On this day 50 years ago

[davieG]

First man, Yuri Gagarin orbits the earth.

BBC

Yuri Gagarin's single orbit of Earth 50 years ago this month ushered in the era of human spaceflight.

Gagarin's 108-minute flight was another major propaganda coup for the Soviet Union, which had successfully launched the first satellite - Sputnik - in 1957.

"I was a young fighter pilot in Germany I was flying F-102s in Rammstein Germany. We were more focused on the building of the Berlin Wall that year, rather than the space race," says Nasa astronaut Charles Duke, who walked on the Moon during the Apollo 16 mission in 1972.

"When he flew, my first impression was - well, they beat us again."

Sergei Khrushchev, the son of Nikita Khrushchev, who was the Soviet premier at the time of Gagarin's flight, told BBC News: "We were very proud but we did not really understand how important it was. It was one more flight, one more achievement."

But he says his father was acutely aware of the significance, and orchestrated a celebration in Red Square upon Gagarin's return to Moscow.

"When we look at the response of the Muscovites, where everyone was in the streets, on the roofs of buildings and in the windows, I would compare this celebration with the May 9 victory day (the end of World War II for the Soviet Union)," says Sergei.

During the Cold War, such "firsts" served to demonstrate technological might and ideological superiority.

But the architects of both the US and Soviet space programmes had loftier ambitions of sending humans on voyages around the Solar System.

The Americans and the Soviets experimented by sending animals into space prior to launching people.

Despite several notable failures, the successful tests signalled that humans were capable of surviving the stresses of spaceflight ..........

..........It was only much later that it became known just how close the mission had come to disaster.

Cables linking the spacecraft's capsule to the service module failed to separate before Gagarin's return to Earth. So Gagarin's capsule was unexpectedly burdened with an extra module as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere.

Temperatures in the capsule became dangerously high and Gagarin was spun around wildly, almost losing consciousness.

"I was in a cloud of fire rushing toward Earth," the cosmonaut later recalled. It was 10 minutes before the cables finally burned through and the descent module, containing its human passenger, tore free.

Gagarin bailed out before his capsule hit the ground, parachuting to a safe landing near the Volga River.

Full report - http://www.bbc.co.uk...onment-12380744

[Trav Le Bleu]

Not according to El Empty.

[The Doctor]

Not according to El Empty.

No, they did get into space - just no-one ever landed on the moon.

[BoneDog]

You two remind me of the Elaine Page chorus - "I Made His Knob Swell"....errr I mean...."I Know Him So Well", but everyone sings the alternative version don't they?!

I try not to derail other peoples threads anymore with my conspiracy or religious stuff (back in the day when I first joined I didn't know of such a thing as derailing a thread so I used to do it aplenty), but I'd like to take this golden opportunity to state my thoughts on the supposed trips to the Moon!

Right-e-ho, let's start with a few facts.

1. The Moon is on average about 238,857 miles away from the Earth.

2. The International Space Station is around 220 miles from Earth. That's something like the distance from London to Manchester i.e not very far.

3. No astronaut since 1972 has travelled further thn 400 miles from Earth.

So, apparantly, between 1969 and 1972 we sent six manned missions to the Moon. Since 1972 we haven't been able to send a human further than 400 miles away from Earth even with the massive advances in technology that have occured in the last 40 years. Let's not kid ourselves, our technology in the past 20 years is light years ahead of what they had in the 60's and early 70's and I believe that if it was at all possible to get humans to the Moon between 1969 and 1972 we would have done it countless times since 1972.

There are many other factors involved as to why we haven't been to the Moon, or couldn't get humans to the Moon (yet). The outer Van Allen Belt being one of them.

If you believe that we have stepped on the Moon then I think you have been conned by a great illusion.

Look at the distance to the Moon again, which is 238,857 miles. Now just look at the tiny last part of that number, which is 857 miles and think about the fact that a human hasn't even been that distance from the Earth in the past 39 years. In fact, during the past 39 years, a human hasn't even travelled the distance from Glasgow to Paris above the Earths surface. And yet some of you crazy fools (no offence) believe that we managed the extra 238 THOUSAND miles back in the 60's! CONNED I TELL THEE!

I'll finish with this verse from The Koran, just because I think it's good and fitting, chapter 55 verses 33-35 :

"O you jinns and humans, if you can penetrate the outer limits of the heavens and the earth, go ahead and penetrate. You cannot penetrate without authorization.

Which of your Lord's marvels can you deny?

You would get bombarded with projectiles of fire and metal, and you cannot win."

Excellent stuff and high five to God for the info

[Alexikokopops]

The truth is stranger than fiction El Empty

[samlcfc]

To be fair as hard as it seems to get there the distance is probably not too much of an issue. The shuttles travel through space at like 17,000 mph

[Bellend Sebastian]

Let's not forget there was an arms race and an economic boom in the US in the 1950s and 1960s.

The novelty's worn off and there's stuff closer to home to worry about. And no money, of course

[Vacamion]

I'll finish with this verse from The Koran, just because I think it's good and fitting, chapter 55 verses 33-35 :

"O you jinns and humans, if you can penetrate the outer limits of the heavens and the earth, go ahead and penetrate. You cannot penetrate without authorization.

Which of your Lord's marvels can you deny?

You would get bombarded with projectiles of fire and metal, and you cannot win."

Excellent stuff and high five to God for the info

I would have greater admiration for the prophetic wonder of this if it mentioned anything that subsequently was scientifically established - the void of space, interstellar distances, the earth's magnetic field, the fact that the earth is one of 4 rocky inner planets and there are 4 big gaseous outer ones, that the earth/moon gravity is the same phenomenon as the gravity in the rest of the universe, etc etc. I would always expect the creator of the Universe to know this stuff, rather than allowing his book to contain generalities that any old desert dweller could have come up with by the fire in front of his tent...

Oh, and also if it wasn't addressed to humans and djinns (imaginary demons).

And to think that your post was saying that the moon landings require a suspension of disbelief...

[Trav Le Bleu]

Sod it. I've just watched the old cutscene videos from the old PC game Red Alert and I'm going to build a time machine so I can go back in time and shoot Hitler.

Trust me, it will mean some great tech advances!

[BoneDog]

I would have greater admiration for the prophetic wonder of this if it mentioned anything that subsequently was scientifically established - the void of space, interstellar distances, the earth's magnetic field, the fact that the earth is one of 4 rocky inner planets and there are 4 big gaseous outer ones, that the earth/moon gravity is the same phenomenon as the gravity in the rest of the universe, etc etc. I would always expect the creator of the Universe to know this stuff, rather than allowing his book to contain generalities that any old desert dweller could have come up with by the fire in front of his tent...

Oh, and also if it wasn't addressed to humans and djinns (imaginary demons).

And to think that your post was saying that the moon landings require a suspension of disbelief...

The verse holds true because men still haven't penetrated outer space. And the moon landings do require a suspension of disbelief.

Jinns exist and alot of the elite conjur them up. Half of their symbology points to them. They even write books about them, and top level masonry (among otherr societies) owe everything to Solomon and the books of his that they have preserved.

But yeah, I agree that majority of you think it's a crock of shit and that if you can't see it, it doesn't exist. It's a good job I don't mind getting ridiculed

We haven't been to the Moon!

That said, I do think that getting men into near space is a great achievement so congratulations to all the space agencies for that. But to be honest I don't respect them because all they are doing is militarizing space for the benefit of a few and not for the good of humankind. In fact, the majority of mankind would be far better off if we weren't pissing about putting weapons into space.