- MILE HEIGH

Yuri Gagarin, a MajorMakes the Flight in

5 - Ton Vehicle

Text of the Tass statement

is printed on Page 22

By PressInternational.

MOSCOW , Wednesday, Apr12 The SovietUnionannouncetoday it had won the race

put a man into space. T

official press agency, Tass,a man had orbited the earth in

spaceshipand had been broughback alive and safe.

A brief announcement

the first reported space maihad landed in what wasscribed as the " prescribecarea " the Soviet Union after

a historic flight.A radio announce

broke into a program andinemotional tones :

Russia has successful

launched a man into space.name is Yuri Gagarin He waslaunched in a sputnik nameVostok, which means " East."

Reports on Landing

Tass said that, on landing

Major Gagarin said : "

report to the party and Govern

ment, and personally to Nikita

Sergyevich Khrushchev thathe landing was normal, If

well have no injuries

bruises."

He landed at 10:55 A.

Moscow time A. M.

York time ].

Earlier, the major reported:" Flight proceeding normal

ly, I feel well."After orbiting the earth

major applied a braking device.and the vehicle space landed

the Soviet Union , Tass said .

Major Gagarin , 27 years oldis an industrial technician , andmarried He was reported

have received pre- flight traininsimilar to that of the astronautswho will man United States

first space ships.Soared to 187 Miles

The announcer said the Sputnik reached a minimum altitude

175 kilometers (and a maximum altitude of 302kilometers ( 18734 miles ).

He the weight of theSputnik was 10,395 ,

slightly over five tons.

The announcement of the

launching came at 2 A. M. NewYork time.

It said everything functioned

normally during the flightConstant radio contact was

maintained between earth and

the sputnik , the Moscow radiosaid.

The announcer said the duration of each revolution aroundthe earth was 89.1 minutes,

The title of the announcement

was "The First Human Flightinto the Cosmos ."

The radio, which was quotinga Tass press agency statement

on the launching, said that Maj.

ContinuedonPage22, Column

TheNewYork TimesPublished: April 12, 1961

Copyright © The New York Times

POLARIS

ALASKA

Russians Succeed in Orbiting an Astronaut and Returning Him Safely to Earth

SOVIET IN TOUCH Daily WorkerWITH SPACE MAN

Leningrad THE FIRST MAN IN SPACEalive suffering from

B of his

Soviet earth

Successful Launching Yuri

Gagarin in ' East' Sputnik

Announced in

De Gaulle

to

AND RECOVERY RANGEStalingrad km

to beUNION

Irkutsk

KhabarovskTam

Sea STE

Tashkent AtaOUTER

MONGOLLA

AISTAN Six

The New York April 12PROBABLE TRACK : Reported pathof astronaut's flight from launch site atTyura Tam .

United Press International Radiophoto

AN EARLY STORY : Partof the front page of today's Daily Worker of London . TheCommunist paper appeared hours before the official announcement from Moscow .

Continued From Page 1, Col.

Gagarin is feeling well andthat " conditions in the cabin arenormal."

As soon as the Moscow announcement was made,Russiansbegan to telephone congratulations to each other

Thefirst astronaut is a majorthe Soviet Air Force and is

believed to be a test pilot.The Tass announcement said

that the launching of the multistage space rocket, which carried the Sputnik into orbit , wassuccessful

After attaining the first escape velocity, itsaid, and theseparation of the last stage ofthe carrier rocket, the spaceship went into free flight on around-the -earth orbit.

Reports of the launching ofSoviet space man had been

reported repeatedly in Moscowfor the last twenty - four hours.

The London Daily Workerand other sources had said theSoviet Union had sent a man

into space last Friday and had

brought him back aliveMany persons in Moscow

were convinced after today'sannouncement that another

flight into space was attempted on Friday and there wasspeculation that somethingmight have gone wrong.

The announcement of thefirst flight into space was repeated three times ,after which

normal radio program ofmusic was resumed .

The radio also broadcast patriotic songs.

The announcement said the

condition of the navigator wasbeing observed by means of

radio telemetering devices andtelevision .

Major Gagarin , the announcement went on withstood satisfactorily the placing of thesatellite ship into orbit .He's ' You Gah -GAH -Rin

The Soviet Union's man inspace is Maj. Yuri Gagarinpronounced You'ree Gah-GAHrin with the acent on the second syllable of his last name.The New York of Tassofficial Soviet news agency ,gave the pronunciation of hisname.

Sovfoto

FIRST CREATURE TO ORBIT EARTH sentup by Soviet Union on Nov. 3 , 1957. She lived abouta week . The satellite disintegrated after five months .

UnitedPressInternational

SOVIET SPACE SUIT : This official photograph, released in 1958, shows a Soviet

astronauttestingequipmentdesignedto be usedon rocketflights beyondthe atmosphere.

The York TimesPublished : April 12 1961

Copyright © The New York Times