First in Space: New Yuri Gagarin Biography Shares Hidden Side of Cosmonaut

Science Talk

Scientific American

Science

4.2 • 644 Ratings

🗓️ 12 April 2021

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s been 60 years, to the day, since Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first human to travel to space in a tiny capsule attached to an R-7 ballistic missile, a powerful rocket originally designed to carry a three- to five-megaton nuclear warhead. In this new episode marking the 60th anniversary of this historic space flight—the first of its kind—Scientific American talks to Stephen Walker, an award-winning filmmaker, director and book author, about the daring launch that changed the course of human history and charted a map to the skies and beyond. Walker discusses his new book Beyond: The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey into Space, out today, and how Gagarin’s journey—an enormous mission that was fraught with danger and planned in complete secrecy—happened on the heels of a cold war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union and sparked a relentless space race between a rising superpower and an ailing one, respectively. Walker, whose films have won an Emmy and a BAFTA, revisits the complex politics and pioneering science of this era from a fresh perspective. He talks about his hunt for eyewitnesses, decades after the event; how he uncovered never-before-seen footage of the space mission; and, most importantly, how he still managed to put the human story at the heart of a tale at the intersection of political rivalry, cutting-edge technology, and humankind’s ambition to conquer space and explore new frontiers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Here's the truth about AI. AI is only as powerful as the platform it's built into.
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0:21.9	use right now. That's why the world works with ServiceNow. Visit ServiceNow.com
0:27.8	slash UK slash AI for people. It was at 9.07 a.m. Moscow time on April 12, 1961, that a new chapter of history was written.
0:50.2	On that day, without much fanfare, Russia sent the first human to space, and it happened
0:55.2	in secrecy, with very few hints in advance.
1:07.9	Yuri Gagarin, 27-year-old Russian ex-fighter pilot and cosmonaut, was launched into space inside a tiny capsule on top of a ballistic missile, originally designed to carry a warhead.
1:19.6	The spherical capsule was blasted into orbit, circling the Earth at a speed of about 300 miles per minute, 10 times faster than a rifle
1:28.9	bullet.
1:30.8	Accounts vary on exactly how long Gagarin spent orbiting our blue planet before he re-entered
1:36.7	the atmosphere, hurtling towards Earth, gravity rapidly pulling him in.
1:43.0	Some say it was 108 minutes.
1:46.0	Stephen Walker, my guest today,
1:47.7	and the author of a new book on Gagarin's historic feat
1:50.5	in the world it happened in,
1:52.5	puts it at 106.
1:55.5	Give her take a few minutes,
1:57.2	that space venture aboard Vostok 1,
2:00.1	orbiting the Earth at a maximum altitude of roughly 200 miles
2:03.8	and putting the first man in space, still set the record for space achievement.
	...

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