12 April of 1961. The day when the man left his home planet for the first time. The first day of new age - or at least it was supposed to be.
…the laptop I’m using to type this post has much more “rocket science” in it than any actual rocket of 60s or 70s. But MacBook is not one of the words that makes me to believe in incredible, unlimited powers of mankind. Sputnik-1, Vostok-1, Apollo-11 - these are the words.
When will we learn any new words of that sort, I wonder?..
The Space Age began with Sputnik, October 4, 1957, so we are already 50 years into the Space Age. However, if you wanted to change your title to “Man in Space” I would then agree with you.
See Denny’s APOD thread for today. It calls Earth “Yuri’s Planet” in honour of Yuri Gagarin.
djm
..
Poor Laika. I’m not sure she volunteered.
Now, had dogs built and launched Laika’s rocket I wouldn’t feel so bad.
At least they built a statue of her, I think.
One analogy I make is that the space age will be on a time table similar to the colonization of the New World. The first steps to space are like Columbus’ first voyages to the Caribbean. The first colonies took many years to established, and many were mining communities. Jamestown was the first permanent English speaking colony in 1607 over 100 years after Columbus.
It may be that space will be settled in a similar time frame, with 1969 marking the first steps on the moon. The International Space Station, a permanent outpost of sorts. More permanent progress looks like it may on a similar 100 year timeline or 2070.
Monument to Laika: http://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/04/11/laikamonument.jpg
That’s a collection of metal Mr T would be proud of!
That’s a collection of metal Mr T would be proud of!
That’s not too much compared to this:
Georgy Zhukov, soviet marshal. But just like in case with Gagarin, his collection (and this monument just near kremlin) are well-deserved: this is the commander of soviet army during the WW2 (Great Patriotic war, as we call it). In winter of 42, when he took the command, german tanks were in few kilometers from Moscow and Volga, but in 44 nazis were completely driven out from USSR, and in spring of 45 soviet tanks entered Berlin.
Oh, I’m glad there’s a monument to Laika! Poor creature. We humans (all of us) have done some nasty things to other creatures in the name of our “progress.”
Your English is lovely, by the way! Better than my Irish, frankly, and I’ve been studying that for four years.
Redwolf
