Comment du Jour

First Man in Space 1961-2011





PHOTO: Spacesuit of Cosmonaut A Leonov circ 1970's and Soviet posters at Bonhams


Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Terrestrial for that matter!
Lost among the surge in media stories covering earth-shattering events from the Arab Spring in the Middle East, to the earthquake/Tsunami hitting Japan, to the terrible floods sweeping parts of the USA, there’s the almost forgotten commemoration of an event, really a saga, which changed the world.

Manned space flight began fifty years ago this Spring. In April 1961, Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first man to fly into outer space. Shortly thereafter, Astronaut Alan Shepard lifted off in a Mercury Redstone Rocket the morning of 5 May 1961 to become the first American in space. Contrary to popular lore and legend, Shepard, a New Hampshire native, was first to fly into orbit before the more high-profile flight by John Glenn almost a year later.

As a way to politically decompress from a high stress and pressurized news cycle, I visited New York’s Bonhams Auction Gallery on Madison Avenue to view a fascinating selection of American and Soviet Space related material relating to the Project Mercury and Vostok programs, Project Gemini, and Apollo 11, the flight which brought Americans to the Moon.

A plethora of orbital photography, signed crew photos, trajectory charts and maps, and NASA memorabilia graced the small but focused presentation, brought the writer back to the halcyon days to space travel, from the 1960’s Space Race with the Russians to the 1970’s space cooperation with the Soviets.

Names like Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, Wally Schirra came back to memory along with the more familiar Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Pete Conrad, and Buzz Aldrin.

Other Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz and Mir artifacts recalled the extraterrestrial détente between the USA and the Soviet Union in the 1970’s. An actual spacesuit from Cosmonaut Alexi Leonov was on display as well as a number of old Soviet propaganda posters exclaiming “Glory to Cosmonaut Gagarin” and one 1959 poster extolling the success of Sputnik and vaingloriously proclaiming the USSR as the New “Tenth Planet.”

One Earth Orbit Chart from the storied Apollo 11 mission in July 1969, has notations written on the map; sheet one shows the launch site in Florida; sheet two plots an entire earth orbit with the critical “Go or No Go?” inscribed by Buzz Aldrin, and the third sheet shows the earth orbit with the critical command decision, inscribed and signed, “Go for TLI! Buzz Aldrin.”

These Astronauts certainly had the Right Stuff!


.