THE FIRST MAN IN SPACE WAS RUSSIAN Yuri Gagarin was a fine choice by any standards – a farm kid with background not much different from my own. Fate had determined that I would be the USAF medical doctor charged with the responsibility of interpretating the biotelemetry emanating from Vostok One on 12 April 1961 as it carried Gagarin on a southeast course after his launch at Baikonur near the Aral Sea. Today it is known as the Baikonur Cosmodrome but in 1961 its location was secret and so were our monitoring facilities, so sophisticated that I could get the biodata almost as fast as the Soviet ground controllers received it. I already had experienced the pleasure of reading the biodata from Laika, launched in November 1957. And to think I actually got paid for this job of mine. It was so fascinating I would gladly have paid them. Vostok One, at an altitude of some 90 nautical miles and with orbital parameters of plus and minus 94 degrees to the equator, would carry Gagarin on a path just east of the Black Sea, over the Suez Canal and across Africa to the Cape of Good Hope then around Cape Horn of South America before passing over the Pacific Ocean and beginning descent to return to Russia, some 90 minutes after launch. Whereas the Soviet cosmonauts launched out of Baikonur would routinely overfly all of the populated areas of North America and Europe, our astronauts launched from Cape Kennedy would have orbital parameters of plus and minus 32 degrees to the equator dictating that we would overfly only the southernmost edge of the Soviet Union. Gagarin’s bioinstrumentation was more extensive than ours consisting of: Two leads of electrocardiogram – a horizontal lead from one axilla to the other and a vertical lead from the top of the sternum to the bottom. A respiration monitor consisted of a graphite filled rubber tube that changed in resistance when stretched. Traditional arm cuff blood pressure recorder with automatic and manual override actuation. Galvanic skin response taken from the sole of one foot to record fluctuations in emotional status. Precordial vibrocardiogram measured accelerations in the chest induced by underlying heart motion. Leads across the frontal cortex monitored brain wave activity. He proved beyond any doubt that man could function in weightlessness. He ate and drank and tested his ability to move his extremities and to write his name, noting no discrepancies. Whereas nothing was known of this young man before his historic mission, soon after recovery he became an international figure. Fate had determined that several years later our paths would cross in Florence, where the committee on space exploration (COSPAR) was having an annual meeting. I would meet this charismatic figure there in person rather than through biotelemetry. As Director of Analysis of Soviet Bioastronautics I attended this meeting because of my published research in space medicine - my wearing of two hats, so to speak. The Soviet delegation welcomed me and soon guided me to a nearby bookstore where I met this famous man. Not only did we shake hands but when I told him I also had monitored his status during his flight, he gave me the Russian bear hug while other members of the Soviet delegation expressed their delight. They knew my dossier just as I knew theirs and well knew my intelligence role. Now they knew I was also an honest man. For many years after this I received annual St. Nicolas cards from Dr. Oleg Gazenko head of the Soviet delegation and ultimately it was his matreshka doll gift that led me to develop our lower body vacuum device for monitoring cardiovascular status in zero gravity. In retrospect my intelligence activities proved to be far more beneficial to us then to them for they had an early lead and already had learned much. Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin proved to be a perfect choice for the job of poster-boy for the Soviet space program, such a national treasure that he was never again permitted to fly in small aircraft such as small planes or military fighters. The one time he violated this rule proved to be his undoing for the military fighter jet crashed, killing him.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Jul 2013 19:05:44 +0000
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