Yuri Gagarin and RF

Yuri had huge cajones IMO. :D

When I look at fifty year old cars and realise that they were made when the Russians shot this gutsy fighter pilot into space ... I'm all the more impressed!
 
Keith said:
Yuri had huge cajones IMO. :D

When I look at fifty year old cars and realise that they were made when the Russians shot this gutsy fighter pilot into space ... I'm all the more impressed!
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Definitely, and when you chuck in that award winning smile of his you'd have a hard time thinking of him as representing the enemy in the cold war. It is a real pity he died young in a training flight.

Bob
 
Keith said:
When I look at fifty year old cars and realise that they were made when the Russians shot this gutsy fighter pilot into space ... I'm all the more impressed!
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Keith: I grew up in that era living very close to Cape Canaveral / USAF Eastern Test Range / Kennedy Space Flight Center so have first hand memories. It is truly amazing to now see the equipment used on those first space flights. Much adapted equipment such as the oil derrick that was used for the launch platform or computers that took up an entire room but had less computing power than today's smart phones. You look at the tiny size of some of the early capsules and the rockets they sat on top off, the early successful flight vs. disastrous failure ratios and really appreciate the heroics of those guys.
 
The only thing more ballsy than making use of aerospace technology built by the lowest bidder, is traveling in a Soviet air/spacecraft ;)
 
MC JC86 said:
The only thing more ballsy than making use of aerospace technology built by the lowest bidder, is traveling in a Soviet air/spacecraft ;)
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I've travelled in Soviet aircraft a lot. Interesting to find that this makes me "ballsy" :D

However, actually they're not that bad - the overall safety record of, say, the Il-62 or even the Yak-40 or Tu-154 is pretty decent and actually quite comparable to Western planes of the same period, in particular if you consider the sheer numbers built. It's time for phasing them out, though, they're getting really old.

What worries me more is bad maintenance. There are these moments when you sit down in a Tajik Yak-42, and you see that it used to be operated by Trans Air Congo and that they barely painted over the logo, and suddenly you remember that the airline is blacklisted in Europe for failing to meet maintenance regulations. In those moments I tend to be rather grateful to the Soviet engineers for designing their planes as rugged as they did!
 
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Bob Michaels said:
Keith: I grew up in that era living very close to Cape Canaveral / USAF Eastern Test Range / Kennedy Space Flight Center so have first hand memories. It is truly amazing to now see the equipment used on those first space flights. Much adapted equipment such as the oil derrick that was used for the launch platform or computers that took up an entire room but had less computing power than today's smart phones. You look at the tiny size of some of the early capsules and the rockets they sat on top off, the early successful flight vs. disastrous failure ratios and really appreciate the heroics of those guys.
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Dear Bob,

Yes. I saw Yura's capsule in Moskva 21 years ago. Like a large cannonball, cf. Jules Verne. I'va also been to the Cape Canaveral museum. They were all heroes (and sometimes heroines), regardless of the ideology of the country that bred them.

Cheers,

R.
 
Roger Hicks said:
They were all heroes (and sometimes heroines), regardless of the ideology of the country that bred them.
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In addition, Yuri Gagarin also seems to have been an extremely nice guy, with a good sense of humour - pretty much all accounts seem to agree on this.

Here's an excerpt from the transcript of communications between Gagarin and rocket designer Korolev on mission control, immediately before liftoff (source, translation mine):

[Korolev] - Excellent, outstanding. Remember that after a minute of alert you'll have six minutes for all sorts of things. Over.
[Gagarin] - I am completely calm.
(a few exchanges with mission control)
[Korolev] - Understood. "Pine", this is "Zarya-1". We'll be talking to you now. I ask you, if you have the time, to switch on your shortwave system and talk. Count up to twenty. If you have the time and if you aren't occupied. Do you understand? Over.
[Gagarin] - "Zarya-1", this is "Pine". I understood you. I'll get down to the task now.
[Korolev] - What will you do?
[Gagarin] - I'll check the shortwave link.
(noises)
[Korolev] - There are some tubes in the box - lunch, dinner and breakfast.
[Gagarin] - I see.
[Korolev] - Understood?
[Gagarin] - Understood.
[Korolev] - There's sausage, dragees and jam to eat with the tea.
[Gagarin] - Ah.
[Korolev] - Understood?
[Gagarin] - Understood.
[Korolev] - 63 pieces all in all, you'll put on weight.
[Gagarin] - (laughs)
[Korolev] - As soon as you touch down, you can eat it all.
[Gagarin] - Fine with me as long as there's sausage to eat with the moonshine vodka.
(Everybody laughs)
[Korolev] - Damn, they're recording all this after all. (Laughs)
 
They were all explorers of the finest and bravest kind. But that was in another century - when mankind in general appreciated good hands-on, you gotta go there in person exploration. Seat of the pants having a look see while strapping yourself to a big ol roman candle. Today's spawn is more interested in exploring what's on the next channel or reading the next facebook/tweet entry. To think we wasted our genes on the current pathetic what can my government do for me crowd.
 
Ken Smith said:
They were all explorers of the finest and bravest kind. But that was in another century - when mankind in general appreciated good hands-on, you gotta go there in person exploration. Seat of the pants having a look see while strapping yourself to a big ol roman candle. Today's spawn is more interested in exploring what's on the next channel or reading the next facebook/tweet entry. To think we wasted our genes on the current pathetic what can my government do for me crowd.
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Agreed. Everything now sucks. Everything used to be awesome.
 
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