MOSCOW: Major Yuri Gagarin, the first man to conquer space, said yesterday he worked on his notes, and even ate and drank while objects were floating around in his weightless earth-girdling rocket.Talking to Soviet news agency TASS in his first full-scale interview after the remarkable flight, the Russian cosmonaut described an eerie situation in the spaceship when weightlessness took over. The entire flight, he asserted, was “work all the way and particularly in that phase”.
Even so, he said, he felt “excellent” during that phase of his 108-minute flight round the world from 100 to 188 miles high.
His remarks were the first to emphasise that the cosmonaut was more than just a passenger aboard the 4.5-ton capsule.
Gagarin said all his thoughts and feelings were directed to the fulfillment of the programme of the flight.
Meanwhile, feverish preparations were being made in Moscow to welcome the space hero when he arrives here tomorrow. A whole brigade of painters is busy giving finishing touches to huge portraits of Gagarin which are to set up across the city, especially along the route which the planned procession will take.
It is being suggested that Soviet Premier Khrushchev will cut short his holiday to return to the capital to personally greet the cosmonaut.
Izvestia newspaper reported from its special correspondent who was sent to the site of the landing, that the first man in history to voyage into outer space did not wait for the helicopter which was flying to remove him from the cabin in which had returned from its unprecedented journey.
Instead, he defected himself from his special seat and walked towards the villagers who held out their hands and embraced him. The helicopter arrived shortly afterwards, Izvestia said.
An official decree, signed by Soviet Defence Minister Radian Malinovasky, was issued yesterday, stating that the military rank of ‘major’ had been granted as an exceptional measure to “First Lieutenant Yuri Gagarin”, TASS reported.Prof Alexander Topchiev, Vice-President of the Soviet Science Assembly, upon arrival in New York last night by air from Moscow flatly denied all rumours that one or several men had died in earlier Soviet space probing attempts.—Agencies