April 13th

Yesterday there was a 60th anniversary of the first human flight in the space. On April the 12th in 1961 Yuri Gagarin become the first human being to fly in the Earth’s orbit. I have two points to make on that monumental achievement for him and the science and human ingenuity:

• Balls. He had them in abundance. To strap yourself inside a rickety piece of the metal sphere, on top of a rocket loaded with hectoliters of fuel requires balls that not many have. He should be more of a household name for that. I mean, he is in Russia and I guess other countries besides the USA. I read several articles yesterday (from American sources) that couldn’t help themselves to embiggen American achievements in space exploration while only more or less paid homage to Gagarin. Too bad that politics and misguided “patriotism” take hold even in the science and space exploration (I wonder as well why there is no mention of all the help American space exploration got from top-notch Nazi rocket scientist imported to the USA after II WW as “operation Paperclip”)
• It was only 60 years ago. My mom was 12 when it happened. She remembers hearing about it on the radio and then everywhere in newspapers afterward. This is completely mind-blowing — in 60 years since it happened we had men walk on the moon, we send a Voyager probe beyond the Solar System, we explored and take pictures of distant planets, we put robot rovers on Mars. 60 years — not even one lifetime for all that to happen since Gagarin completed his orbit around the Earth. Not many people realize that astonishing achievement — and that, we as people are capable of stunning feats if only we put our minds and will (and money) together to it.