As my memory serves me correctly, he was quite broken up about his close friend who was incinerated upon re-entry in those early days, because his friend had been sounding the safety alarm to deaf ears.
I understand they had to handle Gagarin quite carefully after that, since he was quite bitter for such a public figure.
If you do a web search on Yuri Gagarin, you’ll find several interesting articles.
Love the scene in “The Right Stuff” in which Jeff Goldblum is hauling ass down the hall, disrupts a high-level meeting, and blurts out “It’s Gagarin!”
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Well, the first one to make it back alive.
Valentina Tereshkova is still around.