Sunday, April 12, 2015

54 Years of Space Age

It was on April 12, 1961, that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics opened the age of manned space exploration. Just 3,5 years after it launched the first Sputnik.

Thousands people remember the day alike:
We were sitting in classroom, when school administrator run in and cried: "Switch on the radio! Man in space!"
The day became a spontaneous day off, day of celebration of the great, but already expected achievment.

Time cover of April 1961, devoted to Yuri Gagarin's first space flight. 

Yuir Gagarin in the cabin of Vostok space ship during preflight check.
Gagarin in Vostok's cabin
during preflight checks before takeoff.
Not that I am going to say that the Time lied; but it was surely not fully correct. And the matter is not the space suit invented by the magazine cover's artist.

Just like the USSR was more than Russia (which was the biggest and, say, the first among the equal, but nevertheless one of fifteen Soviet republics), so Gagarin was more than Russia's. He was surely Russian; bu first of all he was Soviet. He was a young, exemplary Soviet man. Surely, a Communist party member.

What is the most important and impressive about this day, is that the invincible power of Soviet rocket science put Yuri into space less than 16 years after the USSR survived he most devastating and exhausting war in history.

This is one of those true miracles the Soviet history showed to the world.

I feel a great pity for all those who were afraid of its successes. That is, victims of traditional Russophobic propaganda war that is still carried on.

No comments:

Post a Comment