Was the first man in space, Soviet astronaut Yuri Gagarin, a cyborg created in 1961 and then recycled for scrap in 1968? No, that's not true: Gagarin is a historical figure and was a real human being, as evidenced by archival photos, video footage, historical records and countless people who met him in person. In 1961, the year mentioned in the claim, technology was not sophisticated enough to create robots, cyborgs or hyper-realistic body parts.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok by @flatearthbulgaria on January 29, 2024, with the caption (translated from Bulgarian to English by Lead Stories staff):
Yuri Gagarin is a fake matrix personality. You can look up what his code name 'Gaga' means. This one didn't even exist. He was a cyborg made in 1961 and recycled for scrap in 1968. His 'death' makes it clear that he was an actor playing a role. His entire Wiki bio is fake.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Mon Feb 5 10:24:43 2024 UTC)
The claim was made on a TikTok channel that supports the belief in the Flat Earth (archived here) conspiracy theory. The way the claim is presented suggests that Gagarin was not a real person but a cyborg. According to Britannica, the term cyborg refers to a form of cybernetic organism, a hybrid between human and machine, or an organism with synthetic parts, including electronic and mechanical components that enhance the organism.
The post on TikTok offers no evidence to support its claim that Gagarin was created to deceive the public about human spaceflight. Sixty-three years after Gagarin's flight, modern technology has not yet achieved (archived here) the creation of robots with a hyper-realistic appearance that would be indistinguishable from a real person.
Gagarin was officially recognized worldwide (archived here) as the first person to fly in space. According to a publication (archived here) on the website of The European Space Agency (ESA), Gagarin was one of 20 people selected to undergo a series of tests during which he was selected to be the first man in space.
Documentary archival documents and photographs, seen here (archived here) and here (archived here), showing Gagarin during the selection process, medical tests and examinations. Some of the photos show him before his selection as the first man in space, including from his childhood and youth. These, along with eyewitness accounts of individuals who saw his landing and spoke to him, prove that Gagarin existed before 1961 and that he was a real person.
He died on March 27, 1968, with the official cause listed as a jet crash (archived here) during a routine training flight.
