Yuri Gagarin - First Man in Space (50th Anniversary)

[Skywalker]

6079SmithW wrote:

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-17? Sheesh, you're old. I was -26 and had some truly crazy times.

I was -22. Those were the days.

Hopefully we'll get to Mars before the centennial anniversary.

[6079SmithW]

Just a fair warning to everyone, if we do get to Mars in my lifetime I plan to move there and organize a preemptive Red Faction movement.

[scotpens]

Candlelight wrote:

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I want to be on Mars before I die!!

Well, if you smoke some really good shit . . .

I was seven-and-a-half years old then. I don’t recall hearing anything about Gagarin’s flight at the time, but I do remember being aware of the U.S.–Soviet space rivalry — and the launch of the first Telstar communications satellite in 1962.

[Subcommander R.]

farmkid wrote:

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Cracked had an article a few days ago about the Soviet space program. It's entertaining. If it's at least more-or-less accurate, the Soviet space program was not exactly up to OSHA standards.

I wouldn't consider the absolute terror of dying alone in space or being incinerated to be 'entertaining.'

There's an awful lot we still don't know about the Soviet space program. We didn't even know they had the H-bomb until we detected fallout from the test. Their launches from Kazakhstan weren't known. And they were concealable. Unlike Cape Canaveral, Baikonur isn't right to next to civilization.

Ultimately I hope to see whatever secret list (I have no doubt one exists) of fatalities exists published. Let the dead rest in honor.

The USSR earned its place in history alongside other greats. History will never forget the names Gagarin, Korolev, and Tereshkova.

[TalkieToaster]

farmkid wrote:

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Cracked had an article a few days ago about the Soviet space program. It's entertaining. If it's at least more-or-less accurate, the Soviet space program was not exactly up to OSHA standards.

I think it's pretty awesome that Gagarin was willing to sacrifice his life for his friend like that (and vice versa). Definitely a man worthy of being the first human being in space. It sucks that he didn't live to see man reach the moon (he died on March 27, 1968) It's also pretty ironic that he went into space exactly 100 years to the day after the start of the American Civil War.

[Owain Taggart]

While not about Gargarin, here's a fun song about Sputnik:

[RJDiogenes]

I was busy gestating, so I don't remember the event, but Gagarin's flight kicked off the Space Age, which defined my childhood. He will be remembered forever among the great explorers; many ports and streets will be named for him on other worlds.

[scotpens]

TalkieToaster wrote:

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. . . It's also pretty ironic that he went into space exactly 100 years to the day after the start of the American Civil War.

A mildly interesting coincidence and irony are two different things.

[TalkieToaster]

scotpens wrote:

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A mildly interesting coincidence and irony are two different things.

I think you'd be right if Gagarin's flight were 100 years after the end of the Civil War, but I think the first human spaceflight coming on the 100th anniversary of the start of an important war qualifies as irony.

[captcalhoun]

^ learn the definition of irony, pally.

[Pingfah]

It's like rain, on your wedding day.

[JRS]

President Kennedy's telegram to Premier Khrushchev congratulating the Soviet Union on the first manned space flight, April 12, 1961:
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-View...rdAvZpEfQ.aspx

[Goliath]

TalkieToaster wrote:

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I think you'd be right if Gagarin's flight were 100 years after the end of the Civil War, but I think the first human spaceflight coming on the 100th anniversary of the start of an important war qualifies as irony.

No, that's pretty much not ironic at all.

It might have been ironic if, on 12 April 1861, some famous scientist had said: "Man will never travel through space! Space travel will still be a dream, even one hundred years from now!"

[scotpens]

Goliath wrote:

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It might have been ironic if, on 12 April 1861, some famous scientist had said: "Man will never travel through space! Space travel will still be a dream, even one hundred years from now!"

Or the story about the wife of young Neil Armstrong’s neighbor Mr. Gorsky saying, “You’ll get a blowjob from me when the kid next door walks on the moon!”