On the morning of this day, 63 years ago, a number of Western newspapers reported on the first space flight, hours before Gagarin's flight.
The report that "The Soviets launched a man into space and he returned alive to Earth", citing the British communist newspaper Daily Worker (Morning Star since 1966) is published on the front page of the morning edition of Aftenposten on 12 April 1961. The morning edition of the paper is signed off for printing at around three or four in the morning, to be in readers' newsagents and letterboxes at eight o'clock. This means that the British Communists, followed by Norwegian newspapermen, knew about Yuri Gagarin's flight even before he was in space.
As we know, Vostok-1 took off from Baikonur Cosmodrome at 9:07 Moscow time, and landed at 10:55. That is, it turns out that when Yuri Alekseevich was just getting into his spaceship, the British and Norwegian (I think many others in Europe and the USA) printers in the printing houses already knew that the Russians would fly into space and return successfully. Interestingly, the note in this morning's paper is generally dated as "London, 11.april".
Interestingly, La Presse mentioned in its provincial edition that Daily Worker published an article on 11 April in which this official organ of the Communist Party of Great Britain informed its readers that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) had launched a human being in space on 7 April and that this hero had returned to Earth in perfect health. Better yet, the article in question, not to mention that of La Presse, contained a photograph of the cosmonaut, who was certainly not Gagarin. The British daily’s article also contained a drawing of Gagarin’s space capsule.
Here's this issue of the London Daily Worker from Wednesday, 12 April, 1961, which was likely referenced by previous newspapers:
Soviet astronaut circles the earth three times
The first man in space
Back alive - but suffering from effects of his flight
From DENNIS OGDEN. MOSCOW, Tuesday. (note: Tuesday is 11 April 1961)
The Soviet Union has launched the first man into space and brought him back to earth alive, according to well-informed sources here.
The astronaut, said to be the test-pilot son of a top-ranking Soviet aircraft designer, is understood to be suffering after-effects from his flight.
Top aviation medical specialists and leading space scientists are in constant attendance.
The are keeping him under close observation.
As official announcement regarding the flight, said to have taken place on Friday, is expected tomorrow. (note: Friday is 7 April 1961)
Notably, this article does not mention Gagarin's name and features a photo of another man.
Some sources identify this photo as
Vladimir Ilyushin, a test pilot and son of
Sergei Ilyushin, the head of one of the world's most famous aircraft design bureaus.
This British newspaper report is mentioned in the book "
Soviet Space Bluff" by Soviet dissident
Leonid Vladimirov, who headed a department in the magazine "Knowledge is Power" that year:
On the morning of 12 April 1961, on my way to the editorial office, I bought the only foreign newspaper in English available to Soviet citizens, the London-based Daily Worker (now Morning Star), at a Moscow street kiosk. On the front page, a huge headline announced that the Soviet Union had launched a man into space.
A crowd immediately gathered around me and demanded that I translate. With great difficulty I began to retell a long report from the Daily Worker correspondent Dennis Ogden from.... Moscow.
Mr Ogden wrote that a spaceship with a man on board had made three revolutions around the earth and landed on Soviet territory; that the cosmonaut was "the son of a famous Soviet aircraft designer"; that he had returned from space seriously ill and the best Kremlin doctors were gathered at his bedside.
"Is it a lie?", "It can't be!" -- shouted all around. There was no report in the Soviet newspapers for that day.
After the official TASS report, the
Norwegian Aftenposten in the evening edition of the same day, 12 April, reported already about Yuri Gagarin's flight, and the
British Daily Worker in the next day's edition.
It is worth noting that the first capitalist country Gagarin visited a few months after his flight was Great Britain. The cosmonaut personally met with the Queen, and after that
gave an interview on British television. Remarkably, by then, the modern image of the Vostok spacecraft was still lurking (or had yet to take shape), and was markedly different from the current one, or even the one originally shown by the Daily Worker.
Tom Margerison, a British science journalist and founder of New Scientist magazine, asked Gagarin about this, but the cosmonaut gave him a vague and uncertain answer:
Margerison: "If we could talk just for a moment about the spacecraft itself, was the cabin on view of the Tushino Air Show, the one up there on the board that's behind you was that the actual Vostok?"
Gagarin: "The cabin in Tushino at the air show was not shown, the whole spacecraft complex was shown."
Translator: "The capsule as such is not shown but the whole space ship was shown at Tushino."
Translator to Gagarin: "Was it the same one or the same model?"
Gagarin: "I find it difficult whether it was the same one or a different one, or a different model of this spaceship, but it was..."
Translator: " As to the other part of your question. I can't say exactly whether it was the exact same space ship or an exact replica."
Margerison: "Could you give us some idea what it's like to be in this space shop, how much room you have in it?"
Translator to Gagarin: "Spacious to be in a spaceship like that, how did you approximately feel, was there a lot of room for you?"
Gagarin: "Yes, it was very spacious in the cockpit of the spaceship. Much more spacious than in the cabin of an aeroplane."
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