Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin (9 March 1934 - 27 March 1968), was a Soviet cosmonaut. On 12 April 1961, he became the first human in space and the first to orbit the Earth. He received medals from around the world for his pioneering tour in outer space. Gagarin died in a crash during a routine training flight in 1968.
Yuri Alekseyevich was a Soviet cosmonaut in the early 1960s. Like many human astronauts in the early days of space flight, he was a casual acquaintance with other astronauts of the various space-faring nations. One of these acquaintances was AmericanGlen Johnson.[1] Johnson and Yuri were idly chatting in the Race's language when nuclear missiles launched from an unidentified satellite destroyed a dozen starships of the Race's Colonization Fleet.[2] Prior to the launch, Yuri had been defending himself against Johnson's claims that Soviet space shuttles did not require much in the way of pilot input and that Yuri was therefore superfluous on the flight.[3]
Literary comment
While Yuri Alekseyevich's surname isn't given, his description matches Gagarin.