TIL Yuri Gagarin returned to Earth during his historic first manned spaceflight by ejecting 6 km from the ground and parachuting down by himself.
Why Yuri Gagarin Remains the First Man in Space, Even Though He Did Not Land Inside His Spacecraft
This seems like the most Soviet thing ever.
We don’t have a good reëntry vehicle, so let’s have them eject. We KNOW personal parachutes work. So yeah that cool right Yuri?
We don’t have a good reëntry vehicle, so let’s have them eject. We KNOW personal parachutes work. So yeah that cool right Yuri?
The nonexistent previous reentry vehicle didn't not fail and kill the previous first cosmonaut, so we didn't fix any issues and are now fairly certain that you will be fine 😉👌
The first space shuttle had ejection seats.
In later flights, the ejection seats were removed because there was only a narrow window in which the seats could save the occupant, and even then, there was a fair chance the ejection would kill the occupant.
After that SOP was to chuck her into a steep dive, pop the door off, and just jump.
Kinda sums up the Soviet space program perfectly. NASA spent millions to make a pen that worked in space, the Soviets just brought a pencil.
That did not happen.
Graphite dust is a bitch in zero G
But that was as it was designed, right? I see no problem with that.
Yes, as it was designed. It's not a problem, it's incredible. Think of the bravery it took!
While I get that it's not a small feat, and an unusual finale for space flight, this isn't much higher than some skydiving packages you can book today. Still pretty ballsy for back then.
an unusual finale for space flight
I mean at the time, it was the typical finale for a manned space flight
Astronauts now: we need ice cream, stat! These space travels are very uncomfortable.
Cosmonauts then: I will jump through the atmosphere with this glorified handkerchief to slow me down
(Me in my armchair, also now: all these guys are such losers. I could do all that any day. But not today, maybe later though)
What? I thought astronauts already had ice cream. Do you mean to tell me that all those museum gift shops would just lie like that?
Gagarin is one of those super human people that makes me feel grossly inadequate. Look at him. Qualified technically, insane enough to get strapped into a ballistic missile and then eject out of it during re-entry, and handsome too. Cosmonauts and Astronauts are so many sigmas from normal that it's hard to believe they're the same species as the rest of us.
Reminds me of a line of Yeager's from the movie The Right Stuff:
You think a monkey knows he's sitting on a rocket that might explode? These astronauts know that. I'll tell you something. It takes a special man to volunteer for a suicide mission. Especially when it's on TV. Old Gus, he did all right.
Did he? I know a special pistol was part of Soyuz missions. They didn't want bears attacking cosmonauts when they landed in Siberia.
amazing the parachute was able to deliver him safely on account of the size of his balls
Think of how much rocket fuel they needed to lift those balls into space in the first place.
You think the Saturn V was big?
Must have been a big harness 😂