Author: Gurbir Singh
Publisher: Astrotalkuk Publications
ISBN: 0956933726
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 189
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Book Description
The first human spaceflight on 12th April 1961 shocked the West and made cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin the most famous person on the planet. As one of human civilisation’s seminal accomplishments, it was borne out of technology designed for weapons of mass destruction. Following the launch of Sputnik in 1957, the Soviet Union charged headlong into the exploration of the Moon, Venus and Mars, demonstrating and honing their weapons of war in the name of science. Three months after his flight, still the only person to have been in Earth orbit, he came to Britain. Declassified confidential and secret government documents reveal for the first time the frantic diplomatic efforts to achieve a balance between celebrating one of humanity’s greatest achievements whilst grappling with the political dynamite of the unprecedented propaganda opportunity of a Soviet air force Major’s success being celebrated, first by the Prime Minister and then by the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Chronicled for the first time in these pages are the personal recollections, including never before published pictures, from people in Manchester and London of the impact of this handsome, charismatic cosmonaut who captured the hearts of ordinary working people in Britain. With an engaging permanent smile, this unassuming diminutive Major brought hope to a world at the brink of thermonuclear war. For many in Britain during the coldest days of the Cold War, this cosmonaut was the only Russian they would ever see.
Author: Gurbir Singh (Writer)
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780956933706
Category : Astronauts
Languages : en
Pages : 175
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Book Description
"Three months after [Yuri Gagarin's] flight, still the only person to have been in Earth orbit, he came to Britain. Declassified confidential and secret government documents reveal for the first time the frantic diplomatic efforts to achieve a balance between celebrating one of humanity's greatest achievements whilst grappling with the political dynamite of the unprecedented propaganda opportunity of a Soviet air force major's success being celebrated first by the Prime Minister and by the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Chronicled for the first time in these pages are the personal recollections, including never before published pictures, from people in Manchester and London of the impact of this handsome, charismatic cosmonaut who captured the hearts of ordinary working people in Britain. This unassuming diminutive major with an engaging permanent smile brought hope to a world at the brink of thermonuclear war. For many in Britain during the coldest days of the Cold War, this cosmonaut was the only Russian they would ever see."--p. [4] of cover.
Author: Andrew L. Jenks
Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press
ISBN: 1501757687
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 325
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Book Description
"Let's go!" With that, the boyish, grinning Yuri Gagarin launched into space on April 12, 1961, becoming the first human being to exit Earth's orbit. The twenty-seven-year-old lieutenant colonel departed for the stars from within the shadowy world of the Soviet military-industrial complex. Barbed wires, no-entry placards, armed guards, false identities, mendacious maps, and a myriad of secret signs had hidden Gagarin from prying outsiders—not even his friends or family knew what he had been up to. Coming less than four years after the Russians launched Sputnik into orbit, Gagarin's voyage was cause for another round of capitalist shock and Soviet rejoicing. The Cosmonaut Who Couldn't Stop Smiling relates this twentieth-century icon's remarkable life while exploring the fascinating world of Soviet culture. Gagarin's flight brought him massive international fame—in the early 1960s, he was possibly the most photographed person in the world, flashing his trademark smile while rubbing elbows with the varied likes of Nehru, Castro, Queen Elizabeth II, and Italian sex symbol Gina Lollobrigida. Outside of the spotlight, Andrew L. Jenks reveals, his tragic and mysterious death in a jet crash became fodder for morality tales and conspiracy theories in his home country, and, long after his demise, his life continues to provide grist for the Russian popular-culture mill. This is the story of a legend, both the official one and the one of myth, which reflected the fantasies, perversions, hopes and dreams of Gagarin's fellow Russians. With this rich, lively chronicle of Gagarin's life and times, Jenks recreates the elaborately secretive world of space-age Russia while providing insights into Soviet history that will captivate a range of readers.
Author: Gurbir Singh
Publisher: Astrotalkuk Publications
ISBN: 0956933769
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 507
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Book Description
Fifty years in the making, India's Space Programme is fulfilling the vision of its founders and delivering services from space that touch the lives of 1.3 billion people every day. In addition to operating a collection of satellites for weather, Earth observation, navigation and communication today, India has a spacecraft orbiting Mars and a space telescope in Earth orbit. This book provides the big picture of India's long association with science, from historical figures like Aryabhata and Bhaskara to Homi Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai, the key architects of its space program. It covers the scientific contribution of Indian scientists during the European Enlightenment and industrial revolution. It traces the technological development of Tipu Sultan's use of rockets for war in the 1780s; the all-but-forgotten contribution of Stephen H Smith's use of rockets as a means of transport in 1935 in northern India; and the emergence of Sriharikota – India's spaceport, the heart of India's modern Space Programme. • A detailed account of how a fishing village in Kerala was transformed into a space centre and used to launch India's first rocket into space on 21 November 1963. • A detailed summary of India's space infrastructure – launch vehicles, deep space network, Telemetry, Tracking and Command and space assets in orbit. • Description of how the ordinary people of India benefit from the services delivered by the space programme • Why India chose to go to the Moon and Mars and how it got there. • The prospects for India's ambitions in space for human spaceflight, national security and scientific exploration • An analysis of how India's Space Programme may play out on the global stage. Will it compete or collaborate with China, USA and Russia in space? This detailed work, in 645 pages, 29 tables and 9 appendices, is richly illustrated with 140+ illustrations (some images published for the first time) and supported by over 1,000 references. It is written for the non-specialist, offering a big-picture view.
Author: Yuri Gagarin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781410206749
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 288
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Book Description
The time is not far distant when space expeditions will have dozens of members. The American Apollo-11 spacecraft has already landed on the Moon. People will set foot on Mars, and, possibly, other planets. How will they stand up to the difficult conditions there? What sort of problems will they encounter? Will they be able to cope with them?Research work done by space psychologists in recent years has shown that the unusual conditions in store for people on a space voyage may have a decisive effect on its outcome. For this reason an astronaut's psychological training is no less important than his ability to control his spacecraft.It is this aspect of astronaut training that is dealt with by the authors of this book: the world's first astronaut, Yuri Gagarin, Hero of the Soviet Union, and the space psychologist Vladimir Lebedev.But this is not a book about psychology alone. It also speaks of Soviet space hardware, describes actual space flights, and surveys investigations carried out in aviation and space medicine.
Author: Allan Chapman
Publisher: Lion Books
ISBN: 0745980309
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 339
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Book Description
This book will take the story of astronomy on from where Allan Chapman left it in Stargazers, and bring it almost up to date, with the developments and discoveries of the last three centuries. He covers the big names - Halley, Hooke, Herschel, Hubble and Hoyle; and includes the women who pushed astronomy forward, from Caroline Herschel to the Victorian women astronomers. He includes the big discoveries and the huge ideas, from the Milky War, to the Big Bang, the mighty atom, and the question of life on other planets. And he brings in the contributions made in the US, culminating in their race with the USSR to get a man on the moon, before turning to the explosion of interest in astronomy that was pioneered by Sir Patrick Moore and The Sky at Night.
Author: Brian Harvey
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030676862
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 422
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Book Description
The story of European-Russian collaboration in space is little known and its importance all too often understated. Because France was the principal interlocutor between these nations, such cooperation did not receive the attention it deserved in English-language literature. This book rectifies that history, showing how Russia and Europe forged a successful partnership that has continued to the present day. Space writer Brian Harvey provides an in-depth picture of how this European-Russian relationship evolved and what factors—scientific, political and industrial—propelled it over the decades. The history begins in the cold war period with the first collaborative ventures between the Soviet Union and European countries, primarily France, followed later by Germany and other European countries. Next, the chapters turn to the missions when European astronauts flew to Russian space stations, the Soyuz rocket made a new home in European territory in the South American jungle and science missions were flown to study deep space. Their climax is the joint mission to explore Mars, called ExoMars, which has already sent a mission to Mars. Through this close examination of these European-Russian efforts, readers will appreciate an altogether new perspective on the history of space exploration, no longer defined by competition, but rather by collaboration and cooperation.
Author: Gurbir Singh
Publisher: Astrotalkuk Publications
ISBN: 1913617033
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 182
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Book Description
During 1934 and 1944 in Calcutta, Stephen Smith worked alone and unsupported on developing rocket transport. In 1935, he was the first to demonstrate the successful transport by a rocket of livestock, food and medicine. This book charts the story of Stephen H Smith, described by a contemporary as “the greatest one-man campaign for rocketry”. He dedicated his life to working alone in northeast India to develop a new revolutionary means of transport using only rocket power. The development of rockets in India is commonly understood to have ended with Tipu Sultan in 1799 and started again in 1963 with what is now called the Indian Space Research Organisation. However, in the intervening period, one man built and championed rockets, working alone in Calcutta. In 1925 he set up the Indian Air Mail Society, and it is amongst the global philatelic community where his work is still known but is almost entirely forgotten from the popular imagination in India. On 14 February 1891, Stephen H Smith, the only son of a tea plantation manager originally from Norfolk, England, was born in the Strawberry Hill region of Shillong. Between 1934 and 1944, he conducted over 200 rocket experiments to demonstrate the utility of a rocket as a means of transport. Small self-funded groups to develop rockets were established in USSR, USA, Britain, Australia and Germany. From these groups, Sergei Korolev and Wernher von Braun emerged and competed in the epic space race that resulted in Sputnik, Gagarin and Apollo 11. Stephen H Smith was their contemporary but worked alone and unsupported in India. Long after he had died, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame by the American Airmail Society in 1989. In 1992, a year after the centenary of his birth, the Indian government celebrated his achievements by issuing a stamp and a first-day cover dedicated to his work. Today his work is found in official NASA publications, the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society and the National Air and Space Museum. This new study of his contacts with the King of Sikkim, King George V, with a member of parliament in London and a 25-year-long correspondence with a Swiss philatelist reveals in his own words his struggle to attain recognition and support for his work. His reluctant attempt to work with the military authorities in India during World War II ended in frustration. His multiple attempts in 1949 to contact the Governor of Bengal and Prime Minister Nehru in the newly independent India failed to generate a response.
Author: Sarah Bruhns
Publisher: Hyperink Inc
ISBN: 1614645191
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 49
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Book Description
On a clear, quiet day in April, 1961, two schoolgirls in Russia’s Saratov region looked into the sky and saw a huge, glowing ball hurtling towards the earth. Five tons of charred steel hit the ground, bounced, then fell again, leaving a huge smoking crater in the plains. Two kilometers away, a peasant farmer and her daughter were frozen to the spot, staring at a bright orange figure with a large, round white head and a huge cape striding towards them. The terrified farmer and her daughter turned to run. Then the figure cried out, not in a space language, but native Russian, “Don’t be afraid! I am a Soviet like you!” They moved closer to him and saw, instead of a alien invader or a spy, a man in an orange jumpsuit, dragging a cumbersome parachute. He pushed back the visor on his white helmet and they could see the red letters CCCP stenciled on the front. “Could it be that you have just descended from space?” asked the farmer. The man stood only 5’2” and had the broad, plain features of a typical Muscovite. “Yes, I have,” he said, flashing his winning smile, a smile soon to be famous throughout the entire world. He said, “I must find a telephone to Moscow.” The man had just completed a 102-minute orbit of the Earth. His name was Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin. He was twenty-seven years old and he had changed Earth’s history forever. “Reds Win Running Lead in Race to Control Space” screamed a headline. Since the tiny Sputnik had orbited Earth four years earlier, the United States and the Soviet Union had been locked in a battle for more advanced technologies. Both nations had immense technological resources. The United States had imported several prominent German scientists during Project Paperclip, clearing their records of Nazi involvement in exchange for their knowledge of rocketry. The Soviet Union had the legacy of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the eccentric eccentric pioneer of astronautics and the de facto leadership of visionary engineer Sergei Korolev, as well was a powerful thirst to prove themselves. Each nation was determined to be the first in space. The Soviet Union’s early successes in the Space Race were an undeniable challenge to the United States’ scientific and political authority. Yuri was born March 9, 1934 on a collective farm 100 miles outside Moscow. His mother Anna worked the fields and his father Alexei was a carpenter. Anna was well educated and kept many books in the house. For the early years on the farm, life was calm and scheduled. Family members recall Yuri as a mischievous, happy child. Then the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union, and life was thrown into chaos. German officers occupied their home and sent Yuri's brother Valentin and his sister Zoya to slave labour camps in Poland. Yuri, his parents, and his younger brother Boris lived in a tiny mud hut for 21 months, the remainder of the German occupation. Alexei Leonov, a fellow cosmonaut and first man to walk in space, recalled this time as “the formative years in Yuri’s life.” During the war, a Soviet aircraft was shot down near the village. Yuri and the other village children fed the pilots and kept them hidden from the Nazis until they could be rescued. It was then that Yuri knew that he wanted to be a pilot. In 1946, when he was 13 and the war was over, Yuri’s siblings returned. Their father moved the family home (plank by plank) to the nearby town Gzhatsk. Yuri joined his school’s aviation club and learned to fly light aircraft. His favorite subjects were physics and math, and he had a smile that all the girls loved.
Author: M. Ilic
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230523439
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 269
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Book Description
This collection of essays examines women in the Khrushchev era, using both newly-accessible archival material and a re-reading of published sources. Exploring diverse subjects including housing, space flight, women workers, cinema, religion and consumption, the volume places the analysis of specific events or issues within a broader discussion of economic, political, ideological and international developments to provide a full analysis of the era.
