To the Moon and Back chapter sampler

The First Man in Space

Would the force of gravity (the G-force) be even stronger on the way down? Would he survive it? No- one knew. The retro-rockets fired. It was time for the protective capsule to break away from the control module. But the cable connecting them was stuck fast. The spacecraft began to spin out of control! The capsule got hot, and even hotter. Gagarin could hear the metal cracking in the heat. He was re-entering the atmosphere. While this was happening he could not speak to Ground Control, nor could they talk to him. Then suddenly the cable burst into flames and disintegrated in the friction of Earth’s atmosphere. Gagarin saw great tongues of flame through the porthole. It was even hotter now. The capsule vibrated violently. The pressure on his body was so great that every muscle screamed with pain. His vision became blurred. When the pain eased he could see again. Outside the porthole he saw blue sky. An orange light on the control panel told Gagarin to prepare for landing. Suddenly the hatch was blown off automatically by Ground Control operators. The spacecraft’s parachutes opened above him. Gagarin was supposed to be ejected automatically from the capsule too, but he pressed the ‘eject’ button himself, in case the automatic controls didn’t work in the madly spinning craft.

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