50 years in space

[squirrel]

Today is the 50th anniversary of manned space flight.

If you are wondering about the BS connection....think about those brave guys sitting on top of a powder keg, which was built by the lowest bidder!

[Gary 351C]

Re: 50 years in space

Every time I watch a "space" show on Science Channel, Discovery or Nat Geo, etc. I wonder where we would be if the space program (NASA) had not lost the momentum it had in 1969.

[70chevyC-10]

Re: 50 years in space

Today is the 50th anniversary of manned space flight.

If you are wondering about the BS connection....think about those brave guys sitting on top of a powder keg, which was built by the lowest bidder!

And the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War too. Where powder kegs were literally just that.
And one hundred years from the start of the Civil War off into space.

[squirrel]

Re: 50 years in space

I realized that this morning as I was reading Smithsonian magazine...Ft Sumter happened 150 years ago today.

[DanStokes]

Re: 50 years in space

I was there guys, and let me tell ya, it was ROUGH. Most don't know that we called him "Francis Scott OFF-Key"! 40 miles up hill, both directions, etc, etc.

Dan

I realized that this morning as I was reading Smithsonian magazine...Ft Sumter happened 150 years ago today.

[Junk Whisperer]

Re: 50 years in space

Russia will ALWAY'S be the 1'st. America,allway's LAST : ;D. Glad I'm half Russian. ~J/W.

[Monk]

Re: 50 years in space

My buddy dated a girl who thought
she was an astronaut........

she thought her
ass was out of this world

[Junk Whisperer]

Re: 50 years in space

Smart Ass ;D ;D! ~J/W.

[fast Ed]

Re: 50 years in space

Great animation on the Google home page today to honour Gagarin's historic flight ...


cheers
Ed N.

[squirrel]

Re: 50 years in space

I had to enable javascript to see it....neat!

[pdub]

Re: 50 years in space

RE: 50 years in space, from the American side, it's all presented in Tom Wolfe's book "The Right Stuff." Not sure if you can even find it in print anymore, but there it is.

More potential astronauts got killed in Corvettes on US1 in Florida than ever got killed flying planes or flying space rockets. The dealer in Cocoa Beach GAVE the astronauts Vettes to get some publicity for their dealership, and well, guys got killed racing them, drunk in the middle of the night.

It's all there in the book. Tom Wolfe also wrote The Search for Red October and got called to Congress because they wanted to know how he got such classified information about submarines. He got grilled.

The Movie "The Right Stuff" was based on Wolfe's book of the same title about the Mercury astronauts, and the movie was about 3 hours long. Too long, like Gone With The Wind. But the movie barely touched on the content of the book, barely touched it all, and stretched some of it as well, as Hollywood does.

Gus Grissom nearly sank the space program when his Mercury capsule SANK, after he blew the hatch too early after landing in the ocean. The capsule flooded, somehow he got out, but he was just about to drown from the weight of rolls of coins and other souveniers he had loaded into his space suit, with an idea to sell them as things that had been into space. The broadcasters were saying, "Gus is waving in celebration as he floats in the ocean"....when in fact he was waving for rescue. He was about to drown, and he and his spacecraft were never supposed to be separated after landing. The press then didn't know what was going on, sort of like when the press covers disasters now. We've got a picture, and they talk. They just talk. No idea what they are even looking at themselves on the TV screen.

Anyhow, read the book. The Right Stuff. That was an amazing and inspiring period in the history of our nation and the progress of technology, but it wasn't nearly as squeaky clean as Life Magazine and the rest of the press were leading us to believe at the time. That was the 60's. We believed what the TV or radio said, and bowed down in honor when the President was speaking.

My, how things have changed over the years.