Yuri Gagarin
Moscow, Russia, ca. 1964
Pioneering Six Russian Cosmonauts Group Signed Photo, Incl. Yuri Gagarin
Signed photograph

A signed group photograph of the first six Russian cosmonauts. Measuring 11.75" x 9", Moscow, n.d. [ca. 1964]. A 3/4 portrait of the six cosmonauts: Yuri Gagarin, Gherman Titov, Andriyan Nikolayev, Pavel Popovich, Valery Bykovsky, and Valentina Tereshkova. Signed at the lower margin by all six in Cyrillic characters. Stamped on verso by a Moscow photography company. The image has toning to the vertical edges and spotting along the left edge, which affects Popovich's signature. Brushing or smudging to the signatures of Titov, Nikolayev, Bykovsky, and Tereshkova. Gagarin's signature is unaffected and bold.

Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968) was the first human to travel to outer space. The trained air force pilot and officer was handpicked in 1960 to test into the new Soviet space program, later becoming one of the program?s top candidates, called the Sochi 6. Gagarin?s psychological and physical endurance, as well as his small statue (5?2?), made him an ideal candidate for future space missions. Gagarin broke records when he successfully manned the Vostok I space capsule into outer space on April 12, 1961. He made a full orbit around Earth lasting 108 minutes before parachuting into the atmosphere at 23,000 feet. Gagarin was later killed in a routine training mission at age 34.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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11.75" x 9"