Only a military Pilot wouldn't give sitting on the top of a missile a second thought

That was done on an ill-prepared shot into orbit far too far ahead of a more sensible schedule all for the sake of shooting for an arbitrary political date:

Vladimir Komarov: The Unsung Space Hero

There is a new book coming out next month detailing the life and times of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. He was aboard Vostok 1 when it made its historic spaceflight on April 12, 1961. The book is entitled Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin, and it's generating a bit of buzz not for its purported subject -- Gagarin himself -- but for the account of another doomed spaceflight in 1967 that claimed the life of Gagarin's good friend and fellow cosmonaut, Vladimir Komarov. It's a truly heartbreaking tale. ...


The Mission of Soyuz-1

On April 23, 1967, after a more than two-year gap in the manned space flight, the Soviet Union announced the launch of a new-generation spacecraft called Soyuz-1 ("Union") with a veteran cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov onboard. ...


An analysis of the Soyuz-1 flight

... The intention is to gather technical facts about the flight of Soyuz-1 and in particular try to answer a few questions. ...



Certainly some great and grave daring-do...

A tremendous effort and glory all round, even with the sad mix of disasters.

Keep searchin',
Martin

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I'm not sure if I would call it national glory.

It was national glory regardless what you or other think about this.
Yesterday and today I talked with peoples who remember how it was.
When news arrived it was absolutely spontaneous and not orchestrated by goverment peoples movement on streets, happiness and pride.
Surely space program always had and has now military aspects both in USSR/Russia and USA, but that particular event has much bigger value than just "they spy on us from space" ...

Sure, Gagarin's moment was pride for Russia. Obviously you didn't leave in the US during that time. All I'm saying, there was a lot of amazement in it, but always in the back of the head to better it and move forward because the enemy, USSR at the time, simply can not have the lead. Part glory, part fear, mixed with pride. That's all it was.....was it amazing sure! It was still part of the cold war and has a lot more windows than simply expanding knowledge on how space flight works. There was a reason they did it. Both countries, and it wasn't merely for pride. Knowledge is power, this isn't an attack on your country, I'm just putting a bit of perspective on it. There are people in the US now that still don't like Russian's, Vietnamese, Germans, etc. It was much worse then.

Most of that stuff was before My time, Sure Russia got up to space first, Congratz to Yuri and Russia, Sitting on top of a rocket that was once described as like sitting on top of a Roman Candle that's waiting to be lit, We both used a Technology boost from captured German V2 Rocket Technology, If there'd been a 2 stage V2 like rocket in WWII, The equivalent to Sputnik could have been launched in 1943 or so, By Germany, But then that type rocket really wasn't too effective as a weapon, Not that It didn't kill of course, As It just didn't have a chance of turning the tide, But then neither did a lot of other new and untried technologies back then, Only 1 technology did change the war and that one was not something Germany could ever build as It would have Made their supreme ideas ring hollow and so wrong. And lest We forget the price this rocket technology cost, It wasn't cheap and no matter how some deny It, It happened, Yet no one back then could admit that anyone was capable of such a low thing. Now the world knows better and hopefully has learned something as a result.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

I'm not sure if I would call it national glory.

It was national glory regardless what you or other think about this.
Yesterday and today I talked with peoples who remember how it was.
When news arrived it was absolutely spontaneous and not orchestrated by goverment peoples movement on streets, happiness and pride.
Surely space program always had and has now military aspects both in USSR/Russia and USA, but that particular event has much bigger value than just "they spy on us from space" ...

Sure, Gagarin's moment was pride for Russia. Obviously you didn't leave in the US during that time. All I'm saying, there was a lot of amazement in it, but always in the back of the head to better it and move forward because the enemy, USSR at the time, simply can not have the lead. Part glory, part fear, mixed with pride. That's all it was.....was it amazing sure! It was still part of the cold war and has a lot more windows than simply expanding knowledge on how space flight works. There was a reason they did it. Both countries, and it wasn't merely for pride. Knowledge is power, this isn't an attack on your country, I'm just putting a bit of perspective on it. There are people in the US now that still don't like Russian's, Vietnamese, Germans, etc. It was much worse then.

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Traveling through space at ~67,000mph!

Only a military Pilot wouldn't give sitting on the top of a missile a second thought

Lots of other people would line up for it too (including me).

Reminds me of the Chuck Yeager quote from "The Right Stuff". When other military pilots made fun of the civilian NASA trainee astronauts, comparing them to the chimpanzees NASA also used, Yeager pointed out that the chimpanzee doesn't know the rocket might explode.

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Only a military Pilot wouldn't give sitting on the top of a missile a second thought

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

I'm not sure if I would call it national glory.

It was national glory regardless what you or other think about this.
Yesterday and today I talked with peoples who remember how it was.
When news arrived it was absolutely spontaneous and not orchestrated by goverment peoples movement on streets, happiness and pride.
Surely space program always had and has now military aspects both in USSR/Russia and USA, but that particular event has much bigger value than just "they spy on us from space" ...

It's amazing the risks both space race nations took. All for national glory. We are probably lucky more good men didn't die for the cause.

I think the most astounding thing is that all of NASA had less computing power than a common PC today. I would assume the Soviet system had even less.

I'm not sure if I would call it national glory. That's the way they want it written now in history books. Then it was all about sputnik "spying" on us and the fear associated with something orbiting the Earth WE didn't have control of. Oh no they launched a man first, if they get to the moon and claim it they could have a highly strategic position, etc. etc. At the time it was due to fear, the space race was just another aspect of the cold war. Hence the reason we planted the flags, often you hear the moon astronauts talking of world peace and "for all mankind", they were trying to show this isn't a military move, and it wasn't in the forward facing sense. Of course a lot of their researched moved towards military uses lol. People always forget too, there was a documentary on it, that the Russians had landed a moon mission before us, unmanned, but it crashed into the moon instead of landing. I think if Kennedy wouldn't have made his speech we probably would have been beaten to the moon. But in the end does it really matter? Who knows what would be different in the world, if anything.

Either way the accomplishments they achieved(both sides) during that time and even now are astounding. The men and women, are truly daredevils sitting on top of the worlds largest bombs. Something that sadly is coming to an end, the shuttle, has done as much for world peace and working together with other countries, than most politicians could ever hope for, hopefully we will have another program soon enough.

Not to mention forget everything else, those crazy Russians land their capsules on land!!!! Ouch you know that landing has to be felt for days!! Brave, crazy, insane, and smart? They pretty much can fit all of the above, are are one of the only groups that can fit all of that into one mission and it still succeed! lol. Amazing things we humans pull off, all in jest, humility, pride, and honor.

It's still about national pride now.

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Traveling through space at ~67,000mph!

And if the space race were begun today it would have failure to start.

OSHA (Ocupational Safety and Health Association) would never allow it because of the risk to human lives.

Actually, US Federal Regulation 1910.5(b) states:

None of the standards in this part shall apply to working conditions of employees with respect to which Federal agencies other than the Department of Labor, or State agencies acting under section 274 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (42 U.S.C. 2021), exercise statutory authority to prescribe or enforce standards or regulations affecting occupational safety or health.

NASA has written and published several standards concerning Federally operated and privately operated space vehicles, including human-rating of these vehicles. As per 1910.5(b), this trumps any OSHA involvement in the field. Several commercially designed, privately funded human-rated space vehicles are in development today.

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And if the space race were begun today it would have failure to start.

OSHA (Ocupational Safety and Health Association) would never allow it because of the risk to human lives.

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Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....

It's amazing the risks both space race nations took. All for national glory. We are probably lucky more good men didn't die for the cause.

I think the most astounding thing is that all of NASA had less computing power than a common PC today. I would assume the Soviet system had even less.

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

Yes, hard to believe it was so long ago. I fondly remember and miss the excitement every launch generated back then. I will have to break out the Stolichnaya to properly toast the anniversary of Mr. Gagarin's great achievement. :-)

I was allmost 9 years old and I rembember. 50 years wow.

That picture of Earth is awesome. But I bet seeing it for real was off the scale beautiful.

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[/quote]

Old James

Hard to belive that day was 50 years ago. I do remember it well.

Here is a link to the NASA picture of the day.... http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/

made link clickable

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Carola
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I'm multilingual - I can misunderstand people in several languages!

Hard to belive that day was 50 years ago. I do remember it well.

Here is a link to the NASA picture of the day.... http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/

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50 years from first man, Yury Gagarin, in space (and humans still alive ;) )
Congratulations with so remarkable date!