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Space

Remembering Yuri Gagarin, the First Man in Space (space.com) 97

Sixty years ago today, Yuri Gagarin became the first human ever in space.

Space.com reports: Because no one was certain how weightlessness would affect a pilot, the spherical capsule had little in the way of onboard controls; the work was done either automatically or from the ground. If an emergency arose, Gagarin was supposed to receive an override code that would allow him to take manual control, but Sergei Korolev, chief designer of the Soviet space program, disregarded protocol and gave the code to the pilot prior to the flight.

Over the course of 108 minutes, Vostok 1 traveled around the Earth once, reaching a maximum height of 203 miles (327 kilometers). The spacecraft carried 10 days' worth of provisions in case the engines failed and Gagarin was required to wait for the orbit to naturally decay. But the supplies were unnecessary. Gagarin re-entered Earth's atmosphere, managing to maintain consciousness as he experienced forces up to eight times the pull of gravity during his descent.

The BBC remembers how on his return to earth, Gagarin parachuted into some farmland several hundred miles from Moscow — "much to the surprise of a five-year-old girl who was out in the fields planting potatoes."

60 years later, the BBC tracked down and interviewed Interviewed that woman — who still remembered Gagarin's kind voice and smile. (Thanks to Slashdot reader 4wdloop for sharing the article.)

The BBC also published a look at Gagarin's global fame in the years that followed — and Phys.org notes that even today, there are few people more universally admired in Russia than Yuri Gagarin: His smiling face adorns murals across the country. He stands, arms at his sides as if zooming into space, on a pedestal 42.5 metres (140 feet) above the traffic flowing on Moscow's Leninsky Avenue. He is even a favourite subject of tattoos... The anniversary of Gagarin's historic flight on April 12, 1961 — celebrated every year in Russia as Cosmonautics Day — sees Russians of all ages lay flowers at monuments to his accomplishment across the country...

Gagarin, says historian Alexander Zheleznyakov, was a figure who helped fuel the imagination. "He transformed us from a simple biological species to one that could imagine an entire universe beyond Earth."

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Remembering Yuri Gagarin, the First Man in Space

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  • Into the unknown (Score:5, Insightful)

    by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Monday April 12, 2021 @05:08AM (#61262888) Homepage Journal

    Must have been quite something to go where nobody had gone before, with no clear idea what the effect would be on the human body or if the return to Earth was survivable. The capsule was tiny and there wasn't much he could do if things went badly wrong.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Modded overrated huh? So someone doesn't think that taking that incredible risk, being the first human to experience weightlessness even though at the time the effects on humans were unknown, is overrated?

      Are we still fighting the cold war or something? Oh wait, we actually are in the midst of communist panic again so maybe that's it...

      • Modded overrated huh? So someone doesn't think that taking that incredible risk, being the first human to experience weightlessness even though at the time the effects on humans were unknown, is overrated?

        More to the point, there is a bond between those who have faced the same risks even if they are on opposite political sides due to geography, political systems, etc. even during the cold war.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          This season of For All Mankind has more Soviet characters in it. They are portrayed in a very stereotypical way. Miserable, just doing their job like it's a coal mine or something with no interest in space or flight. Contrast with the Americans who are doing it for mankind, who were born to fly and explore.

          They also portrayed the Buran as a knock-off of the Shuttle, when in fact it was quite different and the engineers were actually reluctant to have it look superficially so similar but in the end conceded

          • The intention was for Buran to be much closer to the STS that it ended up being. That they were forced to make technological changes because of being unable to replicate the US approach (such as huge solid boosters, for example) completely is an entirely different matter.
            • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

              by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

              The plan was to re-use existing technology. "Forced" isn't the right word, and it wasn't done for technical reasons but rather for cost reasons.

              There is actually a plot point in For All Mankind (spoiler alert) where NASA tips the Russians off about problems with the o-rings in cold weather, because the Russian design is a carbon copy. In reality the Russians used a version of the Proton rocket, the most successful heavy lift rocket in the world with nearly 400 successful launches since it's introduction in

              • Re: (Score:1, Troll)

                If the plan was to reuse existing technology, how do RD-170 and RD-0120, both being completely new developments, fit into the picture? And what is it about Proton? Proton had nothing to do with Buran.

                "Forced" isn't the right word, and it wasn't done for technical reasons but rather for cost reasons.

                That's a distinction without a difference. You have to incur extra costs to overcome technical reasons.

                • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

                  by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

                  Energia was a development of the Proton.

                  The RD-170 was developed because they needed a heavy lift vehicle anyway and had given up on the N1 prematurely. The idea for such an engine had been around for a while but the N1 design was selected, so it was abandoned until N1 was abandoned. Of course it's possible that they saw the success of US liquid fuel heavy lift engines.

                  The RD-170 was not part of Buran though, it was part of Energia. Where as the US used solid boosters the Russians kept using liquid fuelled

                  • Energia was a development of the Proton.

                    ...are you serious? They're two completely different LVs designed by two independent design bureaus! They have literally nothing in common except for both being USSR products. That's like saying that Atlas V was a development of the Delta II (it wasn't!).

                    The RD-170 was not part of Buran though, it was part of Energia.

                    Another distinction without meaning; despite earlier plans, Energia was developed specifically for Buran.

                    As I said the Russian boosters were capable of independent operation, having their own guidance and telemetry systems, the idea being that they could be used for things other than Buran. The US design relied on the Shuttle for everything and the boosters were controlled by it.

                    Except that wasn't the original plan for the OS-120 orbiter. As I said, they were forced to change it later to the OK-92 and then to Buran.

                    And as to whe

            • Energia had been in design since the 70s. I don't think they every had SRBs in mind for it.

              • The RLA LVs (evolutionary predecessors to Energia) didn't intend that, but the OS-120 project (from which Buran ultimately developed) did.
              • Here you have some pictures of the OS-120. [buran.ru] Quoting from the book Energiya-Buran: The Soviet Space Shuttle (Hendrickx, Vis; Springer-Praxis 2007):

                This was a virtual carbon copy of the US Space Shuttle, namely a delta-wing orbiter with three LOX/LH2 main engines in the back and strapped to the side of an external fuel tank. Sadovskiy's team even went as far as studying the use of large solid-fuel rockets.

                The ultimate OS-120 concept ditched the large SRBs alternative but kept the rest of the US design (only later it evolved into the OK-92 which moved the engines to the core tank).

                • This is a fascinating site. I like the alternate and variant designs. The one that looks like it is supposed to go on top of the stack ala Dyna-Soar looked interesting.

          • The Buran was a Shuttle knock-off.
            And an improvement in some ways, and a step back in some ways.
            Saying that it was a knock-off isn't an insult to what it ended up being.

            But the fact is, the first orbiter they started making was rejected, and the next one was built using boatloads of data taken via espionage about the Shuttle program.
            It's a CNN article [nbcnews.com], but it does closely follow the historical events.
            The reason the engineers were loathe to make it look so similar, is because it was embarrassing to bui
            • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

              The article notes that the KGB did obtain some design information on the Shuttle, but then makes the leap that Buran is a copy. It's not.

              Buran looks similar on the outside because wind tunnel testing showed that was the best shape for a vehicle of that type. Internally Buran was completely different to the Shuttle, and the launch system was entirely different too. I'm sure they learned from the US programme and saved some time not pursuing ideas that the Americans had already tested and rejected, but the re

              • The OS-120 was very much a knockoff of the Shuttle. Admittedly, the other competing alternatives like the MTKVP were not -- but those didn't ultimately make it. The OS-120 did, and then they adapted its design to the RLA/Energia LV concept.
          • This season of For All Mankind has more Soviet characters in it. They are portrayed in a very stereotypical way. Miserable, just doing their job like it's a coal mine or something with no interest in space or flight. Contrast with the Americans who are doing it for mankind, who were born to fly and explore.

            Haven't seen season 2 but season 1 did a good job of showing the bonds, IMHO.

            They also portrayed the Buran as a knock-off of the Shuttle, when in fact it was quite different and the engineers were actually reluctant to have it look superficially so similar but in the end conceded because that is the ideal shape given the payload requirements.

            It seems like a lot of people believe the Russian space programme was actually like that.

            Yea, the Soviets did some interesting things and took a different tack than the uS as far as going to the Moon. NASA SP-2000-4408 "Challenge to Apollo" is a good overview of the Soviet space program.

        • Indeed, astronauts and cosmonauts are like submariners. They may technically be opponents, but the common bond makes them a peculiar family all their own. Those early astronauts were a pretty crazy bunch, strapping themselves to the top of massive engines that could best be described as tons of explosives that, if everything went right, would get them into orbit, or if things went wrong would either have them blow up on the launchpad or shortly after lift off... and then, you know, making it back alive.

          • Indeed, astronauts and cosmonauts are like submariners. They may technically be opponents, but the common bond makes them a peculiar family all their own.

            As a submariner, I agree with you and acknowledge we are a bit peculiar.

            Those early astronauts were a pretty crazy bunch, strapping themselves to the top of massive engines that could best be described as tons of explosives that, if everything went right, would get them into orbit, or if things went wrong would either have them blow up on the launchpad or shortly after lift off... and then, you know, making it back alive.

            All of which was built by the lowest bidder in the US case...

      • Re:Into the unknown (Score:4, Interesting)

        by K. S. Kyosuke ( 729550 ) on Monday April 12, 2021 @07:19AM (#61263084)
        It's not as much the weightlessness as the overall risk of simply using nascent technology to get people up -- the estimated risk of technical failure on Gagarin's flight was in mid double digits. Just R-7 launch failures alone at the point of Gagarin's flight accounted for 37% of all the launch attempts. [skyrocket.de] Compared to blowing up on the launch pad, the risk of adverse effects from weightlessness is surely somewhere far down the list.
      • They are a lot of people out there that have a problem with compartmentalization. They sometime talk about it as a bad thing, this isn't a problem of any one political spectrum but from all sides.
        Sure Yuri Gagarin was Soviet and Communist supporter, and worked hard for the Soviet Unions Stated Interests. We as Citizens of Western Countries see that political system, as against are core values and extremely dangerous. However... Yes this guy was a Brave Hero, who risked everything because there really wasn

      • Paraphrasing BaldAndBankrupt: Such wonderful people, such horrible leaders.

        I think Russians and Americans agree that their leadership is a cancer. I'm never gonna hate any people from any place I don't know again. I just wonder why assholes rule the world, there aswell as here in the west.

      • Modded overrated huh? So someone doesn't think that taking that incredible risk, being the first human to experience weightlessness even though at the time the effects on humans were unknown, is overrated?

        Are we still fighting the cold war or something? Oh wait, we actually are in the midst of communist panic again so maybe that's it...

        Have no fear, you are at 5 Interesting now.

        And it's your team that hates Russians these days, lol. You just can't forgive them for going un-communist, I guess ...

      • Most of the people with mod points seem to be idiots all around. The system itself is to easy abused. Maybe there is something to this thumbs up and down thing.

        I would suggest changing the system so that the same mod can't mod the same person more than once, per set of mod points.

        Same mod can only use one mod point per story.

        If the same mod mods one person several times in a row they lose all their mod privileges.

      • Oh wait, we actually are in the midst of communist panic again

        No we're not. That ended once it was shown that, even if somebody had lived under socialism their entire life, all it took was an absence of coercion for them to abandon it.

        Besides, it's plainly obvious that the moral panic of today is racism.

    • Re:Into the unknown (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Cyberax ( 705495 ) on Monday April 12, 2021 @05:53AM (#61262946)

      Must have been quite something to go where nobody had gone before, with no clear idea what the effect would be on the human body or if the return to Earth was survivable.

      Yup. There was even a fear that a human might go crazy in weightlessness. So Gagarin's capsule was designed to be controllable from the ground, and its controls were initially locked out. The ground control unlocked them when Gagarin established a radio connection (via Morse code!) and confirmed that he's OK.

      • I wonder if there are any citations confirming your claimed reason for it being ground-controlled.
        von Braun famously only begrudgingly conceded giving the oxygen breathing occupants of his rockets any kind of control.
        This tells me it was less about fear of insanity, and more about scientists being skeptical that pilots could perform better than the systems they designed (erroneously or not)
          • That definitely corroborates the claim, though it expands upon it a bit:

            There was an emergency key to unlock the controls, but the main concern was that Gagarin would be incapacitated by the gravitational stress of liftoff or weightlessness while in orbit. Would his heart continue to pump blood? Would his eyes function properly, his internal organs, and his brain? Since no human being had ever travelled beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, there were very real fears of the impact of the Sun’s radiation, gamma rays, or other unforeseeable dangers, or even that he might go mad.

            So that still tells me that it was more a decision made based upon the idea that ground control was just better suited, up to and including, the instance where "even that he might go mad.".

    • It's really sad that Gagarin survived the whole ordeal of first human space flight only to die aged 34 in a crash on a routine Mig-15 training flight. Some people refused to believe that this was just an accident. Most likely aliens took him out as a punishment and a warning for mankind for starting the age of spaceflight to early for our species.

    • by Astfgl ( 203296 )
      At least Yuri Gagarin (and a short time later, Alan Shepard) knew in advance that Ham had fared quite well on his spaceflight a few months prior, and hey, he was a hominid just like them...
      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Sub orbital though... The extra height may have made the difference, nobody knew back then.

  • by invid ( 163714 ) on Monday April 12, 2021 @07:03AM (#61263050)
    Growing up in the 1970s in the United States, no one ever mentioned Yuri Gagarin. We heard plenty about John Glenn and Neil Armstrong, but nothing about the first human to fly into space. I thought it was odd, as a kid, that such an achievement didn't transcend politics.
    • I didn't grow up in the 70s, but I did grow up in the 80s, and my education did include Yuri Gagarin, along with pictures, and a chapter on early Soviet space accomplishments.
      • by invid ( 163714 )
        Most of our science books were written in the 60s. I remember one saying that in the future man may walk on the moon.
        • Makes sense. I imagine my books were probably a decade old too.
          I was more saying that, in the 80s at least, in Redmond, WA, even though the country was gripped in Reagan's war against the Evil Empire, I didn't pick up any attempt at... diminishing Soviet accomplishments. The first man in space was a big deal, I remember that much, and they didn't try to overshadow it with the Mercury program or something.
        • I have an entertaining old kids book from the late 1950s--shortly after Sputnik and Explorer 1--which talks about the future of man in space. It talks about Dyna-Soar (though not with that name) and how we'll be constructing a space station (like in "2001: A Space Odyssey") and eventually go to the moon.

          It's pretty amusingly wrong.

    • The Cold War was real and pervasive. People don't appreciate it if they didn't experience it. I grew up in the same era. I don't think we were taught about Gagarin in elementary school, but they didn't straight up lie. They just gushed over "first American" this, that, etc. In high school where it's a bit more rigorous they might have explained the context; but recent history wasn't really covered anyway. History always ended with WW2 victory, maybe Korea gets covered a bit. The space program was too

    • When I was in elementary school I was taught Alan Shepard was the first man in space. It was a few years later that I learned of Yuri Gagarin. That was when I figured a lot of what was taught in public schools in the United States was bullshit, and that I had to be responsible for my own education.

    • It transcends politics for some, not for others. It's reasonable in the seventies that the moon landings were a bigger event than the first man in space. They were, In the sixties it would have been stranger if you didn't know about Gagarin.

    • Outer space was seen as a military frontier. What did you expect?
  • *BaldAndBankrupt has entered the chat*

  • by tinkerton ( 199273 ) on Monday April 12, 2021 @09:53AM (#61263630)

    I found this transcript from the famous flight but it is in Russian so I had to pull it through google translate:
    http://www.x-libri.ru/elib/inn... [x-libri.ru]
    to
    https://translate.google.com/t... [google.com]
    There are some funny bits in there, like when he wants to know whether there are sausages to accompany the booze. Lift-off is on page 7.
    Overall it is a short trip.

  • Remembering a warm body that got sent into space. What was his contribution? Not dying while he was up there?

    • What's interesting to me is that both the Soviet and the American space programs really didn't want to give astronauts/cosmonauts any real control over the craft itself, controlling everything from the ground, and yet these guys were pilots, so didn't simply want to be a "warm body". They saw, likely, the anticlimactic notion of simply being the first humans in space, but actually wanted, if things went south, some ability to at least try to control the craft (not that it would not have done them that much

  • by frdmfghtr ( 603968 ) on Monday April 12, 2021 @12:22PM (#61264426)

    Why was there an override code that wasnâ(TM)t intended to be available to the pilot without the ok from the ground? Seems to me the last thing you want on an emergency is a secret code locking the pilot out of the manual controls.

    (Unless there was concern that Gagarin would take manual control and land in the US)

    • Why was there an override code that wasnâ(TM)t intended to be available to the pilot without the ok from the ground? Seems to me the last thing you want on an emergency is a secret code locking the pilot out of the manual controls.

      (Unless there was concern that Gagarin would take manual control and land in the US)

      It was because they weren't sure what being in space would do to an astronaut's mind. Remember, until then they'd only sent animals to space, so they didn't have any data on the mental effects on a human being. So they wanted to be able to deny him control in case he started acted crazy.

  • he experienced forces up to eight times the pull of gravity during his descent

    If he was in free-fall, wouldn't the only force acting on him be 1x the pull of gravity? Where does the other 7x come from?

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