To ask you to look at these beautiful faces and remember them?

[Burgersandfries]

60 years ago the man with a beautiful smile, Yury Gagarin (left) became the first human ever to go to space. All thanks to the genius of a man next to him, Sergey Korolev (right), who is truly the father of modern space exploration!
I’m feeling a bit sad that our media are more interested in pubs reopening rather than one of the greatest achievements of humanity on this day... These men should be celebrated way more, especially Sergey Korolev, a genius scientist and wonderful human being!
So I guess my AIBU is
AIBU - eh, I couldn’t care less
AINBU - yes, let’s have more coverage about this amazing leap of science!

I watched a video on the BBC about it (and I've saved it to show my children later). He did indeed have a lovely smile.

There was a piece about him and the event on the Today programme on R4 this morning. Just imagine being the first person in space!

Couldn't care less to be honest. Space just doesn't interest me. How many billions have been spent on space exploration that could have been better spent on earth?

I watched a very interesting doc (here in Italy) about it all, and how he was chosen.
It's amazing isn't it to think they managed to do all that with the technology available at the time.

That is a lovely tribute to them thank you x

I remember looking him up in the last year or so, as I didn't know what happened to him. He died young in a plane crash . This era of space exploration is really interesting, for the politics if nothing else, but he was the first to successfully travel to space and return. I do believe that others went first, but didn't return successfully. Anyone else heard of the radio messages intercepted of a woman screaming in Russian, apparently as returned to earth?

That's a lovely thought @Burgersandfries.
I think space travel and exploration is one of the Grand ambitions of the human race, as well as the arts, science and philosophy. I would rather that a lot of my taxes went to it rather than the usual band aid on the other side of the coin, human mediocrity.

@ShesMadeATwatOfMePam that’s quite a common misconception about the importance of space exploration. Not to bore you here is a snapshot of everyday things that we have thanks to it

I didn't know tbh, but thank you for this. I'll have a look to see if there is a programme to show my son too. That must have been amazing for him

I saw an interview with a lady who was a 5year old girl planting potatoes in a field with her grandma when Gagarin descended from the sky... they both got scared until he smiled and said that he came from a ship in the sky imagine being that girl!

Thanks, Burgersandfries, for posting this. This day should remind us that space is a vast wonder for the humanity to explore. We can use it to test our potential, to develop it, to become better human beings. It is not there to be exploited, to be polluted, fought-over, mined using dirty methods and used as a playground for the rich who can pay for space entertainment cruises.

"Beyond" by Stephen Walker is 99p on Kindle deals today. It's the story of Yuri Gagarin and his achievements.

@PissedOffProf couldn’t agree more!

I’d like to add to my OP that while Gagarin deserves all our respect and admiration (and someone may even have an unhealthy crush on a historic figure ), there is so much more to be said about Sergey Korolev, the brain behind engineering the spaceship and all relevant technology of the day!
His genius and the strength of spirit never ceased to amaze me. Young, bright physicist was arrested in 1938 on false colleague’s accusations (needless to say the “confessions “ were done under torture), was tortured and sentenced to 6 years in a labour camp.
He survived inhumane conditions by sheer miracle and upon returning to his work, despite being a rocket engineer, became one of the main scientists behind demilitarisation of space exploration in USSR. Not only was he a genius scientist, he was an exceptional leader who handpicked his team working on designing the spaceship. His sudden death in 1966 in cited as the main reason why USSR lost the Moon landing race to the USA. Sadly his achievements had been publicly recognised in USSR only after his death

I must agree with @ShesMadeATwatOfMePam to a certain extent. I do see that many amazing things were invented for space exploration that have applications elsewhere, but it certainly would have been possible to have developed those things specifically for their (now) purposes.

Thank you.

(Although I almost didn't click on this as I thought it was going to be about children who had died or something).

I went to the Space Centre in Leicester a couple of years ago and it was fascinating. I also have a soft spot for poor Laika, it wasn't released until relatively recently that she died of heat exhaustion a couple of hours into the flight rather than euthanised before she died of hunger, as has been planned.

It's such a shame that Gagarin died so young.

I agree, OP, that it’s important to be inspired what human determination and ingenuity can achieve.
Unfortunately, nowadays we should really be focusing all our resources and ingenuity here on our own planet, on not destroying its ecosystems and the natural marvels of hundreds of millions of years of evolution and keeping as much of it as possible habitable for humans. Yes it’s amazing to see pictures from Mars, but pragmatically it’s not actually a priority for humanity.

@ShesMadeATwatOfMePam

...and where would we be without the non-stick frying pan...? 🍳

@Mochudubh poor old Laika! I grew up with an image of a happy dog in a spaceship, so reeled for days as an adult when learnt about her fate
@Geamhradh thank you, will definitely have a look
@KizzyWayfarer the way I see it - please bear with me with this one - in 5 billion years the sun will be dying and in the process will engulf our planet... hopefully the humanity will have conquered space travel and will have left our poor planet. I see pictures from Mars as baby steps towards that distant future as it takes immense amount of genius, hard work and resources and trial and error before we get there. However I do agree with you that we have more pressing issues on our planet at the moment and there is a big fat chance there’ll be no humanity/planet to save in 5billion years

I've never seen a photo- that's a great one. Thank you for posting

You asked if people care. I still don't care. Space travel isn't interesting to me. It's mildly interesting that humans can travel to space, but i equally wouldn't care if they couldn't.

[quote Burgersandfries]@ShesMadeATwatOfMePam that’s quite a common misconception about the importance of space exploration. Not to bore you here is a snapshot of everyday things that we have thanks to it [/quote]
I also like the story of how the US spent ages developing a pen and ink they could use in space- Soviet solution? Used a pencil !
Thanks for posting- fascinating subject

The story about the pencil vs pen. They had to develop a pen, as a pencil is hazardous in space. When the pens had been developed, the Russians used them too!

www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-nasa-spen/

.and where would we be without the non-stick frying pan..

And GPS, exponentially accurate weather forecasts, early warning systems, communications networks, discovery of the ozone hole. SPACEGUARD asteroid detection system etc. I could go on.

Poverty of ambition and wonder is still poverty.

The wheels did come off the Soviet space program after Koroliev's death but the Russians are still the masters at living in space.