Yuri Gagarin

On April 12, 1961, as his rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Yuri Gagarin called out, "Poyekhali!" — "Let's go!" One hundred and eight minutes later, after a single orbit of the Earth, he parachuted into a field near the Volga River, the first human being to travel into space. A farmer and her granddaughter were the first people to see him after he landed, a man in an orange suit and white helmet walking toward them across a field.

He was born in the village of Klushino, west of Moscow, on the night of March 8 to 9, 1934, according to his mother. Since the exact time is unknown, his rising sign and houses are uncertain, but the planets give a clear picture. His Sun is in Pisces, with Mercury and Mars also in Pisces. Pisces is the sign of the boundless and the transcendent, of dissolving limits and reaching beyond the ordinary world. Few acts could be more Piscean than leaving the planet itself.

His childhood was hard. His parents worked on a collective farm, and during the Second World War German troops occupied the village. The family was forced out of their house and lived in a dugout, and two of his siblings were deported to Germany as forced laborers. Afterward he trained as a foundry worker and joined a flying club, which led him to military flight school in Orenburg. There he met Valentina Goryacheva, whom he married in 1957.

His Moon is in Sagittarius, the sign of the explorer and the long journey. A Sagittarius Moon needs freedom and horizons, and it finds emotional fulfillment in adventure. Gagarin's cheerful, open warmth, with his famous wide smile, made him an ideal public face for the Soviet space program.

Venus and Saturn are both in Aquarius, the sign most associated with science, technology and the future. In 1960 he was selected as one of twenty candidates for the first group of cosmonauts. He was chosen for the first flight partly for his calm under pressure and partly for his size; at about 1.57 meters tall, he fit easily into the cramped Vostok capsule.

After the flight he became one of the most famous people on Earth, touring the world as a hero and a symbol of Soviet achievement. Uranus in Aries, a placement of sudden breakthroughs and pioneering firsts, suits a man whose name became synonymous with being first.

Because he was considered too valuable to risk, he was kept from returning to space, though he continued to train. On March 27, 1968, he died when the MiG-15 training jet he was flying with his instructor crashed near the town of Kirzhach. He was thirty-four. His hometown of Gzhatsk was renamed Gagarin in his honor.

The Pisces Sun dreamed beyond the edge of the world, and the Sagittarius Moon wanted the longest journey possible. Gagarin got to make it first.