Home Mobile version About spikedWhat is spiked? Support spikedspikedshop Contact us Advertising Summer school Top issues Abolish the monarchy Abortion Afghanistan Arab uprisings British politics China Economy Environment Film Free speech Nudge Obesity Parents and kids Population Religion and atheism USA View all issues... Online debates Google and privacy After Copenhagen View all debates... Letters Review ofBooks Events Monthly archive selected authors Daniel Ben-Ami Tim Black Tuesday 12 April 2011 James Woudhuysen Yuri Gagarin’s brave, brilliant leap into the dark On the 50th anniversa ry of the first manned spaceflight, James Woudhuysen praises Gagarin’s daring - and says we need more of it today. Printer-friendly version Email-a-frie nd Respond Yuri Gagarin was my hero. For a child just nine years old on 12 April 1961, the day he flew into space, he appeared intrepid, unassuming, and cool. Above all, he appeared in black and white. This was not the glossy, sunlit, bright blue Florida-sky ethic ofAmerican efforts in space, all NASA aluminium foil and silver crewcuts in magazines such as Life. No, with Gagarin there was something grittier, more documentary, something altogether scarier than Cape Canaveral. Russia’s success in putting a man into space was, for a child of the West, also a success for grainy monochrome photography and flickering video footage. The mission was dark, seemingly shot at night, and redolent of the air of conspiracy that, in the year of the Berlin Wall going up, surrounded Nikita Khruschev’s Soviet Union. Or maybe that’s just a man’s memory playing tricks. In those days, after all, all TV was black and white. But the unmistakable thing about the headlines and the publicity and the genuine celebrations that surrounded this particular celebrity was how strongly they loved both the man and his endeavour. And this was all the more remarkable given the bad light, almost literally, in which the Soviet Union was then regarded. The launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnikin 1957 had been a shock to the West. Now, in another surprise gambit, Moscow thumped home its apparent technological superiority over Washington. And yet there was something so smiley, calm, innocent and youthful about Gagarin that people in the West could, with him, forget all about the conflict between capitalism and what was thought to be communism. Gagarin’s achievement was for humanity – to conquer space, gravity, the limitations ofthis planet. His name was spiky but easily pronounced, and his easy demeanour was not that of an irascible Soviet apparatchik: recognisably Slavic, he was one of us. At seven miles a second, he had achieved escape velocity and circumnavi gated the Earth in just 108 minutes. Unlike Alan Shepard, who had done a simple up-and-down flight before him, there was nothing ‘sub-orbital’ about Gagarin. Obviously, Stalin’s successors milked the occasion, for they had few other heroes they deemed proper for foreign consumption. But even the Soviet bureaucrats couldn’t manage to sour the cream. When Gagarin, who had first trained as a foundry worker, flew to Manchester to receive a medal from the Amalgamated Union of Foundry Workers, thousands mobbed him, and crowds overwhelmed the police. Later, through an interpreter and in a car park, he briefly addressed a large crowd of workers from AEI’s factories at Trafford Park and beyond. ‘There is plenty of room’, he observed, ‘for all in outer space. Plenty of room for the Americans, the Russians, and the British.’The daring behind Vostok 1 Gagarin told the Mancunians that his craft, Vostok 1, had no photographic or military equipment, only scientific gear. Yet although in reality his flight was a Cold War propaganda gesture, there was much about it to applaud – and much that is missing search spiked 24 March 2011 Fukushima and the globalisation ofGerman angst spikedwriters, events and interesting stories Brendan O’Neill argues that the wearing of burqas is an attempt to attract attention - just like those young toffs dressing in tweed jackets more... followspiked@ Twitter 11 April 2011 Banning the burqa: an assault on freedom 5 April 2011 The other Libyan war looks like a stalemate, too Y uri Gagarin’s brave, brilliant leap into th... 1 of 3 http://www.spiked-online.com/index.p... 1 of 3 http://www.spiked-online.com/index.p... 12/04/11 10:39 PM
Transcript
8/7/2019 Wouldhuysen, James. Yuri Gagarin’s brave, brilliant leap into the dark | James Woudhuysen | spiked
ObesityParents and kidsPopulationReligion andatheismUSA
View all issues...
Online debates
Google and privacyAfter Copenhagen
View all debates...
Letters
Review of
Books Events
Monthly archive
selected authors
Daniel Ben-AmiTim Black
Tuesday 12 April 2011
James Woudhuysen
Yuri Gagarin’s brave,brilliant leap into the darkOn the 50th anniversary of the first mannedspaceflight, James Woudhuysen praises Gagarin’sdaring - and says we need more of it today.
Printer-friendly version Email-a-friend Respond
Yuri Gagarin was my hero.
For a child just nine years old on 12April 1961, the day he flew intospace, he appeared intrepid,unassuming, and cool. Above all, he appeared in black and white.This was not the glossy, sunlit, bright blue Florida-sky ethic of American efforts in space, all NASA aluminium foil and silvercrewcuts in magazines such as Life . No, with Gagarin there wassomething grittier, more documentary, something altogetherscarier than Cape Canaveral. Russia’s success in putting a maninto space was, for a child of the West, also a success for grainymonochrome photography and flickering video footage. Themission was dark, seemingly shot at night, and redolent of the airof conspiracy that, in the year of the Berlin Wall going up,surrounded Nikita Khruschev’s Soviet Union.
Or maybe that’s just a man’s memory playing tricks. In thosedays, after all, all TV was black and white. But the unmistakablething about the headlines and the publicity and the genuinecelebrations that surrounded this particular celebrity was howstrongly they loved both the man and his endeavour. And this wasall the more remarkable given the bad light, almost literally, inwhich the Soviet Union was then regarded.
The launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik in 1957 had been ashock to the West. Now, in another surprise gambit, Moscow
thumped home its apparent technological superiority overWashington. And yet there was something so smiley, calm,innocent and youthful about Gagarin that people in the Westcould, with him, forget all about the conflict between capitalismand what was thought to be communism. Gagarin’s achievementwas for humanity – to conquer space, gravity, the limitations of this planet. His name was spiky but easily pronounced, and hiseasy demeanour was not that of an irascible Soviet apparatchik:recognisably Slavic, he was one of us.
At seven miles a second, he had achieved escape velocity andcircumnavigated the Earth in just 108 minutes. Unlike AlanShepard, who had done a simple up-and-down flight before him,there was nothing ‘sub-orbital’ about Gagarin.
Obviously, Stalin’s successors milked the occasion, for they hadfew other heroes they deemed proper for foreign consumption.But even the Soviet bureaucrats couldn’t manage to sour thecream. When Gagarin, who had first trained as a foundry worker,flew to Manchester to receive a medal from the AmalgamatedUnion of Foundry Workers, thousands mobbed him, and crowdsoverwhelmed the police. Later, through an interpreter and in a carpark, he briefly addressed a large crowd of workers from AEI’sfactories at Trafford Park and beyond. ‘There is plenty of room’,he observed, ‘for all in outer space. Plenty of room for theAmericans, the Russians, and the British.’
The daring behind Vostok 1
Gagarin told the Mancunians that his craft, Vostok 1 , had no
photographic or military equipment, only scientific gear. Yetalthough in reality his flight was a Cold War propaganda gesture,there was much about it to applaud – and much that is missing
search spiked
24 March 2011Fukushima and theglobalisation of German angst
spiked writers, events andinteresting stories
Brendan O’Neill argues thatthe wearing of burqas is anattempt to attract attention -
just like those young toffsdressing in tweed jackets
more...
follow spiked @ Twitter
11 April 2011Banning the burqa:an assault onfreedom
5 April 2011The other Libyan warlooks like a
stalemate, too
uri Gagarin’s brave, brilliant leap into th... 1 of 3 http://www.spiked-online.com/index.p...
of 3 http://www.spiked-online.com/index.p... 12/04/11 10:39 PM
8/7/2019 Wouldhuysen, James. Yuri Gagarin’s brave, brilliant leap into the dark | James Woudhuysen | spiked
from today’s much less decisive, much more tentative culture.
First, there was the mission’s willingness to experiment with andexplore the unknown in ways that make those who today ‘dare’ tobomb Libya or police a demonstration in central London look likethe cowards they are. We forget the scale of scientific ignorancethat existed back in 1961. Why was Vostok limited to just oneorbit? Because unlike the Americans, who knew how toexperiment with minutes of weightlessness flying parabolic arcs inBoeing 707 jets, each of the 20 cosmonauts (out of 2,200candidates) whom the Russians prepared for space had onlyexperienced a few seconds free of gravity in special ground-basedtests. Weightlessness was a great unknown for the Soviet spaceeffort. Result: Sergei Korolev, the Soviet space programme’slegendary chief designer, limited exposure to weightlessness to a
journey of just one orbit round the globe (1).
Second, there was Gagarin’s physical bravery. Sometimes anacrobat, and an excellent high-altitude parachutist, Gagarin, likehis colleagues, had to train under a regime little different fromGuantanamo Bay. Ghoulish doctors at the aptly named Institutefor Medical and Biological Problems in Moscow had, with Korolevand the Soviet military, a commanding influence over the spaceprogramme. They therefore took it upon themselves to putcosmonauts in solitary confinement in an isolation chamber forperiods of up to 10 days, there to take a battery of mental,physical and psychological tests. Sometimes the doctors starvedthe cosmonauts of oxygen in the chamber, to see how they goton. They also subjected Gagarin to 12G, or 12 times the force of gravity, aboard a whirling centrifuge.
One need neither admire this kind of training, nor the tinyprimitiveness of the capsule in which Gagarin flew, to note howlittle of his mettle is around today. Who aspires, in 2011, tohandle the exigencies of space? Who would be ready personallyto check alignment for re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere byusing Vostok ’s ‘Vzor’ porthole, which revealed when the momentwas right only by mirrors, lenses and elaborate calibratedmarkings? Today, people will not even leave the house without ahi-tech mobile phone. When Gagarin came home, the only thingumbilical about his flight was far from reassuring: the ball inwhich he sat failed to separate completely from the equipmentmodule to his rear, causing the two vehicles, which wereconnected by electrical and electronic wiring, to tumble headlonground each other. Only burn-up in the atmosphere eventuallysevered the cabling, setting our hero free.
The lessons for today
Gagarin did what he did at the tender age of 27. His subsequentdeath, in an air accident at the age of 34, was tragic, and longthe subject of many conspiracy theories. Yet we know what isimportant about his feat. The Vostok mission deliberatelyconfronted, and was not fearful of, what today overwhelms theconsciousness of the West: the unknown. It was a leap into thedark, but the risks it ran proved surmountable. It wanted toovercome the ignorance of its day.
Look now at NASA. It has no plans for new manned missions tothe Moon, still less for humans to get to Mars. Instead, its leaderemphasises that his is a sustainable programme of explorationand innovation. Yes, that’s right – innovation! In truth, thewatchwords for NASA, after a series of lethal, Soviet-style
mistakes, are our old, familiar, all-too-right-on friends:transparency, accountability, safety, integrity, ‘reaching out’ toforeign partners and stakeholders. There is high-blown bluster
An open letterto Nick Clegg
4 April 2011:Killing Bono : on thewrong side of history
8 April 2011:Low-ambitioncomedy for
a low-ambitionOlympics
uri Gagarin’s brave, brilliant leap into th... 2 of 3 http://www.spiked-online.com/index.p...
of 3 http://www.spiked-online.com/index.p... 12/04/11 10:39 PM
8/7/2019 Wouldhuysen, James. Yuri Gagarin’s brave, brilliant leap into the dark | James Woudhuysen | spiked
about innovation, but the reality is that NASA is more interestedin space for its ‘societal benefit’ and putative effect on UScompetitiveness than for its intrinsic interest or grandeur.
Is it too much to ask for grandeur, or vaulting ambition, in today’scautious times? At least the Russians, with their unglamorousrivets and their interchangeable modules, have done well enoughover the years to contemplate manned flights to the Moon by2020 and building a lunar base by 2030. After the events inJapan, fear of Nature, and of the sub-atomic realm, is greaterthan ever. Meanwhile, outer space is left simply fordocumentaries designed to inspire awe, or for a handful of astro-billionaires: it is no longer something to which you or I can easilyhave a human connection, as Gagarin told the people of Manchester that we would.
Gagarin made everyone sense that connection. For that moment,the human conquest of the planet, rather than man’ssubordination to it, was something that everyone could feel proudof.
James Woudhuysen is author, with Joe Kaplinsky, of Energise! A Future for Energy Innovation , published by Beautiful Books.(Buy this book from Amazon(UK).) He is also a contributor to BIGPOTATOES: The London Manifesto for Innovation.
Bookmark this page:
Delicious Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon
Previously on spiked
James Woudhuysen said it’s time to go back to the moon anddescribed American fears over Sputnik . Henry Joy McCracken asked
why we had retreated from the final frontier. Timandra Harkness wondered what the UK Space Agency is for. Read more at spiked issue
Space.
(1) Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony, Starman: the truth behind thelegend of Yuri Gagarin , Bloomsbury, 1998, pp 31, 65-66
