On this day in 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, a major milestone for humanity and a triumph for Moscow in the U.S.-Soviet space race https://t.co/z1QWt9Dgba
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) April 12, 2021
If it hadn’t been for Russian propaganda efforts, how much later than 1969 would it take for a man to reach the moon?
60 years ago today Yuri Gagarin became the first human to go into outer space.
When he landed in a random field, he was met by a 5-year-old girl and her grandmother, who weren't sure he was human. He was needlessly fucking ambiguous about where he'd come from and I love it. pic.twitter.com/qMTwBdHizq
— James Felton (@JimMFelton) April 12, 2021
It’s sixty years since Yuri Gagarin became the very first man in spacehttps://t.co/nt9sYmx7XZ pic.twitter.com/2l0c0R4S6y
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) April 12, 2021
Yuri Gagarin wrote a goodbye letter to his wife before he climbed into Vostok 1, and he had to overcome numerous faults and malfunctions, but 60 years ago today his 108-minute flight made him the first man in space and an enduring Soviet hero. @visachenkov https://t.co/JIn7Hx487o
— AP Europe (@AP_Europe) April 12, 2021
Crushed into the pilot’s seat by heavy G-forces, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin saw flames outside his spacecraft and prepared to die. His voice broke the tense silence at ground control: “I’m burning. Goodbye, comrades.”
Gagarin didn’t know that the blazing inferno he observed through a porthole was a cloud of plasma engulfing Vostok 1 during its re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, and he was still on track to return safely.
It was his quiet composure under pressure that helped make him the first human in space 60 years ago.
Gagarin’s steely self-control was a key factor behind the success of his pioneering 108-minute flight. The April 12, 1961, mission encountered glitches and emergencies — from a capsule hatch failing to shut properly just before blastoff to parachute problems in the final moments before touchdown…
A soft-landing system hadn’t been designed yet, so Gagarin ejected from the module in his spacesuit and deployed a parachute. While descending, he had to fiddle with a sticky valve on his spacesuit to start breathing outside air. A reserve chute unfolded in addition to the main parachute, making it hard for him to control his descent, but he landed safely on a field near the Volga River in the Saratov region…
Propaganda is a form of marketing — or do I have that backwards? — and so are the various Space Tourism!!!! proposals…
there is not going to be a space hotel in 2027 https://t.co/vJEibXgddB
— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) April 12, 2021
I love space. adore it. I want humans on other planets and living in space. setting ridiculous commercial milestones is going to do two things: raise money and get people killed
— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) April 12, 2021
Of course, Robert Heinlein was writing about the (driven, miserable) moon moguls before most of the current crop were born, but when have prophecies deterred the True Visionaries?
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
April 12, 1961 is one of the most fascinating news cycles in history.
First person in space.
Eichmann goes on trial for Holocaust.
Baseball expands for first time in history and ignites home run race that sees Roger Maris breaking Babe Ruth’s record.
CIA backed mercenaries secretly begin operation on bahía de Cochino (Bay of Pigs)
(Front Page)
Jeffro
No space hotels until everyone on the planet is fed, clothed, and has access to clean water and basic health care. Thanks for playing, though, billionaire overlords!
Old School
A space hotel in six years? I’d better start saving my pennies.
whomever
I’ve always found it amusing that there is this Libertarian fantasy that someday they will have some sort of place in space free of all those pesky regulations. Like you seriously expect people to be allowed to carry weapons? (just as an example). One minor screwup has the potential to kill everyone and destroy everything.
We have seen what societies look like when living in places where it’s easy to have a screwup that causes death (eg, Inuit in winter), and they are very much NOT Libertopia.
(Seasteading is stupid enough…again, when a random screwup can cause a ship to sink…we are not exactly going to see freedom from regulations. Try going on a random ship and telling the captain you don’t acknowledge their authority, and this is an order of magnitude less easy to kill everyone than space).
Dahlia
A musical tribute for the occasion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY-kAnvOY80
Martin
The Soviets for years insisted that Gagarin soft-landed in the capsule because that was expected to be the standard for a successful space mission – person in craft from ground to space to ground. So his ejection was kept secret for quite some time.
Not to take away from his accomplishment – the soviet space program did not give a lot of confidence he’d survive.
Bill Arnold
Funny story about young Yuri. (If not true, it should be.)
Anonymous At Work
I’m just impressed that the Soviets achieved major breakthroughs in both space flight AND trolling at the same time.
Mike G
There is a pic in the bus taking him to the launch pad that is carefully cropped to hide the backup cosmonaut in a spacesuit sitting near him. Word is that if Gagarin had so much as coughed he would have been replaced.
Also rumors, never confirmed, that Gagarin was not the first Russian in space but the first to make it back alive.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjd5dm/judica-cordiglia-brothers-were-eavesdropping-soviet-space-radio-transmissions-cries-for-help-mystery
slipz
Apple TV+ (if you’ve bought an Apple device recently you get a free year) is running a really good series called “For All Mankind”. It’s a trifle soapy but a fascinating alternative history of the space race: The Russians land on the moon first and the competitive result has the US and Russia manning moon bases in the early Seventies, jumping mining claims and generally heating up the Cold War. It is extremely well done.