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Vostok 1 40th Anniversary
ehintz writes "40 years ago today, 4-12-61, Lt. Yuri Gagarin slipped the surly bonds of Earth to become the first man in orbit. His 108 minute flight aboard Vostok 1 from Baikonur Cosmodrome was the stimulus causing Kennedy to make his famous Man on the Moon speech of 5-25-61, resulting in the moon landing of 7-20-69. We owe our comrades thanks for providing the competition that made it happen." ( michael : More links! The APOD notes that this is also the 20th anniversary of the first Shuttle launch. And NASA provides this image of a newspaper front page, which ought to convey the momentous nature of the event to those of us who weren't born at the time.)
How about inventing the internet? I would put the internet at least on par with the printing press in its importance in the evolution of human society. It makes instantaneous global communication effortless to the point that people from arbitrary places in the world can gather at places like Slashdot and share thoughts in a manner far more effective than was possible before the internet's invention. It allows anybody to very easily globally publish their opinions with almost no barrier to entry, whereas before you had to be wealthy enough to own a publishing company or you had to invest a great deal of effort and time in spreading your message (slowly) by word of mouth. It's essentially the printing press with an order of magnitude more ease of use and effectiveness.
Yes, US citizens generally don't have enough world perspective regarding the accomplishments of other countries, but that doesn't mean the US hasn't pulled its own weight in terms of accomplishments.
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It's great that this event is being commemorated. Personally I thought Laika was more photogenic :)
However, it annoys me that Gagarin is remembered but the scientists that made it all possible are all but unknown.
Still, engineers doing all the work and someone else claiming all the credit is the way things always seem to go...
So Hobbs DID admit the 1944 slaying!
Your Working Boy,
- Otis (GAIM: OtisWild)
>The A-Bomb
The A-bomb should not be underemphasized. It was developed at a time when virtually the entire production of the country was devoted to the war effort. For example, during the war, the Japanese managed to produce a handful of ships to replace the ones they lost. America on the other hand, produced thousands and thousands of ships, far outstripping the production of the rest of the world combined.
And, in the middle of that, the Manhattan project was completed. That effort was even greater than the effort required to go to the moon, and we did it with our spare production capacity.
So, I'm not sure what that woman is rambling about.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
Your blurb makes it sound like the only reason getting a man into space was good was because it meant that the Americans decided to put a man on the moon. What ever happened to getting a man into space (and back safely) being an amazing, incredible feat in itself?
Mea culpa. I didn't mean for it to come across that way, but I see how it could. What it comes down to is this: I consider the moon landing to be one of the greatest accomplishments in the history of human kind, and the USSR was the prime motivator behind it. Yuri and the USSR earned their place in history with his flight; not only did they make that amazing feat of their own, they also pushed the envelope of space exploration by their goading of the US. There's no way the US would have done it in '69 without Sputnik and Vostok (and I strongly suspect Kennedy's assassination/martyrdom was also key here).
So, I celebrate both achievements, and appreciate just how closely they were related. And I raise my glass to the USSR and Yuri for both their groundbreaking flight and the resulting impact they had on the US space program. The moon landing almost certainly would not have happened when it did if we were honoring John Glenn as the first in orbit.
Regards,
ehintz
Glerp! I can type, sorry about that aborted post. What I meant to say is that the write up on APOD is a tad biased. IE: Isn't America great, we launched the space shuttle 20 years ago today, oh and btw, some russian dude did something 40 years ago today. Seems a lot of back slapping at NASA.
"On April 12, 1981, twenty years ago today, the Space Shuttle Columbia became the first shuttle to orbit the Earth. In this gorgeous time exposure, flood lights play on the Columbia and service structures (left) as it rests atop Complex 39's Pad A at Kennedy Space Center in preparation for first launch. Flown by Commander John W. Young and Pilot Robert L. Crippen, Colombia spent 2 days aloft on its check-out mission, STS-1, which ended in a smooth landing, airplane-style, at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Ferried back to Kennedy by a modified Boeing 747, Colombia was launched again seven months later on STS-2, becoming the first piloted reuseable orbiter. The oldest operating shuttle, Columbia's 1981 debut was followed by shuttles Challenger in 1982 (destroyed in 1986), Discovery in 1983, Atlantis in 1985, and Challenger's replacement Endeavour in 1991. This shuttle fleet has now accomplished over 100 orbital missions. Today also marks the 40th anniversary of the first human in space, Yuri Gagarin."
yes, www.dotcomforwardslash.com is my real URL.
If "all the worlds governments" are blocking private access to space, this would be a really bone-headed reason to do so. You could do the same thing with an ocean-going ship. Ever notice how many major world cities are coastal cities?
Even a small plane would probably work just fine. Remember those folks landing in Red Square with a Piper Cub or something like that?
And before anyone makes the obvious mistake, no, it's probably not relevant that an SSTO-ish vehicle could get there faster. This is very much a terrorist scenario, in which case it's not as important how long the weapon takes to get there.
Given National pride for your own country - a race starts to get humans in orbit. All the time the military is laughing all the way to the bank since a "civilian" agency is footing the bill to develop the technology.
Why do you think Republicans hated Clinton so much for "giving" rocket technology to the Chinese? (Apart from all the other reasons Clinton was hated by republicans)
To Yuri Gagarin, first human in space. May he be but the first of untold numbers to come to explore the Final Frontier. . .
So it's a stupid tradition. Big deal. But I'll also note that early cosmonauts and astronauts had no relief systems in their suits. As Alan Shepard found out, and as dramatized in "The Right Stuff". . .
Also, check out this page. It's much more general (replies to stuff that wasn't brought up in the Fox special).
Actually, while your at it, check out this site, which reveals that the existence of the moon itself is just a conspiracy! (Yes, it's a spoof).
-- It only takes 20 minutes for a liberal to become a conservative thanks to our new outpatient surgical procedure!
Cheney later clarified the President's remarks. "President Bush and I have a deep and everlasting respect for the great accomplishments that the Russians and former Sovet republics have achieved in the field of space travel," he said while affixing a ball gag to the President.
I know my Karma's going to suffer, but I can't let this go by without a comment.
How can you even begin to compare Russian contributions to America's?
Russian scientific advances, and let's call them what they WERE, Soviet scientific advances, came at the behest of a command and control economy whereby consumers were starved so that Soviet "technology" could compete and shine with America's. Guess what? America created technology AND built a middle class, all at the same time. The Soviets NEVER came anywhere near being able to do both at the same time.
And for 20th century discrimination in America, sure, it happened and still happens. People were denied job opportunities, some people OCCASSIONALY lost their lives due to white on black, Protestant on Catholic violence, etc. But in Soviet Russia (and even to an extent in present day Russia), MILLIONS were forcibly relocated from their homelands and FAWKING starved by Stalin and cronies.
By God, you can't begin to compare the two societies. Yes, the Soviet Union produced technology, but at what an evil expense to people's lives and personal freedoms!
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As a matter of fact, women consume less oxygen and spend less energy, so they are ideal for space flight.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
...the black-and-white one about halfway down the page of the T-shirts sold by The Onion.
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
Sorry, I really don't mean this as flamebait, though some may take it as such: do we really need to preface this article in such a negative way? Your blurb makes it sound like the only reason getting a man into space was good was because it meant that the Americans decided to put a man on the moon. What ever happened to getting a man into space (and back safely) being an amazing, incredible feat in itself? I for one think of this as the anniversary of the start of manned space travel, not however many years before the anniversary of the first man on the moon / the launch of the ISS / the first trip to Mars.
I'm sure the poster didn't mean to take one of the most eloquent turns of phrase of the 20th century, "the surly bonds of earth...", and apply it toward the Communists space efforts.
That quote, spoken by Ronald Reagan in 1986 (and paraphrased from a WW2 U.S. airman), is a tribute to the lost Challenger crew. Seems almost ironic to use it to describe a Russian cosmonaut.
The Russians have earned respect and authority when it comes to space exploration, all without media spin. I do not believe that they have been "ignored" in any way. When Sputnik went 'round the world, everyone was listening to *beep* *beep* *beep* on the radio, when Yuri went into space, it was all over television. How many people tuned into the death of MIR? Greatness is for history to decide, not the media.
Also I would like to comment about your diatribe about hypocrisy, granted, sometimes anecdotes can add to a viewpoint, but to be honest it sounded like frustrated venting. I'd like to help you, or tell you that world is a perfect place, but it ain't.
Anyway this is just how I see things, I'm usually wrong most of the time but, hang in there.
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crazy dynamite monkey
This is absolutely incorrect. To launch a person into space at that time required an R7 booster. The use and fate of each of those R7s is fully documented and known and the number of people required to keep this a secret is immense.
Yuri Gagarin WAS the first human into space. The origin of this rumor about dead cosmonauts is mostly a result of cold war propaganda.
The US has contributed greatly to the world, establishing a country granted rights from the people. Not a country that bestows rights to the people.
Russia was kind enough to bring the world genocide surpassing even Hitler. The US brought a stance against communism.
Basically, if we suck, then why does everyone keep copying us? Stop watching our movies, stop buying our stuff, and stop moving here. No? Then stop complaining that everywhere else is better.
t
I'm raising my glass of vodka to Vladimir Ilyushin, the man who went before him, whose parachute failed to deploy, who returned not a hero, but an invalid. But still. the first.
All the Vostok pilots ejected from the capsules and landed separately by individual parachute. The descent capsule weight was about 3000 kG and the rate of its descent was too high for comfortable landing. According to the plan, Gagarin ejected from the capsule at an attitude of approx. 7000 meters and parachuted safely to Earth.
AFAIK, the Amreicans used water landing from the beginning, utilizing the water cushioning effect, so it was possible for the astronauts to land inside the capsule safely, even at comparatively high descent rate.
There's a group that has organized a world wide party celebrating this event. There's a web site here. Yuri's Night
Neat idea, actually seems to have been started by Americans (at least according to the report on NPR this morning). And looks like it's sponsored by the UN Space Generation Advisory Council (?).
There is a special event station operating in honor of Gagarin's flight. The call is R40G, and I worked him on 14.194 MHz a couple of nights ago. I don't know if they're putting out a special QSL card or something, but it was pretty neat anyway.
73 and good DX,
Matt
N9ZT
A really beautiful large scale plastic model of the Vostok capsule, complete with Yuri who fit into a working, spring loaded, ejection seat.
I treasured it in my younger days, and of course, have no idea what happened to it.
Here's to you Yuri, may you orbit eternally.
KFG
I'd say marketing is it's biggest triumph.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. (Einstein)
I think sputnik had a larger impact to kennedy because now the russians could monitor the US during the cold war a lot easier. While we only had spy planes that would be intercepted many times, the Russians had satillites that could scan America for almost whatever they wanted. Of course sputnik couldn't do this, but kennedy knew that the russians had accomplished one of the hardest parts to spy planes in space, now they could start building more satillites with better technology which was happening during kennedy's administration.
it is not nearly as creative as other nations were at their peaks, like Britain, Spain, France and Greece. What has America done that compare?
Jazz. Rock n' roll. The Internet. The A-bomb. The moon. The skyscraper. Abstract expressionism. All within just over 200 years. I don't deny that much came before, and much more is to come, but America is doing pretty well.
As a woman, I am attacked because of my gender far more here than anywhere else I have been. As a Catholic, I have been attacked.
How many countries have you been to where women are not allowed to leave the house alone, or own property, or vote, or work? How many countries have you been to where people are routinely bombed/shot/imprisoned for being Catholic? I'm not sure what exactly you mean by "attacked", but Americans have it pretty easy, compared to much of the world.
I would like to see america and the males of america adopt a position of humility, and allow the dispossessed and discriminated against, such as Russians and women, to breathe free and stake their claim in society.
This comment doesn't even make sense. That's the whole point of this country.
So Americans built the moon? Kick Ass!!! I'd like to see any other country top that!!
Sorry, had to be done, otherwise we wouldn't have waves.
Mod me Mad
So. That is not even close to any point. He was the first man in space! Who gives a Fsck how he got down.
Another point to remind you people is that while Americans were fairly open about what they were doing and the Russians were fairly secretive we still have to look at how they were landing.
Americans, because they were open about it, landed their crews in the oceans. The Russians were landing their crews on dry land. I'm sure I'd jump out too and take my own chance rather than strap myself to a several ton weight and hit the earth at God knows what speed. Besides that there was some sort of malfunction on the craft that forced Yuri Gagarin to eject and land by parachute. Malfunctions happened to Americans too.
Please God don't let me fuck up.
What was that?
Everything is A-OK! -- The Right Stuff
Don't you find it ironic that he died in an airplane crash. That's like me dying in a 20 mph mo-ped wreck after getting off my R1.
Mostly I remember the fear. Everyone knew that a missile that could put up a ship the size of Vostok could put an h-bomb on any city in the world. We started having air raid drills at school and the city tested the air raid sirens for the first time since WWII. The Soviets had sworn to bury us, they had h-bombs, and now there was no way to deny that they had a way to deliver them.
It's hard to believe just how badly the entire US was scared by this single event. One night I heard a police siren and ran for the basement thinking it was an air raid siren.
In many ways this was the beginning of the end for the Soviet Union. It convinced us that they were a real threat. A threat so great that they had to be removed. It took a long time and nearly bankrupted the US but there is no Soviet Union any more.
I think it is the connection between space flight and weapons technology that has caused all the worlds governments to block private access to space and space flight technology. The availablity of cheap simple space ships like the DC-X make it just to easy for someone to carry out atomic, chemical, or biological attacks anywhere in the world. Just build your weapon, hijack a ship and BOOM!
StoneWolf
Anyway, cheers to Gagarin. At that time, you really had to be mad to get satellized! This is what makes them heroes.
É que os desafinados também têm um coração
Getting a man into space before the US.
Too bad that Capitalism is an unstoppable (and possibly planet killing) meme, instantly absorbing any competing ideology, stripping the ideology of it's danger, and reselling it.
would be the most common astronauts.
For all their talk of rationality and science, geeks and engineers are just as full of their stereotypes as those hated jocks. Case in point, NASA, a geek paradise.
If they were truly rational at NASA, they would look at launch costs of $22,000 USD a kilo, and conclude that the lighter the astronaut they launch, the more scientific payloads they could carry, and the more consumables they could carry, thus allowing longer duration missions.
And who would the lightest astronauts be? Women and Asians, that's who. But no, your typical Space Shuttle crew looks more like a cleanly shaven Linux kernel developers meeting than a multicultural experience, mostly white men, with perhaps a token woman or Asian.
As an American taxpayer, I am outraged at this inefficiency. Join me in writing your congresspersons to rectify this.
If you're not an American, consider emigrating, or perhaps you could ask ESA to allow more women and Asians on Ariane missions.
According to this "Dead Cosmonauts" page, this is a hoax, possibly a garbled version of an Apollo-1-style fatality of an early cosmonaut.
Is that the same site as the one Sven Grahn debunks here?
Actually this "dead cosmonauts" page refutes those claims that Gagarin wasn't the first man in space; the cosmonauts missing from the "doctored" pictures are accounted for with training fatalities and disciplinary actions.
So it is very good to see Russia given its proper dues on an American site, even if it is a counterculture site such as this.
If only america as a whole could realise that it is just another country. This may be its hour in the sun, but it is not nearly as creative as other nations were at their peaks, like Britain, Spain, France and Greece. What has America done that compare?
Hypocrisy is the problem. As a woman, I am attacked because of my gender far more here than anywhere else I have been. As a Catholic, I have been attacked. My ex boyfriend thought it was because people were jealous.
I would like to see america and the males of america adopt a position of humility, and allow the dispossessed and discriminated against, such as Russians and women, to breathe free and stake their claim in society.
--Anticipation of a New Lover's Arrival, The
It's often dangerous to do something that nobody has ever done before, but we'd never get anywhere if nobody did anything until it could be pronounced "safe". That's why we have test pilots.
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Scientists restrict study to entire physical universe; creationist
I don't wish to take anything away from the Russian space program. However, although it appears that the USSR program was flawless through the late 50's and early 60's, in fact recent documents point out that the Soviets suffered numerous failures, but were able to prevent them from becoming known. The successful Sputnik launch occurred after 3-4 secret failures.
The Americans, on the other hand, were operating entirely under the eye of the world's press. Even though they were working up the same learning curve as the Soviets, every failure they made was a public debacle.
Another interesting (and suppressed) fact is that Gagarin ejected from his capsule and parachuted to the Earth while the capsule crashed below him.
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