Editing Vostok 1 (section)

==Preparations==
[[File:Vostok spacecraft.jpg|right|thumb|Model of the Vostok spacecraft with its upper stage, on display in [[Frankfurt Airport]]'s "Russia in Space" exhibition]]
Unlike later Vostok missions, there were no dedicated [[tracking ship]]s available to receive signals from the spacecraft. Instead they relied on the network of ground stations, also called Command Points, to communicate with the spacecraft; all of these Command Points were located within the [[Soviet Union]].<ref>Hall and Shayler, p.148-149</ref>

Because of weight constraints, there was no backup [[retrorocket]] engine. The spacecraft carried 13 days of provisions to allow for survival and natural [[orbital decay]] in the event the retrorockets failed.<ref name="rusbereza.ru">{{Cite web |title="Тогда Юра вернулся на землю не из космоса, а с того света!.." |trans-title="Then Yura returned to earth not from space, but from the other world!.." |url=https://rusbereza.ru/gazeta/7240 |language=ru}}</ref> The provisions included food for Gagarin. As focus was made on food that would not form crumbs, Gagarin was provided with liver meat puree and chocolate sauce, packed in metal toothpaste-style tubes.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kendall |first=Dan |date=2020-01-15 |title=A bite sized history of food in space |url=https://spacecentre.co.uk/blog-post/a-bite-sized-history-of-space-food/ |website=[[National Space Centre]]}}</ref>

The letters "СССР" were hand-painted onto Gagarin's helmet by engineer Gherman Lebedev during transfer to the launch site. As it had been less than a year since [[1960 U-2 incident|U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers was shot down]], Lebedev reasoned that without some country identification, there was a small chance the cosmonaut might be mistaken for a spy on landing.<ref name="sssr">{{cite news |title=Откуда взялась надпись СССР на шлеме Гагарина?⁠⁠ |trans-title=Where did the writing CCCP come from? |url=https://pikabu.ru/story/otkuda_vzyalas_nadpis_sssr_na_shleme_gagarina_4193397 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170115024750/http://pikabu.ru/story/otkuda_vzyalas_nadpis_sssr_na_shleme_gagarina_4193397 |archive-date=January 15, 2017 |access-date=October 12, 2017 |language=ru |df=mdy-all}}</ref>

===Automatic control===
[[File:Vostokpanel.JPG|thumb|right|Part of the Vostok 1 instrument panel prominently displaying the [[Voskhod Spacecraft "Globus" IMP navigation instrument|"Globus" navigation instrument]]]]
The entire mission would be controlled by either automatic systems or by [[Mission control center|ground control]]. This was because medical staff and spacecraft engineers were unsure how a human might react to weightlessness, and therefore it was decided to lock the pilot's manual controls. In an unusual move, a code to unlock the controls was placed in an onboard envelope, for Gagarin's use in case of emergency.{{r|siddiqi2000}}{{Reference page|page=278}} Prior to the flight, Kamanin and others told Gagarin the code (1-2-5) anyway.<ref name=oleg>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11111713/Oleg-Ivanovsky-obituary.html#disqus_thread |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140922053533/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11111713/Oleg-Ivanovsky-obituary.html |archive-date=2014-09-22 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Oleg Ivanovsky - obituary |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=September 21, 2014 |access-date=September 25, 2014}}</ref><ref>Burgess and Hall, p.156</ref>

===11 April 1961===
[[File:Electrocardiogram of Gagarin.JPG|thumb|Electrocardiogram of [[Yuri Gagarin|Gagarin]] recorded 11 April 1961, at 19 hours and 35 minutes. Exhibited at the [[Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics]] in Moscow.]]
At Baikonur Cosmodrome on the morning of 11 April 1961, the [[Vostok-K]] rocket, together with the attached ''Vostok 3KA'' space capsule, were transported several kilometers to the launch pad, in a horizontal position. Once they arrived at the launch pad, a quick examination of the booster was conducted by technicians to make sure everything was in order. When no visible problems were found, the booster was erected on LC-1.<ref name="Burgess and Hall, p.150">Burgess and Hall, p.150</ref> At 10:00 ([[Moscow Time]]), Gagarin and Titov were given a final review of the flight plan.<ref name="Burgess and Hall, p.150"/> They were informed that launch was scheduled to occur the following day, at 09:07 Moscow Time. This time was chosen so that when the capsule started to fly over Africa, which was when the retrorockets would need to fire for reentry, the solar illumination would be ideal for the orientation system's sensors.{{r|siddiqi2000}}{{Reference page|page=273}}

At 18:00, once various physiological readings had been taken, the doctors instructed the cosmonauts not to discuss the upcoming missions. That evening Gagarin and Titov relaxed by listening to music, playing pool, and chatting about their childhoods.<ref name="Burgess and Hall, p.151"/> At 21:50, both men were offered sleeping pills, to ensure a good night's sleep, but they both declined.<ref>Burgess and Hall, p.151. During a post-flight press conference on April 15, Alexander Nesmeyanov claimed that Gagarin took a sleeping pill. Also, Siddiqi, p.273, claims that they were both asleep at 21:30 when Korolev came to visit them, but Burgess and Hall, p.151, says Korolev spoke with them at this time.</ref> Physicians had attached sensors to the cosmonauts, to monitor their condition throughout the night, and they believed that both had slept well.<ref>Siddiqi, p.273; In a post-flight press conference, Gagarin also stated that he slept well.</ref> Gagarin's biographers Doran and Bizony say that neither Gagarin nor Titov slept that night.<ref>Burgess and Hall, p.153.</ref> Chief Designer [[Sergei Korolev]] did not sleep that night, due to anxiety caused by the imminent spaceflight.{{r|siddiqi2000}}{{Reference page|page=273}}

===Gagarin statement before the mission===
Before the mission, Gagarin made a statement to the press, addressed to the Soviet Union and to the whole world:

{{Blockquote|Dear friends, both known and unknown to me, fellow countrymen, men and women of all lands and continents!<br>In a few minutes a mighty spaceship will take me into the far-away expanses of the Universe. What can I say to you in these last minutes before the start? I see my whole past life as one wonderful moment. Everything I have experienced and done till now has been in preparation for this moment. You must realise that it is hard to express my feelings now that the test for which we have been training ardently and long is at hand. I don't have to tell you what I felt when it was suggested that I should make this flight, the first in history. Was it joy? No, it was something more than that. Pride? No, it was not just pride. I felt very happy - to be the first in space, to engage in an unprecedented duel with Nature - could one dream of anything greater than that?<br>But then I thought of the tremendous responsibility of being the first to accomplish what generations of people had dreamed of, the first to show man the way into space... Can you think of a task more difficult than the one assigned to me. It is not responsibility to a single person, or dozens of people, or even a collective. It is responsibility to all [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] people, to all mankind, to its present and its future. And if I am nevertheless venturing on this flight, it is because I am a [[Communist]], because I draw strength from unexampled exploits performed by my compatriots, Soviet men and women. I know that I shall muster all my will power the better to do the job. Realising its importance, I will do all I can to carry out the assignment of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]] and the Soviet people.<br>Am I happy to be starting on a space flight? Of course I am. In all times and all eras man's greatest joy has been to take part in new discoveries.<br>I would like to dedicate this first space flight to the people of communism, a society which our Soviet people are already entering, and which, I am confident, all men on earth will enter.<br>It is a matter of minutes now before the start. I say to you good-bye, dear friends, just as people say to each other when setting out on a long journey. I would like very much to embrace you all - people known and unknown to me, close friends and strangers alike.<br>See you soon!<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Gagarin |first1=Yuri |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P180sjRuqi4C&q=%22Dear+friends%2C+both+known+and+unknown+to+me%2C+fellow+countrymen%22&pg=PA15 |title=Soviet Man in Space |publisher=The Minerva Group |year=2001 |isbn=9780898754605 |pages=15}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=ДО СКОРОЙ ВСТРЕЧИ! |trans-title=SEE YOU SOON! |url=https://www.roscosmos.ru/28336/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210401072208/https://www.roscosmos.ru/28336/ |archive-date=2021-04-01 |website=Roscosmos |language=ru}}</ref>|author=Yuri Gagarin}}

In his autobiography, Gagarin recalled that, looking at the spacecraft before start, he was "seized with an unprecedented rise of all mental strength <...> some extraordinary words were born that I had never used before in everyday speech."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Юрий Гагарин: «Вижу землю!» Президентская библиотека – к 90-летию со дня рождения первого космонавта планеты |trans-title=Yuri Gagarin: "I see the earth!" The Presidential Library – on the 90th anniversary of the birth of the first cosmonaut of the planet |url=https://www.prlib.ru/news/1948434?ysclid=luhw25od4m164270514 |access-date=2024-12-25 |website=Presidential Library named after B.N. Yeltsin |language=ru}}</ref> This was not true; according to historian [[Asif Siddiqi]], Gagarin "was essentially forced to utter a stream of banalities prepared by anonymous speechwriters" taped much earlier in Moscow.{{r|siddiqi2000}}{{Reference page|page=274}}