50th Anniversary Of Human Space Travel

Fifty years ago, on April 12th 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, made history, by becoming the first human to orbit the earth. The 108-minute flight hailed as the greatest feat in Soviet Space history, also helped reignite interest in space exploration.

Squeezed into a tiny capsule that was fitted at the top of a rocket dubbed Vostok 1, Mr. Gagarin blasted off into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, located in the south of the Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, with two simple words - 'Let's go'!

Traveling at speeds that had never been attained before, the spacecraft broke free of the Earth's gravitational pull, reaching a height of 203 miles above the globe, before smoothly sliding into the earth's orbit. Once in orbit, it circled the entire planet once at a speed of about 17,000 miles per hour, before flawlessly re-entering the earth's atmosphere and landing back on Russian soil.

While the rest of the world waited with abated breath, Mr. Gagarin it seems was totally relaxed. Minutes before epic take off, he was whistling and singing and his only worry seemed to be if he had enough sausages to last him through the flight. And, while the flight seemed flawless, there were some harrowing moments - At one point he was cut off completely from communication, while on another occasion, officials were heard asking him to use adhesive tape on a piece of equipment because they had forgotten to secure it. Then, there was the time when the mission control asked him to adjust the access hatch because one of the contacts failed to light up at the mission control panel.

Also, since no human had ever encountered weightlessness before, the scientists had no idea what it would feel like or do to the cosmonaut - Some were afraid that it might make him crazy. Luckily, it was fine, and according to Mr. Gagarin, felt like he was swimming!

The successful trip not only made Yuri Gagarin a hero, but also sparked off an intense Space Race between the USA and what was then known as the Soviet Union. Within just four months, Alan Shepard became the first American to make a sub-orbital flight - And there have been hundreds since then. Unfortunately, Mr. Gagarin did not live long enough to see what he had instigated, because he passed away in a plane crash in 1968.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of this historical day, documentary filmmaker, Christopher Riley, recreated Mr. Yuri's 108-minute voyage by extracting video and audio footage from the original flight and combining it with new footage filmed from the International Space Station. Dubbed First Orbit, it is a spellbinding film that depicts in almost exact detail the orbital path taken by the Vostok 1, fifty years ago. Pretty Amazing!

Resources: NASA.gov.mission, enwikipedia.org, telegraph.co.uk, christiansciencemonitor.com