Tag Archives: Gagarin

First Woman

Posted on June 17, 2012 by asteitel

China’s Shenzhou 9 spacecraft successfully reached orbit yesterday, and tomorrow it will dock with the Tiangong 1 prototype space station the nation launched last September. But it’s the crew that’s commanding the most attention on this mission, namely pilot Liu … Continue reading →

Posted in History of Space Science, Manned Spaceflight, Soviet, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Soyuz 1: Falling to Earth

Posted on January 13, 2012 by asteitel

The Russian Soyuz program is the longest-running spaceflight program — variations of the spacecraft have flown consistently since 1966. It isn’t perfect; big technologies like spacecraft rarely are. There have been problems on recent missions where spacecraft have made hard … Continue reading →

Posted in Manned Spaceflight, Soviet | Tagged , , , | 15 Comments

Shepard: First American in (Suborbital) Space

Posted on May 1, 2011 by asteitel

I’ve talked in previous posts about the first manned Soviet space program, Vostok, and Yuri Gagarin’s historic Vostok 1 flight. One aspect neither of these posts touched on, however, was the reaction in the United States. Understandably, Americans were less … Continue reading →

Posted in History of Space Science, Manned Spaceflight, Mercury, Soviet | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Mapping Vintage Space

Posted on April 24, 2011 by asteitel

Regular readers of Vintage Space are doubtless aware that I have a tendency to link newer posts to older ones. This reflects the interrelation of all the topics I have (and will) discuss in this blog. I find this era … Continue reading →

Posted in Aircraft, Apollo, Gemini, History of Space Science, Manned Spaceflight, Mercury, Planetary Science, Rockets, Soviet, Space Shuttle, Unmanned Spaceflight | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Fashioning Vostok 1

Posted on April 17, 2011 by asteitel

In a previous post, I unravelled some of the mystery surrounding Yuri Gagarin’s historic Vostok 1 mission. One of the principle differences I tried to bring to the forefront in that post, as well as others discussing the Soviet Space … Continue reading →

Posted in History of Space Science, Manned Spaceflight, Mercury, Soviet | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Enigmatic Vostok 1

Posted on April 10, 2011 by asteitel

In previous posts, I’ve talked a little bit about how the Soviet Space Program designed its perfect cosmonaut and outlined some of the differences between Soviet and American spaceflight in the early 1960s. In both cases, Yuri Gagarin (left) has … Continue reading →

Posted in History of Space Science, Manned Spaceflight, Rockets, Soviet | Tagged , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Designing the Perfect Cosmonaut

Posted on February 2, 2011 by asteitel

In a previous post, I talked about how NASA designed the perfect astronaut – the qualities that were considered vital in selecting the first generation Mercury astronauts. The Soviet Space Program was no different. The organization held its candidates to … Continue reading →

Posted in History of Space Science, Manned Spaceflight, Mercury, Soviet | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments