50th anniversary of manned space flight today

[Captain Hammer 113]

April 12 was already a huge day in space history twenty years before the launch of the first shuttle mission. On that day in 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (left, on the way to the launch pad) became the first human in space, making a 108-minute orbital flight in his Vostok 1 spacecraft. Newspapers like The Huntsville Times (right) trumpeted Gagarin's accomplishment.

Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space less than a month later.

Scientific cooperation with the Soviet Union dates back to the very beginnings of space flight. The first cooperative human space flight project between the United States and the Soviet Union took place in 1975. The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project was designed to test the compatibility of rendezvous and docking systems for American and Soviet spacecraft and to open the way for future joint manned flights.

Since 1993, the U.S. and Russia have worked together on a number of other space flight projects. The Space Shuttle began visiting the Russian Mir space station in 1994, and in 1995 Norm Thagard became the first U.S. astronaut to take up residency on Mir. Seven U.S. astronauts served with their Russian counterparts aboard the orbiting Mir laboratory from 1995 to 1998. The experience gained from the Mir cooperative effort, as well as lessons learned, paved the way for the International Space Station.

In-orbit construction on the Station began in November 1998, and it has been staffed non-stop with international crews since November 2000. The first Station crew, made up of U.S. commander Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, was launched on board a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The crew returned to Earth on the Space Shuttle Discovery in March 2001.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/sts1/gagarin_anniversary.html

The Google doodle today is pretty cool too.

Edited April 12, 2011 by Captain Hammer

[slim 1,525]

Commies!

[ONA 133]

The Google doodle today is pretty cool too.

I liked it too

I'm glad that something good was finally all over the news today

[visaveteran1 33]

Big deal. The dogs and monkeys beat us.

[Captain Hammer 113]

I liked it too

I'm glad that something good was finally all over the news today

Heh! Yeah, the news cycle has been pretty depressing for the last month or so, for sure.

[slim 1,525]

You guys still watch the news?

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Commies!

At MFTI they say that the Russians would have gone to the moon first if the American's hadn't faked it.

[Jonathan Matthies 1]

I stopped watching local news around the late 90s. By-in-large it's pointless, ratings-based drivel. It sounds a bit cliché to say that, and maybe I only thought that because I was a typical early 20s punk kid at the time. But the stance stuck; mostly because the Internet developed around that time. http://my.yahoo.com was my homepage for ... like a decade; now it's iGoogle. I have it setup to display local/national news and whatnot. I don't need the local news. Being able to find news that is interesting/important to me, right now, made the nightly news absolutely pointless.

On a side note, Twitter is fascinating for breaking news. A lot of unreliable information comes from it; but the near instant reporting and feedback on many news stories is really really interesting.

[ONA 133]

You guys still watch the news?

Euronews channel is one of my favourites. It helped me score 85% in my Current Affairs class.

Actually the only things I watch is news and sports. I have the internet for everything else.

[eekee 182]

I can't stand all the stupid on American 24 hour cable news. It drives me crazy.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I can't stand all the stupid on American 24 hour cable news. It drives me crazy.

I knew it was a mistake to go to 24 hour news. Then there was not one, not two, but about 4 stations doing it. Sorry, but in the WHOLE WORLD there is not that must news worth watching! Even when there is an earthquake and Tsunami in Japan. It is worse than expansion team hockey! But where else was Sean Hannity going to get a job?

Edited April 13, 2011 by Gary and Alla

[Ironman140 45]

I can't stand all the stupid on American 24 hour cable news. It drives me crazy.

Yep sky news and much of the drivel / propaganda that pass for news around the world is much better. I expecaily like the strip tease news station out of eastern Europe

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Yep sky news and much of the drivel / propaganda that pass for news around the world is much better. I expecaily like the strip tease news station out of eastern Europe

There's an idea. If they ever start that here, FOX would win, no contest.

Wait. What? Greta Van Sustern? NM

[Captain Hammer 113]

I can't stand all the stupid on American 24 hour cable news. It drives me crazy.

Cable "news" is a lost cause. Sadly, there really are very few actual news outlets left in the US.