Yuri Gagarin, Soviet Cosmonaut Signed Post Card

A handsome matte color post card of Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968), wearing his Soviet Air Force uniform without the cap. Gagarin signed the card  along the left edge. In near fine condition, with light even toning. 4" x 6".

Yuri Gagarin was the first human to travel to outer space. The trained air force pilot and officer was handpicked in 1960 to test into the new Soviet space program. He later became one of the program’s top candidates, called the Sochi 6. Gagarin’s psychological and physical endurance, as well as his small statue (5’2”), made him an ideal candidate for future space missions. Gagarin broke records when he successfully manned the Vostok I space capsule into outer space on April 12, 1961. He made a full orbit around Earth lasting 108 minutes before parachuting into the atmosphere at 23,000 feet.

Soviet aeronautics may have been advanced enough to send a man to space, but it was still extremely dangerous. Gagarin was the backup crew for the April 1967 Soyuz I mission in which fellow cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov (1927-1967) died. On March 27, 1968, Gagarin himself was killed when a two-seater MiG-15 fighter jet he was flying with Vladimir Seryogin, crashed outside a small town near Moscow during a routine training flight.

Gagarin’s Vostok I 1961 mission clenched a Soviet victory in the Space Race, a symbolic reiteration of the Cold War. The Americans responded with their own manned orbital space flight ten months later.

WE PROVIDE IN-HOUSE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE