h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Vostok 1: The First Manned Space Flight - A862689
Author: Bravie2001 - U196446

A subject close to my heart - manned spaceflight. There are several articles on that subject in the Guide, but most of them are about the American side of things. It's only in the last ten years or so that the story of the Soviet effort has begun to emerge, so it isn't as well known to the general public. And yet it deserves to be known, since the Soviets pioneered just about everything in the fifties and early sixties.
Comments, anyone?

Fantastic Entry. IMO this should be in the Ed. Guide pretty soon.

Just wondering: So, if the revolution time of the capsule was 89.1 min and the start at 0907 and re-entry start at 1025, Gagarin didn't complete an entire orbit, did he?... Or am I just confused?

HELL

Super piece of writing

Do you have a source for the announcement?

Shouldn't have any probs getting picked

That's correct - technically Gagarin didn't actually complete an orbit.

Well...the text of the announcement is taken from a book. However as it's a direct quote from Moscow Radio, I'm assuming it's in the public domain and therefore no copyright issues apply. If that isn't the case, I can change it, of course.

Forgot to say thanks for the kind words!

I've rewritten the sentence about the Atlas in the first paragraph because I've noticed that as originally set out it didn't make sense.

I agree with the comments of other reaserches. A good read, well written and full of interesting information. Should make it into the Edited Guide with no problems at all.



Stuart

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

Congratulations Bravie. A well deserved recommendation.

I had this earmarked, but somebody beat me to it.

Stuart
Neophyte Scout

Aaargh!

I don't want to seem ungrateful, but I wish you had waited just one more day! I wanted to add a sentence to the end of the first paragraph to clarify the statement about the Redstone rocket.

I've added it now; I hope that's allowed after the entry has been recommended!

Hi Bravie,

That shouldn't be a problem. When the article is allocated to a sub-editor a new copy is created. Keep an eye open for it and drop a message to the sub-ed and ask them to insert any additions.

However, that should'nt be a necessary in this case as the adition has probably been inserted before the article has been allocated to a sub-ed.

Stuart

Well done mate

You can always find out if it's too late to make changes by doing a search on the entry title. Go to the 'Advanced search' link, uncheck the 'Edited Entries' box but leave checked the 'Recommended Entries' and 'Guide Entries' boxes, then 'Search the Guide'. You may find two entries with your title, one of which is recommended. That's the copy which the Sub-editor will be working on and which will go into the EG and appear on the front page. Only the Sub can make changes to it, whilst you can still do whatever you like with your original entry. If there's only one entry in the search results, then the new entry hasn't yet been created and any changes you make to the original will be copied when it is.

If you find that the new entry has been created, you can go there to find out who your Sub-editor is - their name will be in the data box along with yours. They may contact you here to let you know that they're working on your entry or they may not. It's all down to individual Sub-editors whether or not they do that. If they don't, you can contact them at their Personal Space to let them know of any changes you want to make.

Having just searched on your entry, it seems that the new one hasn't yet been created, so your changes will be incorporated

Simulpost Stuart

Thanks, people!

This really wasn't in Peer Review long enough for me to see it. There is a glaring innacuracy in the title. Gagarin's flight was certainly not the first manned one. He was just the first to return alive.

At least 3 cosmonauts died in trials from 1957 onwards. Last year details were finally published in Pravda. You can read it here. http://www.aulis.com/news09.htm

Personally, I can dispute the statement that the names were not made public at the time. I know for a fact that the names of several unsuccesful cosmonauts was published in a Guiness Book of Records dating from the early 1960's. Just for one year. Although I am working from memory here which is why I can't tell you the exact date of the book, I have actually seen this edition in a second hand bookshop and showed the list of names to the person I was with at the time, since I had heard of the existence of this list but never seen the proof for myself. All entries in the GBofR after that list Gagarin as the first successful Russian cosmonaut but no longer listed the unsuccessful ones.

I meant to start that by saying I disputed your footnote 4.
"These have been disproved beyond any doubt, since every single launch from Baikonur during the period in question has been accounted for."
Maybe so, but the launches in question were not made from Baikonur.

I would be sceptical about any information coming out of Russia, even today. Russia has more reason to have more than its share of conspiracy theorists. They had such a long period of institutionalised misinformation and cover-up that even today there are large sections of the establishment that instinctively avoid being frank and honest. Glasnost has not yet reached the same standard as it is in the West.

It should be mentioned that the Web site quoted is a publisher, specialising in publishing books of a controversial nature. They actively promote the “Apollo 11 was all a great hoax” theory - a theory that has well and truly been debunked. Anything I read on the same Web page that promotes the Apollo 11 theory got to be treated with scepticism.

Why do you think the entry in th Guinness Book of Records only appeared for one year? Where the publishers of the GBoR party to some cover up by the Soviet Union? I suggest that the unreliability of the information was pointed out to them, so they withdrew it from successive publications.

Stuart

Most of the 'lost cosmonaut' stories refer to failed orbital missions, but in recent years the sub-orbital rumours have started to appear too. I make no claim to being an expert on the Russian space programme, but I've read several books by people who are, and without exception they discount these stories as being misinterpretation of the true facts, wishful thinking, or downright exaggeration.
To reiterate a point I made in the article: if the Soviets had lost one or more cosmonauts during early tests, there is no way that they would have announced that Gagarin had been launched into orbit *while he was still aloft* - they would have waited until he was safely back in case something went wrong again.