"Поехали!"
Yuri Gagarin
For the 50th anniversary of human spaceflight, I'm posting here the pictures of two men -- Sergei Korolyov and Yuri Gagarin -- who got us into space. Korolyov was a rocket scientist and developed the rockets which launched the Sputnik satelite and the Vostok manned capsule. Korolyov has a fascinating story, his Wiki bio is well worth a glance. Gagarin was the first human in space, and by all accounts (Western included) he was a thoroughly nice guy as well as a talented pilot.
Korolyov, suffering from heart trouble since 1960, died after an operation in 1966; Gagarin died in a plane crash in 1968.
Sergei Korolyov