Yuri Gagarin Flight Anniversary 1961-2002

www.yurisnight.com ^ | 2002.04.12 | B-chan

[B-Chan]

On 12 April 1961, Yuri Gagarin blasted off the launch pad in Baikonur at 9:08 AM local time.  He was the first human being to travel in space. Yuri was only 27 years old. His historic 108 minute flight took him once around the Earth in the Vostok 1 spacecraft.

On Wednesday 27 March 1968, Yuri Gagarin died after his MiG-15 fighter jet crashed. He was 34 years old.

Yuri is survived by his wife Valentina and his two daughters, Lenochka and Galochka. In honor of his great contributions to space exploration, a crater on the moon was named after him.

Today is the forty-first anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's historic first space voyage. He is one of the true pioneers of humanity and a hero for all mankind. Let us all pause today to reflect on the memory of Yuri Gagarin.

[B-Chan]

Man in Space: 41 years today.

[Chemist_Geek]

ad astra bump... I'm going to listen to Rush's Countdown on the road home from work tonight.

[Chemist_Geek]

This magic day when super-science
Mingles with the bright stuff of dreams

N. Peart; excerpt from Countdown

4 3 2 1
Earth below us
drifting falling
floating weightless
coming coming home...

P. Schilling; excerpt from Major Tom (Coming Home)

[elbucko]

Gagarin is a hero, no doubt, but I would like to add that the first space traveler was a dog named Laika. There is a memorial Web Page for her.

She was one of mans best friends sent to view the heavens to make our way safe. She returned to earth a shooting star.

Buck.

[Scully]

History ping for the first reported human astronaut to those on RadioAstronomer's list.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[Condorman]

Eh? So then who was the first actual human astronaut?

[Scully]

I do not know, but there are rumors of at least several unsuccessful attempt by the Soviets...including at least one female astronaut, all who died during the efforts.

I know, rumors only. Nevertheless, I think Gagarin was mighty lucky.

[PatrickHenry]

I think Yuri's wife was also an astronaut, and their marriage was regarded by some as sort of a genetics experiment. I wonder if their kids are green or something.

[green team 1999]

a report a couple of years shows a picture with three (3) cosmonauts missing,the official picture was edited,one of the cosmonauts while on a pressurased chamber full of oxygen, cosmonaut did throw a cotton swab with alcohol(after using it on his skin,)to a heater near by,that started the fire in the chamber,by the time they got him out was burned beyond help,lasted few days in hospital,told the military to don`t blame nobody,it was his fault.
terrible story,and the rest of the world never knew about this hero until a couple of years ago.

[Pistias]

Now, now, as we all know, the first human astronauts were the Mayans taken up in spaceships...

I know because Leonard Nimoy told me so...

[Condorman]

Okay, so call Gagarin the first successful human astronaut, then.

I'm actually surprised there haven't been more catastrophic losses in the space programs. The US has lost 10 (from memory) and the Russians about that many.

Considering that all of those space troopers are essentially strapped to a giant bomb, that's pretty darn good!

[Quila]

Laika is actually a pretty sad story. They put poison in her food so that she'd be dead before her air got bad or reentry. I'm not an anti-animal testing nut, but you'd think they just might consider a safe reentry experiment at the time they're sending up a live creature -- get a little more scientific value out of it and have the possibility of a live animal at the end. They can use instruments to see if the cabin maintains pressure, etc., why use a live animal?

The Onion had a great take on this in "Our Dumb Century" in a story along the lines of "U.S races to kill more animals in space than Russians. They're ahead of us, but we're catching up."

[<1/1,000,000th%]

"Ground control to Major Tom..."