GAGARIN, Yuri.

Дорога в космос. [Road to Space].

Moscow: Military Publishing House of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR , 1961.

$7,500.00

In Stock Item Number: RRB-151157

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First Edition of Road to Space; Inscribed by the First Man in Space Yuri Gagarin

First edition of this autobiographical account by the first man in space, a cosmonaut’s early life, aviation training, and historic 1961 mission aboard Vostok 1. Octavo, written in Russian, original publisher's boards with titles and stars in silver, frontispiece, illustrated with black and white photographs throughout. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, translated it reads in full, "To Valentina Grigorievna, in memory of our meetings at the airfield on March 29, 1962. With respect, Gagarin 29.03.62." In very good condition. Books signed and inscribed by Gagarin are rare.

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin became an international celebrity when his Vostok spacecraft completed the first orbit of Earth on April 12th, 1961. A triumph for the Soviet space program, the flight sparked interest around the globe and mass demonstrations held in Moscow and other major cities throughout the reached a scale second only to the World War II victory parades. Less than one month after Gagarin’s momentous flight, on May 5, 1961, American astronaut Alan Shepard piloted the first American manned spaceflight when he was launched 116 miles above the earth’s surface aboard the Freedom 7 spacecraft.