OBIT: RIP: Yuri Gagarin

Subject: RIP: Yuri Gagarin
From: Hollowfox
Date: 27 Mar 02 - 09:38 PM

Just as I was turning off the television news, there was a small passing note on the bottom of the screen that Yuri Gagarin, the first human to go into space also died today. All the headlines in the USA today seemed to be about a battleship returning to port. I wonder if any of our news networks will see fit to mention this tomorrow?

Subject: RE: R
From: catspaw49
Date: 27 Mar 02 - 09:47 PM

Actually 'Fox, Gagarin, the first human to orbit the earth, died on this date in a plane crash in 1968. He was a particular favorite of Kruschev and the Cosmonaut Traing Centere is named for him as well as a crater on the moon which NASA named for him out of great respect.

Spaw

Subject: RE: R
From: masato sakurai
Date: 27 Mar 02 - 09:55 PM

"March 28, 1968 -- OBITUARY: Yuri Gagarin Killed As Test Plane Falls - Yuri Gagarin, 34, Dies in Air Crash" (New York Times: On This Day)

~Masato

Subject: RE: RIP: Yuri Gagarin
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 02:41 AM

I'm very confused....

LTS

Subject: RE: RIP: Yuri Gagarin
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 02:46 AM

Are you sure it wasn't Yuri Geller who died today?

LOL!!!

;-)

Subject: RE: RIP: Yuri Gagarin
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 08:37 AM

Gaugin??

LTS

Subject: RE: RIP: Yuri Gagarin
From: Mrrzy
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 08:48 AM

Ah, and here I was thinking that somebody again had died when I didn't even know they were still alive... we lost Milton Berle and Dudley Moore in 2 days, so I wouldn't be surprised if there is a third Big Name soon, I'll miss both those funny guys!

Subject: RE: RIP: Yuri Gagarin
From: Hollowfox
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 11:40 AM

Oops. Could some nice Joeclone please remove this thread? No use cluttering up the place with it. Thanks, blushingfox

Subject: RE: RIP: Yuri Gagarin
From: Wincing Devil
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 11:47 AM

Very Simple, Hollowfox heard the tail end of a "Today in History" feature

WD

Subject: RE: RIP: Yuri Gagarin
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 01:34 PM

Can anyone else remember, (to the tune of Oh dear, what can the matter be)?

"Oh dear Yuri Gagarin, went to the moon when it looked like a farthing"?

Subject: RE: RIP: Yuri Gagarin
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 01:59 PM

No I don't and to be pedantic, Gagarin never wemt to the moon period. The Soviet space program landed (actually crashed) several unmanned probes but no one other than the 12 US Astronauts ever landed on the moon, although a total of 27 American astronauts also orbited the moon. No manned Soviet spacecraft ever orbited the moon.

The Soviet program at times did seem to be well ahead of the US program, but in reality they relied on a lot of technology and in some cases never developed the needed techniques for a manned lunar program. The Cosmonauts were not as highly skilled nor was there training as extensive as it was here with the NASA Asyronaut program. The emphasis on sending a man versus a probe to the moon required a lot of extra time, technology, and training, but when it got to the stage of an actual moon landing, it became apparent we were well and truly ahead at that point. Russia opted to put more resources into earth orbit technology such as Mir.

Spaw

Subject: RE: RIP: Yuri Gagarin
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 02:36 PM

Thanks for the history lesson Prof. Spaw, some of us young 'uns wouldn't know what had happened ifen you hadn't've been there at the time...... Now can you tell us what really happened on Boston Harbour?

LTS : )

Subject: RE: RIP: Yuri Gagarin
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 03:16 PM

Yes.......Then, just as I am doing now, we suggested that a Brit plant one below our rear belt loop(:<))

Spaw

Subject: RE: RIP: Yuri Gagarin
From: SharonA
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 05:54 PM

Ha ha ha ha ha! Yes, indeedy, we did, didn't we?

Subject: RE: RIP: Yuri Gagarin
From: GUEST,Ewan McVicar
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 06:30 PM

The song asked about was written by Scots actor Roddy MacMillan, and as it happens published in my book One Singer One Song which acquired a thread of its own just today. The tune Roddy used was Johnny's So Long At The Fair. I once stood in the same dole queue as Roddy MacMillan! And a month ago I was driven down the Avenue Of The Cosmonauts in the Urals city of Perm.

Subject: RE: RIP: Yuri Gagarin
From: Art Thieme
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 08:11 PM

Utah Phillips had a song on his first ever LP honoring Yuri Gagarin.

Art

Subject: ADD: Yuri Gagarin
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 29 Mar 02 - 10:02 AM

Haven't checked the DT so I'm prepared to take the flak if it's in there already:

YURI GAGARIN
(Trad / Roddy MacMillan)

Chorus:
Oh dear, Yuri Gagarin,
He flew to the moon when it looked like a farthing
He said to the boys at the moment of parting
Ah'm jist gaun away for the fair

Now inside the ship he lay down like a hero
The doors were sealed up and the count-down was near, o
Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, zero
And Yuri went up in the air

Now when he took aff he wis shook tae the marra
He circled the poles and he saw the Sahara
He gave them a wave as he passed over Barra
The day he went up in the air

Now when he went up it wis just about dawning
The time when the rest o' the world was still yawning
Then Yuri returned tae the land he was born in
Withoot even turning a hair

When he came tae London they tried the saft pedal
A wee bowler hat and a rolled-up umbreddle
But the foundrymen went and they struck him a medal
An' gied it tae him at the Fair

Sung by Josh MacRae on one of my oldest albums, the 1966 (?) "To-night at the Attic", recorded at the Attic Folk Club in Paisley and also featuring Matt McGinn, Danny Kyle and Davy Spiers. Even Danny was unable to give me the correct year, though, so any solid info in that department would be appreciated.

Subject: RE: RIP: Yuri Gagarin
From: Mr Red
Date: 29 Mar 02 - 03:34 PM

Well I guess he is really "out of this world" now!

Subject: RE: RIP: Yuri Gagarin
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Mar 02 - 08:25 AM

thanks susanne for grounding this thread back to music

Subject: RE: RIP: Yuri Gagarin
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 30 Mar 02 - 10:50 AM

Thanks Ewan McVicar and Susanne for confirming that I hadn't just dreamt the song up. I think it was summer 1960 when Yuri took off, but I'm quite happy to sit corrected.

Kitty

Subject: RE: RIP: Yuri Gagarin
From: catspaw49
Date: 30 Mar 02 - 02:09 PM

Okay Herga.....Mr.Pedantic Spacenut can help you out. Gagarin's orbital flight took place on April 12, 1961, lifting off from the Baikonur(sp?) Flight Center. The U.S. followed with a sub-orbital "lob" of Alan Shepard from Cape Canaveral on May 5, 1961 but did not duplicate the Soviet orbital success until the third Mercury mission with John Glenn aboard Friendship 7 on September 13, 1961.

Spaw

Subject: RE: RIP: Yuri Gagarin
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 30 Mar 02 - 02:21 PM

Thanks Spaw.

Pedantic spacenut sounds a bit like a painful medical condition, but I guess you have to be a real pedant to know otherwise. (BG)

Kitty

Subject: RE: OBIT: RIP: Yuri Gagarin
From: Ditchdweller
Date: 31 Mar 02 - 01:40 PM

As an extra piece of info, rumour had it, some years back, that Gagarin was not the 1st Russian Cosmonaut into space, but the 1st to get back alive. His trip was not announced until he was safe on Earth. The story goes that there were six before him who the Russians kept quiet about.

Subject: RE: OBIT: RIP: Yuri Gagarin
From: GUEST,Wolfgang
Date: 02 Apr 02 - 03:20 AM

Six before Gagarin? Remotely possible, but the USA had the ability then to monitor artificial satellites of the size big enough to support a human. Would they have been silent about a Soviet failure? Hardly.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: OBIT: RIP: Yuri Gagarin
From: masato sakurai
Date: 02 Apr 02 - 03:58 AM

"Isn't it true that cosmonauts were killed in suborbital flights before Gagarin? Or on orbital flights that later were covered up?" The answer is HERE.
"Sergei Vladimir Ilyushin is a hero to Paul Tsarinsky. He believes that Sergei Vladimir Ilyushin was the first man in space, but there are others that do not agree with his opinion." The story continues HERE.

~Masato

Subject: RE: OBIT: RIP: Yuri Gagarin
From: Tam the bam fraeSaltcoatsScotland
Date: 02 Apr 02 - 06:17 AM

You're a bit late

Subject: RE: OBIT: RIP: Yuri Gagarin
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Apr 02 - 04:49 PM

Mrrzy,

My ex always ridiculed my mother's insistence that these "deaths in threes" were more than coincidence, but you certainly were correct. The Queen mother counts as a Big One. Thing is, there is a level of fame and endurance and a generational thing that goes with it. So while Dudley Moore was famous, his impact was a fraction of that of Milton Berle. And the Queen Mother's sphere of influence was that much again larger than Berle's. I've always figured they were of the same magnitude for that rule to work. I expect there will be some other Big Names shortly, but won't go so far to stick my neck out, except to say at least one of these unnamed person's initials are Ronald Regan. (One could always wish for Strom Thurmond to be on this short list, but he doesn't seem to get the message that it is at least time to retire, if not to become deceased).

SRS

Subject: RE: OBIT: RIP: Yuri Gagarin
From: GUEST,Just Amy
Date: 02 Apr 02 - 04:59 PM

For Mrrzy:

And the third day Billy Wilder, the famous director, died. You may remember him for directing "Some Like It Hot."