of explanations, such as that another plane, a flock of birds or a meteorological probe collided with Gagarin’s device, or even the loss of airtightness in the cabin.
“The most probable cause of the catastrophe was a sudden maneuver to avoid a trial balloon”, said Alexandr Stepanov, head of the Kremlin archives, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the cosmonaut’s death (2021).
The secret report of November 1968 notes that “the abrupt maneuver led to the entry of the plane into a critical state of flight and its crash in adverse weather conditions.”
The commission’s declassified reports also point to “the least probable cause” of the accident occurring when Gagarin was trying to avoid entering a cloud layer.
Others continue to believe that Gagarin’s death was the result of a conspiracy orchestrated by the Soviet authorities.
Roscosmos has also denied that Gagarin or other Soviet cosmonauts had seen or had contact with unidentified flying objects (UFOs) from other planets.
Gagarin became the first man to fly in space on April 12, 1961 when going around the Earth.
“My father set off into the unknown with a 50/50 chance of returning. What does 50% mean? That he could either return or not ”, he commented at the time to efe his daughter Yelena, director of the Kremlin museums.
Declassified Soviet documents show that the authorities feared that an accident would take place, that Gagarin would die or lose his mind. Even the father of Soviet cosmonautics, Sergei Korolevprepared food for him three times around the Earth, given the possibility of a technical failure.
Gagarin himself, aware of the risk he was running, wrote a letter to his wife in which he gave her permission to remarry, although he also stated in his will: “I totally believe in technique. It must not fail.”
The instructions contemplated the possibility of catapulting 40 seconds after takeoff, although the previous two test launches with dogs had been successful.
Three official versions of what happened were also prepared, although, finally, the dispatch released by the agency TASS reported the “successful return of man from the first space flight.”
Gagarin returned safely and the Soviet Union achieved one of its greatest victories during the Cold War. The United States would overtake it in the following years in the space race, but the Kremlin struck first.
(With information from EFE)
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Source-www.infobae.com