The photographs of Yuri Gagarin returning to Earth after his space flight show him wearing only a regular warm coat. So what happened?
In front of the members of the state commission after his successful space flight and becoming a legend, Yuri Gagarin did not forget to mention a very important detail: “I took a few pictures. At that time, I had removed the outer layer. I was only wearing the blue thermal suit – no pictures were taken with the orange and gray layers along with the helmet. The space suit was put away.”
And the truth is just as he said. In all the photos after the landing, the astronaut is seen wearing a warm coat similar to the typical vatnik (the warm suit that prisoners in Soviet labor camps often wore). In fact, Gagarin was wearing the V-3 thermal suit underneath the space suit. However, the space suit does not appear in any of the photographs. So why did he need to hide that suit?
Yuri Gagarin. (Photo: Sputnik).
Debate Over the Space Suit
A heated debate erupted around whether the first person to fly into space needed to wear a space suit. How would he wear such a suit on such a perilous journey?
This may sound silly, but some experts seriously considered sending Yuri Gagarin into space in just a thermal suit and nothing else. That suit could protect Gagarin in case of a water landing or against the cold; however, it would be useless if the spacecraft experienced a depressurization in space.
In February 1960, the designers of the Vostok spacecraft realized they were facing a serious problem with overall mass and were forced to find ways to reduce weight and eliminate as much equipment as possible. However, many believed that the likelihood of the spacecraft experiencing depressurization was very low, so a space suit would only add unnecessary weight.
The debate over whether the astronaut needed a space suit continued until the summer of 1960, and ultimately “the father of the Soviet spacecraft” Sergey Korolev made the final decision. Korolev stated that he was willing to “sacrifice 500 kg of the ship’s weight” if a life-support system for the space suit could be ready by the end of that year.
With only 8 months remaining before the flight, Soviet engineers created the first space suit in history – the SK-1.
The First Space Suit in History
The engineers chose the shortest path, using the Su-9 Vorkuta fighter pilot suit as a foundation, with the life-support system and oxygen supply being crucial components.
The SK-1 is a “soft” space suit, consisting of multiple layers of material. The first layer consists of lavsan and polyethylene terephthalate – a type of thermoplastic. This was the latest material at the time, developed by the Institute of Science in 1949. Lavsan was used to reinforce the suit (today this material is used to make plastic bottles).
The second layer is made of rubber. The outermost layer that everyone can see is the waterproof orange layer. The orange color was used to make rescue efforts easier in case the astronaut had to escape the cabin and land by parachute.
The helmet is fitted with a pressure sensor. In the event of depressurization, the helmet will automatically seal, while the soft tube used to regulate the inside of the suit with air from the spacecraft will automatically disconnect. In that case, air is supplied from an accompanying oxygen tank.
Of course, walking in space in such a suit is completely impossible, but the astronaut can stay inside the spacecraft cabin for up to 5 hours without support from the ship’s systems.
The SK-1 was custom-designed to fit the measurements of the first Soviet astronaut team, weighing 20 kg. The astronaut could not wear this suit without assistance. There were specific instructions on the order to put it on, such as from feet to hands and other steps. However, the wearer could remove the suit without assistance.
Gagarin wore multiple layers of clothing: a base layer, followed by an insulation layer, a lavsan layer, then a rubber layer, and finally – the orange outer shell. But what was the reason for the Soviet Union’s strict regulation to hide this suit from cameras?
The Man on a Secret Mission
The answer is simply the need for secrecy. The space suit was regarded as a great invention of the Soviet Union. At the peak of the space race with the United States, the materials and methods for manufacturing the space suit were state secrets. The orange outer shell was designed to conceal the inner layers from public view.
Ota Bakhramov is one of the space suit designers. (Photo: Sputnik).
Yuri Gagarin was ordered to take every possible step to eliminate the space suit by either hiding it or destroying it completely, regardless of where the landing occurred. To ensure this could be accomplished, one of the space suit designers, Ota Bakhramov, was sent to assist. On April 12, 1961, only a small group was sent to carry out the secret mission.
According to the plan, Bakhramov would take the suit from Gagarin or the rescue team leader right at the landing site. That day, this engineer appeared in some photos with Gagarin. The tall man wearing a soft hat and a long coat made the townspeople of Engels think he was a security officer or bodyguard, tasked with ensuring the safety of the national hero. But the truth is that Bakhramov was only there to retrieve the space suit.
