
and the length of the movie?
Will it be 108 Minutes?
A documentary filmmaker will celebrate the forthcoming 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's historic first space flight by giving viewers the chance to experience what the cosmonaut saw from his Vostok 1 capsule. Christopher Riley's First Orbit promises a blend of Gagarin's voice, recorded during the 108-minute flight on 12 …
It'll be 30 minutes of someone looking solemn, while walking in crowds, telling us we're about to see the recreated flight and that seeing it will be the single most important thing that happens to us in our entire lives, then some out of focus shots of someone that looks a bit like Gagarin sitting on a bed or looking in a book or something like that, then some talking heads from the world of light entertainment to tell us why the space flight was so incredibly important and — most significantly — how it affected pop culture, then some out of focus shots of someone that looks a bit like JFK looking sad, intercut with someone that looks a little like Khrushchev beating his shoe on a table, maybe 30 seconds of the recreated flight cut to new age music which primarily focuses on the man who looks a bit like Gagarin doing out of focus reaction shots, then 30 minutes being told that seeing that was the single most important thing that will happen to us in our entire lives.
Cynical? Me?
quote: "Featuring some of the actual recordings made by the Judica-Cordiglia brothers, including the sound of a woman dying in space as her craft burns up on re-entry."
Yeah, right, a couple of Italian ham-radio nuts claim to have heard a radio transmission from a craft as it burns up. They must have heard it through the ionized plasma shroud that blocks radio, right? The one that NASA today still can't receive radio transmission through? You know, the bit they call 'radio blackout' for a pretty good reason?
I don't doubt they recorded something - I think it might possibly have been a more conventional aircraft, not a spacecraft. Personally I trust the reams and reams of historical documents, not a story in the Grauniad.
BTW, I've always wondered why they call it 're-entry' - is it short for 'retro-entry' (seems correct - if in a capsule you fly backwards) or is a highly inaccurate neologism?
Flames (of plasma) because that's what blocks radio transmission.
I was just 13 when this happened, and had to explain the concept of orbits to the whole class - and the teacher - after we had heard about it that morning. No fax machines or internet in 1961, the education department in Chelmsford ran some banda sheets off, and sent men round on motorbikes to deliver one to each school. The head came and read them to each class in turn. I knew the news before I got home, which startled the family.
SPACE! someone had been into space! You know, the thrill of it never leaves me. I spent 25 years of my life as a seaman, partly because of the wanderlust that awoke in me. If they asked me to board a rocket ship instead I'd be there tomorrow.
Not joining the Reg particularly, but living through the Space Age. I rather hope it's not finished yet. Unfortunately, I can't imagine there will ever be anything as awe-inspiring as the Saturn V again (not that that's anything to do with Gagarin). I suppose it all belongs in the past, along with 6 litre V8 engines.
Light blue touchpaper and retire seven miles! Wheeeeee!!!