Morning came. The sun rose over the horizon, and in the awakening, boundless steppeland of Kazakhstan, at the Baikonur cosmodrome, lit up the contours of buildings, the launching pad, the power transmission pylons and the directional antennae... The first rays of the sun also penetrated the windows of a small cottage in which, still asleep, lay a man whose name the whole world was to know in a few hours' time... A doctor entered the quiet room and shook the shoulder of the sleeper, who opened his eyes and smiled. Then, jumping to his feet, the future cosmonaut went through his morning exercises and unhurriedly began to dress, as if for a normal working day... In the laboratory, which was also housed in the cottage, he underwent yet one more medical check-up. At six o'clock there was a meeting of the State Commission. It was brief: the cosmonaut and the ship were pronounced ready for the flight.