now known to be in a stable orbit; Gagarin acknowledged. 06:57 Vostok 1 was over the South Pacific between New Zealand and Chile as Gagarin radioed, "...I'm continuing the flight, and I'm over America. I transmitted the telegraph signal "ON". 07:00 Vostok 1 crossed the Strait of Magellan at the tip of South America. News of the Vostok 1 mission was broadcast on Radio Moscow. 07:04 Gagarin sent another spacecraft status message, similar to the one at 06:48. This was not received by ground stations. 07:09 Gagarin sent another spacecraft status message, also not received by ground stations. 07:10 Vostok 1 passed over the South Atlantic, into daylight again. At this point, retrofire is 15 minutes away. 07:13 Gagarin sent a fourth spacecraft status message; Moscow received this partial message: "I read you well. The flight is going...." 07:18 Gagarin sent another spacecraft status message, not received by ground stations. 07:23 Gagarin sent another spacecraft status message, not received by ground stations. The automatic orientation system brought Vostok 1 into alignment for retrofire about 1 hour into the flight. Reentry and landing At 07:25 UTC, the spacecraft's automatic systems brought it into the required attitude (orientation) for the retrorocket firing, and shortly afterwards, the liquid-fueled engine fired for about 42 seconds over the west coast of Africa, near Angola, about uprange of the landing point. The orbit's perigee and apogee had been selected to cause reentry due to orbital decay within 13 days (the limit of the life support system function) in the event of retrorocket malfunction. However, the actual orbit differed from the planned and would not have allowed descent until 20 days. Ten seconds after retrofire, commands were sent to separate the Vostok service module from the reentry module (code name "little ball" ()), but the equipment module unexpectedly remained attached to the reentry module by a bundle of wires. At around 07:35 UTC, the two parts of the spacecraft began reentry and went through strong gyrations as Vostok 1 neared Egypt. At this point the wires broke, the two modules separated, and the descent module settled into the proper reentry attitude. Gagarin telegraphed "Everything is OK" despite continuing gyrations; he later reported that he did not want to "make noise" as he had (correctly) reasoned that the gyrations did not endanger the mission (and were apparently caused by the spherical shape of the reentry module). As Gagarin