Yuri Says: Reach for the Stars.
While Yuri Gagarin was no Joe Kittinger, he was the first man to orbit the earth, strapped into a tiny sphere mounted on top of a ballistic missile which blasted into space. Today marks the 50th anniversary of his orbit, a milestone moment for our recorded history of the first man in space.
Excelsior 3 floated up 16 August 1960 and brought Joe Kittinger to the edge of the Atmosphere in a hot air balloon, six months before Gagarin blasted up in the Vostok.. The earth’s atmosphere just kinda tapers off, there is really no hard edge, so for my dollar, Kittinger is probably the first man in space. The one thing is for sure, he is the most hardcore human that ever lived, sitting in an open hot air balloon in a molded space suit for an hour and a half, drifting up to 103,000 feet and then promptly jumping out, reaching 9/10 the speed of sound on his descent, without an aircraft. Simply not possible to top this. Ever.
Like all good Soviet tales, Gagarin and his mission are shrouded in a weave of coverup and makes for an amazing story now that towns have been renamed because of it considering many details are out in the open. My good friend Steve Korver has been working on a book about the world’s most revered cosmonaut and has just published a teaser available here for the upcoming work.
Dont suspect to see any Street Art like this in America any time soon, or many people celebrating Gagarin over here in general, but this bit of stencil and spray paint was almost the coolest thing I saw in Prague last time I was there. Few things make as much sense as that union.
Hard to believe, with the pace that our technology has progressed that space flight is just only fifty years old. Spend a moment to think about that while you are out today celebrating Gagarin Day, and have a happy one at that.