Today is the forty-ninth anniversary of the first human spaceflight (and human in orbit). Yuri Gagarin orbited the earth (or almost orbited the earth — it’s unclear if he can be said to have gone quite all the way around) on this date in 1961, which means that next year will be a half century of human spaceflight. It’s also the twenty-ninth anniversary of the first Shuttle flight, so if the program is shut down on schedule, it will have flown for almost exactly thirty years. Let’s hope that the next half century sees much more progress than the last one did.
9 thoughts on “Two Space Anniversaries”
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Personally I just hope in 50 years we get to where we were 40 years ago and that is having the ability to send astronauts to continue the exploration of the Moon that was cut short when NASA went chasing after CATS in the form of the Shuttle. Lower technology costs rarely come from policies featuring technology push, historically they are driven by technology being pulled by demand.
Another interesting fact about Yuri Gagarin’s first flight is that he had to bail out of his capsule. His vehicle was not manufactured with a parachute.
Let’s hope that the next half century sees much more progress than the last one did.
Which reminds me of Zubrin’s argument which many dismiss too easily I think. Government organizations (any of them) will gladly suck up the taxpayers money with little to show for it unless forced to accomplish something specific. OTOH, sucking up money and not accomplishing anything can also happen even with somewhat specific goals as we’ve seen with VSE and the wrong person at the helm. I don’t know. I’m for eliminating the NASA altogether even if some small percentage of the money it gets has some positive results.
Another interesting fact about Yuri Gagarin’s first flight is that he had to bail out of his capsule. His vehicle was not manufactured with a parachute.
That’s inaccurate. The Vostok capsule had a parachute but the impact speed was pretty high. Gagarin ejected on the way down and landed separately from the capsule, a fact that was carefully covered up by the Soviets. Under international rules, for an aerospace world record to count, the pilot has to remain with the vehicle.
But, he was in orbit, as defined by velocity, right? So it would be correct to say he orbited the earth, but may not have gone all the way around it.
The next half century will see much more progress, but not because of the astronauts.
Personally I just hope in 50 years we get to where we were 40 years ago
Now there’s a recipe for progress.
Googaw,
Given the lack of it as we have chased after CATS for the last 40 years and are still chasing after it yes.
Tom, there is much more to space development than CATS, or even CRATS. There is for example increasing the functionality or value per kilogram of payload, and on that score we have been remarkably successful over the last 50 years and will continue to make rapid progress over the next several decades. And during those decades we will likely see the rise of ISRU, which will lower the cost per kilogram in an entirely different way.