Ralf Roggeveen
Charter Member
Just to remind you Earthlings that today is the 50th anniversary of the first man in space, Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. For reasons which some of you may have worked out, I've always been very interested in his achievement and I have read this book - quite good.
Basically he just rode an ICBM of course, all he had to do was open the door and jump out at the right moment on the way back. Was partly selected for parachute skills - the early cosmonauts did not return with their ships which simply crashed to earth. The Russians covered that fact up, since it negated altitude records which they then claimed unfairly. Gagarin was selected because he came from a more working class background than the other guy. The book also tells you a lot about the Soviet space programme which was extremely well carried out, as their success in 1961 shows. It is suggested that he may have been murdered - possibly by Brezhnev - since he died in a silly accident in a MiG-21, an aircraft that should have been foolproof to such a good pilot. All the fame and having to travel round everywhere afterwards went to his head a bit too.
I like this picture of him (possibly not in that book) with a crazy cool car that someone gave him... Wonder if any of you can i/d the type?
Anyway, like I said, a good book - tragic story.
BTW: Someone asked him 'What did the moon look like from close up?' And he said: '****! I forgot to look at it!'
to Ferry - Matra Djet, given to Gagarin by, guess who? - the French. He's parked near the very impressive Soviet Space Memorial (in Moscow I think). You may be right about the MiG, Hurri - but it definitely wasn't an experimental or particularly difficult aircraft for him to fly.