Yuri Gagarin

Sourced

• Облетев Землю в корабле-спутнике, я увидел, как прекрасна наша планета. Люди, будем хранить и приумножать эту красоту, а не разрушать её!
  • Translation: "Orbiting Earth in the spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it!"
  • Russian phrase, handwritten and signed after his historic spaceflight.
  • Quoted in (photo of facsimile): Lebedev L., Romanov A., Luk'ianov B. Syny goluboi planety, 3rd.ed., Moscow,1981 (in Russian) (1st ed. was translated into English: Lebedev, L.A. Sons of the Blue Planet. New Delhi, India: Amerind Pub Co, 1973.)

Attributed

• Поехали!
  • "Let's go!(Поехали! rus.)," in Russian, uttered during the launch of Vostok 1.

• I am a friend, comrades, a friend!
  • First words upon returning to earth, to a woman and a girl near where his capsule landed. (12 April 1961) The woman asked: "Can it be that you have come from outer space?" to which Gagarin replied: "As a matter of fact, I have!"

• What beauty. I saw clouds and their light shadows on the distant dear earth.... The water looked like darkish, slightly gleaming spots.... When I watched the horizon, I saw the abrupt, contrasting transition from the earth's light-colored surface to the absolutely black sky. I enjoyed the rich color spectrum of the earth. It is surrounded by a light blue aureole that gradually darkens, becoming turquiose, dark blue, violet, and finally coal black.

• When they saw me in my space suit and the parachute dragging alongside as I walked, they started to back away in fear. I told them, don't be afraid, I am a Soviet like you, who has descended from space and I must find a telephone to call Moscow! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vostok_1
  • Later recalled by Gagarin about the landing