>Slowing down from orbit and then requiring the pilot to ditch via parachute over the Gulf of Mexico seems insane even by 50s test pilot standards, although I w

>Slowing down from orbit and then requiring the pilot to ditch via parachute over the Gulf of Mexico seems insane even by 50s test pilot standards, although I wouldn’t be surprised if pilots have done crazier. They did. Yuri Gagarin did not land with his spacecraft; Vostok was designed so that the pilot always used his own parachute after reentering the atmosphere. (This was kept secret, as it meant that Vostok 1 did not qualify as the first orbital spaceflight based on FAI rules.)