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April 12, 2011
Yuri Gagarin and Vostok 1: Fifty Years Later
On April 12, 1961, 27 year old Cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin climbed into his Vostok 1 capsule for man's first flight into outer space.
His flight would last 1 hour and 48 minutes, during which time he made one orbit of the earth. Although animals had been sent into space, no one was really sure whether a person would function normally, let alone survive. As such, the locked his controls, and the entire flight was controlled from the ground. Gagarin was given the capability of unlocing the the controls, but was instructed only to do so in an emergency.
What an incredibly brave man.
It is good that we should take time today to remember what he did. It is no contradiction to hold both that the Soviet Union that sent him was an Evil Empire while honoring the man and his mission.
Off into the unknown, on top of a rocket and in a capsule that we would regard as frighteningly primitive today. Your most basic scientific calculator has more calculating power than everything he and the control center had put together. Worse, it was all done in a rush, as the political pressure to beat the Americans was intense.
While doing my usual database thing at work today I watched a film of Gagarin's trip made by First Orbit:
Today it is 50 years since Yuri Gagarin climbed into his space ship and was launched into space. It took him just 108 minutes to orbit Earth and he returned as the World's very first space man.To mark this historic flight we have teamed up with the astronauts onboard the International Space Station to film a new view of what Yuri would have seen as he travelled around the planet.
Weaving these new views together with historic voice recordings from Yuri's flight and an original score by composer Philip Sheppard, we have created a spellbinding film to share with people around the World on this historic anniversary.
At 1:39:15, then, the film is almost exactly the same length as Gagarin's flight. Better, the Russian authorities have released the entire transcript of what Gagarin and the controllers said, and this has been incorporated into the film. Set aside some time and watch it.
Posted by Tom at April 12, 2011 8:30 PM
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Comments
Tom,
Yuri Gargarin was only 5'2" tall and was endowed w/ a fabulous smile. He died on March 27, 1968 age age 35 when his MIG 15 crashed on a training flight.
The first Russian name I learned as kid was Nikita Khrushchev. The second was Yuri Gargarin.
TLGK
Posted by: The Loop Garoo Kid at April 14, 2011 10:40 PM
