Yuri Gagarin 'concerned about sausages before space trip'

In fact, the detail was among more than 700 pages of once-secret material linked to the life and times of the world's first spaceman that were released by Russia ahead of the April 12 anniversary.

The files have revealed the conversation Gagarin had while strapped into his capsule with chief rocket designer Sergei Korolyov, the father of the Soviet rocket programme, 'The Daily Telegraph' reported.

One of Korolyov's biggest worries appeared to be that the would-be hero had enough to eat once he touched down on Earth. "There in the flap you have dinner, supper and breakfast," he told Gagarin by radio as the clock ticked down.

"Got it," Gagarin replied.

"You've got sausage, candy and jam to go with the tea," Korolyov went on. "Sixty-three pieces -- you'll get fat! When you get back today, eat everything right away."

Gagarin joked back: "The main thing is that there is sausage -- to go with the moonshine."

Gagarin was the first human to journey into outer space when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on April 12, 1961. He died when a training jet he was piloting crashed in Russia in 1968.