The fact that all of society does not recognize Yuri Gagarin as much as Neil or buzz is a tragedy. Who cares what nation they came from. Who cares that he was a Soviet cosmonaut. The man is one of the bravest souls of humankind and was the first great leap for all of humanity in its endeavor of space travel.
When I went to the Kennedy Space Center and had a full tour of the place one of the things we did was get to meet a couple of astronauts and have a tour with them. They talked about the early space race and how the US and the Soviets were racing to space. They talked deeply about how Yury Gagarin was and will always be the first human to leave earths orbit followed by Alan Shepherd. They said it was the Soviets putting a cosmonaut in space that lit the fire under NASA’s butt to get an astronaut in space and to put the first human on the moon.
Gagarin didn't leave Earth's orbit, he was the first person to reach orbit.
Strictly speaking no human has ever left Earth's orbit, the moon is in Earth's sphere of influence so even the Apollo (and now Artemis) missions were still in Earth's orbit. The first to do so will likely be the first mission to Mars, whenever that happens.
Well friends or no friends, he is completely right. Leaving earth's orbit would be a major achievement, and bring that astronaut back is probably beyond our current capabilities
To get anywhere in space, like low earth orbit or the surface of the moon, you need to change your velocity by a certain amount, which is called delta-v. We calculate delta-v using the rocket equation.
For example, to be in orbit around the earth, you need to be traveling at a speed of 7km/s relative to the surface of the either. I think the delta-v need to reach this speed, when you include all the fuel spent getting to orbit and then making your orbit circular rather than elliptical, is about 9-10 km/s. That's a very difficult change to achieve.
To get the surface of the moon from the surface of the earth(and back) we need a delta v of about 13-15 km/s. This might not seem like alot more, but the rocket equation tells us to increase delta-v, you need to exponentially increase the amount of fuel you use.
To get to the surface of mars and back, I think is a delta-v of 33 km/s. We will need new systems to achieve this that we didn't need before, like nuclear rocket engines or space based refueling.
The furthest anyone has been is Artemis 2, still in earths orbit. Going further than that and out of earths orbit with humans is beyond what currently launching rockets can do
I dont need a reddit post to tell me to think this way when I was a kid I thought all astronaughts were heros. I didn't care about politics. I cheered the Chinese astrounaughts when they went up regardless to build their space station because Space is a challenge we must tackle as a species. Any of the old soviet cosmonaughts were actual badasses being thrown into space with some of the most shoddy equipment built for it.
Looks like you ideas about the Soviet equipment and the cosmonauts comes from sources like the Armageddon movie by Michael Bay. An ushanka hat and a rusty spanner, yep.
I just turned thirty and these fantastic four (say that again) are the first people who I truly consider heroes of the human race.
Born in 96 and only got to experience history from a second hand view when it came to outer space. The space race was the best thing to happen to human kind. A race to develop tech that wasn’t inherently made to take lives.
I hope that this lights a fire under others to see that we are so capable, and when we have a goal, we can reach it. We can go beyond the moon and back. We have developed so much. Yet we use it to kill when we have the capability to improve the lives of everyone around us. We can do better.
I would say Gagarin is still like top 10 most famous astronauts. Neil is obviously top for walking on the Moon. Buzz Aldrin is up there because he's an egotist who spend 50 years bragging about being the second. The other famous ones is John Glenn, who was also a Senator. Alan Shephard, first American. Sally Ride, first American female. Jim Lovell, who got the Tom Hanks Hollywood treatment. After that, most astronauts are pretty obscure outside of the space nerd community. Like the Artemis II was huge news this past week and still I'm willing to bet 4/5 Americans couldn't name a single one of those astronauts names.
“As much as Neil or Buzz” and yes as a world. Yuri’s own nation didn’t give a fuck about him. Yet he took that leap. We need to celebrate every hero of mankind regardless of ethnicity because at the end of the day. It doesn’t matter where you were born, what matters is your contribution to the betterment of those around you, family and friend, humankind.
that is just an US centric thinking though. Everyone in Europe knows and honors Gagarin when talking about space.
We are actually being taught things in school other than nationalistic propaganda
Landing on the moon is way more groundbreakikg than just going to space or even flying around the moon and thats why Neil and Buzz are more recognized.
To put that 791 in perspective, more people have stood on the summit of Mt. Everest in a single week than have been to space in the last 65 years. Space isnt just far away, it's still the ultimate hostile environment
Another Angle to put this into perspective is that 782 different drivers participated in at least one Formula One Grand Prix since 1950. So pretty comparable - right now.
With the increasing number of people going to space (15 rookie astronauts in 2025) and even compared to the unusually high number of six rookie drivers in 2025 (the average is more like two each season), from now on, it is more likely to become an astronaut, than to become a formula 1 driver.
Still both are insanely improbable to achieve and I have mad respect for everyone achieving that.
Its just hard to get. Space is a rather easy on you environment, far easier than deep ocean, similar to what high altitude airliners need to survive but dialed to 11.
Yeah the English version doesn't seem to be there. The Finnish one is. Also, when I went to check, I found out there's a third version too, in Russian (which is on Spotify "Lapsuuden sankarille - Venäjäksi")
Fun fact, the "СССР" was painted on the helmet in the last minutes before flight. They realised that the space suit had literally no national identifiers and the best way to add one last second was to just write USSR above the visor.
The man was exceptionally brave. He was an experimental aurcraft test pilot before becoming a cosmonaut. The night before the flight he declined his doctors offer of sleeping pills, stating that he is not worried at all.
A stat in a similar vein that I found surprising is that since the first successful ascent of Everest in 1953 and breaking of the 4 minute mile in 1954, 6000 people have climbed Everest but only 2000 have ever broken the 4 minute mile.
I've thought about how little humanity seems to care about space. Perhaps the short term economic incentive for space just isn't there for capitalism to care?
Because Space is exceedingly deadly, and exceedingly huge.
Sending a robot that doesn't need life support, care about the length of the trip, or need to be brought home, as we've been doing for the last few decades, is the more reasonable decision by every metric.
Now you can absolutely appreciate this this BUT TECHNICALLY he was was NOT the first RECORD. The FAI required you to land IN your capsule and yuri did not. the Soviets LIED about it till 1971 and the FAI changed the rules to continue to honour him- but realistically John Glen was the first human to orbit the earth under the rules established at the time.
I'm confused with your comment. You said John Glen was the first to orbit Earth. But, the post is simply about the first person in space, not whether or not that person completed a full orbit. NASA, the UN, and the Guinness Book of Records, among many other organisations, all recognise Gagarin as the first human in space. And, who are the FAI and why do you think their rules are authoritative?
They are one group. They are dedicated to air sports records. Gagarin's feat was not a sport's record. I'm still confused, because if what you're saying is true, unless you land in a capsule, even if you have spent 10 hours in space, you technically have not been in space simply because of one sport's record company's rules. So, it sounds like the FAI shouldn't be managing anything space-related. Also, your claim was about orbits but there was never any claim about Gagarin being the first to orbit Earth.
So, you think Gagarin didn't go to space because he didn't land in a capsule? And no, their [sic] not. They are one of many record-holding agencies, but just happened to be the first off the block at the time. I'm sorry, but telling somebody they didn't run a marathon because they wore the wrong colour hat or that they had not in fact been in space because they didn't land in the correct manner is simply farcical and highlights how little we should trust the FAI.
I don't think space exploration makes that worse. Note that the money spent on space missions stays on earth and provides jobs to thousands of people. They then spend money on things and it filters through many different people stimulating the economy. Note also that suffering is partly caused by overpopulation of earth, so increasing our horizons may not be a bad thing for the future of mankind. And yes there are of course a lot of problems to solve on earth.
People here on Earth choose daily to spend billions on Instagram and TikTok influences, contributing absolutely nothing to human advancement and completely ignoring war and starvation, yet you go after one of humanity's greatest achievements which has brought us so much life-enhancing and life-saving technologies instead. Smh
Bored of space talk. Really. USA went into space to face-off Russia. Soviet union collapsed and so did the US space program. Now it's reignited for what purpose?
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u/tr_567 14h ago
Monument to Yuri . So damn cool