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I am glad to hear that more is coming out about his death. I think, slowly, Yuri Gagarin's place in American history is being solidified. It would be interestin

I am glad to hear that more is coming out about his death. I think, slowly, Yuri Gagarin's place in American history is being solidified. It would be interesting to find out the process that Gagarin was chosen as the first man. The politics and technical requirements must have been intense. And obviously he had to distinguish himself.

k-mcgrady 13y ago
I'm interested in your comment about his place in American history being solidified. Could you expand? Is he not taught about in schools when space is being taught?
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- mpyne 13y ago
  He is. It's pretty much left at that, though. It's a pity he's not further discussed in at least higher-level World History education as Yuri's story is quite interesting (even up to why he decided to go on that flight that he did), and my understanding is that he was looked up to even by U.S. astronauts.
  - simonholroyd 13y ago
    On one of the Apollo missions (11), a medal commemorating Yuri's first flight was placed on the moon by the NASA astronauts. The medal was commissioned by the British government and contained inscriptions in both English and Russian languages. It was among other items commemorating fallen astronauts/cosmonauts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin#Tributes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin#Tributes) I'm aware of this because my grandfather hand engraved the medal.
- sejje 13y ago
  As a young American, I can say that I have no recollection of his name. I've never been particularly interested in space exploration, but living in Florida, we visited the Space Center, watched launches, etc. The names I know are all American: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, etc. The "programs" I know are too: Apollo, Challenger, etc. We were taught that the Russians made it to space before we did, and I think that's about it before we moved on to American achievements. Perhaps I had a nationalistic teacher.
  - sentenza 13y ago
    Funny. Here in Germany, everybody knows Gagarin and Armstrong, but nobody knows the names of the other Apollo 11 crewmembers.
  - mjn 13y ago
    I assume it varies by school/textbook, but while I agree the American space program was covered with much more emphasis, in my class we did learn about Gagarin. The bits of Soviet space program we learned were basically: Sputnik, first dog in space, Gagarin, Mir.
    - L4mppu 13y ago
      Do you mean German space program?
      - mjn 13y ago
        We also learned about the role played by German-Americans in the program, yes! Von Braun is pretty much a household name.
  - hga 13y ago
    What about the Mercury Seven: Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra, Gordon Cooper, and Deke Slayton?
  - mpclark 13y ago
    FWIW here in the UK in the mid to late 70s we learned about Sputnik, Laika and Gagarin as well as Armstrong, Aldrin et al.
  - Spooky23 13y ago
    Really? We covered the Soviet space program in 3rd grade in NYC public schools in the 80's. Maybe the teachers were playing up space stuff because of the Challenger disaster, but I'm shocked that you never heard of him!
  - lotharbot 13y ago
tokenadult 13y ago
Yuri Gagarin's place in American history is being solidified. A lot of people have commented about this remark of yours. I'm old enough (barely) to remember Gagarin's first venture into space (I distinctly remember live TV coverage of the launch of John Glenn's first American orbital space launch) and I have never forgotten about Gagarin, nor about Valentina Tereshkova, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentina_Tereshkova http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentina_Tereshkova whose flight into space, the first by a woman by a large number of years, was just in the news on its fiftieth anniversary. A sufficiently old American grew up in the Space Age, and remembers the names of all the space pioneers. If younger readers of Hacker News would like to move their minds back in time to learn more about (the American phase of) the early age of manned space flight, I recommend the documentary movie In the Shadow of the Moon, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0925248/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0925248/ which I watched with my children just yesterday evening. There is, alas, little mention of the Soviet space program in the film, because the focus is on manned missions to the moon, but the interviews with surviving astronauts are fascinating, and the film-maker does a good job of setting the historical context.
hnriot 13y ago
Wtf? Every school girl and boy knows who he is and what he did.

k-mcgrady 13y ago

I'm interested in your comment about his place in American history being solidified. Could you expand? Is he not taught about in schools when space is being taught?

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
mpyne 13y ago
He is. It's pretty much left at that, though. It's a pity he's not further discussed in at least higher-level World History education as Yuri's story is quite interesting (even up to why he decided to go on that flight that he did), and my understanding is that he was looked up to even by U.S. astronauts.
- simonholroyd 13y ago
  On one of the Apollo missions (11), a medal commemorating Yuri's first flight was placed on the moon by the NASA astronauts. The medal was commissioned by the British government and contained inscriptions in both English and Russian languages. It was among other items commemorating fallen astronauts/cosmonauts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin#Tributes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin#Tributes) I'm aware of this because my grandfather hand engraved the medal.
sejje 13y ago
As a young American, I can say that I have no recollection of his name. I've never been particularly interested in space exploration, but living in Florida, we visited the Space Center, watched launches, etc. The names I know are all American: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, etc. The "programs" I know are too: Apollo, Challenger, etc. We were taught that the Russians made it to space before we did, and I think that's about it before we moved on to American achievements. Perhaps I had a nationalistic teacher.
- sentenza 13y ago
  Funny. Here in Germany, everybody knows Gagarin and Armstrong, but nobody knows the names of the other Apollo 11 crewmembers.
- mjn 13y ago
  I assume it varies by school/textbook, but while I agree the American space program was covered with much more emphasis, in my class we did learn about Gagarin. The bits of Soviet space program we learned were basically: Sputnik, first dog in space, Gagarin, Mir.
  - L4mppu 13y ago
    Do you mean German space program?
    - mjn 13y ago
      We also learned about the role played by German-Americans in the program, yes! Von Braun is pretty much a household name.
- hga 13y ago
  What about the Mercury Seven: Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra, Gordon Cooper, and Deke Slayton?
- mpclark 13y ago
  FWIW here in the UK in the mid to late 70s we learned about Sputnik, Laika and Gagarin as well as Armstrong, Aldrin et al.
- Spooky23 13y ago
  Really? We covered the Soviet space program in 3rd grade in NYC public schools in the 80's. Maybe the teachers were playing up space stuff because of the Challenger disaster, but I'm shocked that you never heard of him!
- lotharbot 13y ago

tokenadult 13y ago

Yuri Gagarin's place in American history is being solidified. A lot of people have commented about this remark of yours. I'm old enough (barely) to remember Gagarin's first venture into space (I distinctly remember live TV coverage of the launch of John Glenn's first American orbital space launch) and I have never forgotten about Gagarin, nor about Valentina Tereshkova, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentina_Tereshkova http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentina_Tereshkova whose flight into space, the first by a woman by a large number of years, was just in the news on its fiftieth anniversary. A sufficiently old American grew up in the Space Age, and remembers the names of all the space pioneers. If younger readers of Hacker News would like to move their minds back in time to learn more about (the American phase of) the early age of manned space flight, I recommend the documentary movie In the Shadow of the Moon, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0925248/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0925248/ which I watched with my children just yesterday evening. There is, alas, little mention of the Soviet space program in the film, because the focus is on manned missions to the moon, but the interviews with surviving astronauts are fascinating, and the film-maker does a good job of setting the historical context.

hnriot 13y ago

Wtf? Every school girl and boy knows who he is and what he did.