[Responsibility2nd]

Ask 9 out of 10 Americans who Yuri Gagarin was and you’ll get blank stares.

So why should out State Dept. care if the Rooskies are upset?

[Don W]

Laika was far more significant than Yuri. She died for the cause, as well, but on her first and ONLY trip, since they didn’t know how to land a spacecraft yet...

[Olog-hai]

But but but Trump is Putin’s stooge and all.

According to the above logic, Gagarin’s name should have been the most prominent on the State Department pages with respect to Spaceflight Day, right?

[Sacajaweau]

9 out of 10 wouldn’t know who our astronauts were/are.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Ask 9 out of 10 Americans who Yuri Gagarin was and you’ll get blank stares.

38% answer "a third-line center for the Detroit Red Wings"

[Old Student]

So you’d rather read about Kardashians?

Gagarin was a real hero. State should have mentioned it because it makes them look either ignorant or parochial or both. And that reflects badly on the rest of US. Once upon a time, we owned the future. And we threw it away.

“Johnny, out there in space it’s raining soup, and we don’t even know about soup bowls.” Larry Niven, Lucifer’s Hammer

One of the reasons I sort of like President Trump is that he has a vision of us learning to make soup bowls.