50th anniversary of human space flight

[vilakins]

It was 50 years ago that Yuri Gagarin was the first human in space--and it's also Greg's birthday (though for him not till tomorrow because he's in the US) which has always pleased him.

Google have a great 50s/Soviet-style logo for the occasion; see it here. The actual Google page shows a rocket blasting off; check it out on your 12th.

Here are "just over 50" (51 in fact) space-related photos which you can vote on if you wish. Many are familiar, others quite unusual and new to me.

And thanks to elmey, here's a 1961 Life photo of Yuri Gagarin's parade in London.

I hope I get this to crosspost to LJ while it's still the 12th.

Comments

[elmey]

Funny you should mention that--we were just discussing it on one of the LJ MFU sites which I can't access anymore right now, and I was going to post this cool photo of Yuri Gagarin's parade in London:

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/f?q=Yuri+Gagarin+source:life&prev=/images%3Fq%3DYuri%2BGagarin%2Bsource:life%26hl%3Den%26newwindow%3D1%26safe%3Doff%26biw%3D1721%26bih%3D886%26tbm%3Disch0,299&imgurl=c0eeb340f0e3203b

[vilakins]

Ooh, that's excellent! May I add it to my post?

[elmey]

Sure. It's 1961 and the source is Life Magazine.

[vilakins]

Thank you!

[elmey]

I'm glad people have a chance to see it. I'm completely shut out of LJ again, I have no idea if it's just a local glitch or what.

[vilakins]

Another Russian DDOS attack, I'd say.

[maegquare]

That's great to see. Thanks for sharing!

[vilakins]

I was especially interested in the London parade which I hadn't heard about.

[theyarnproject.livejournal.com]

Wow...50 years, huh! How cool. Thanks for sharing this. =)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you liked the links!

[blencathra.livejournal.com]

Great pic! Thanks for sharing.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

The 51 pics are also worth a look!

Nice Lib icon!

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I suddenly remembered a charming statue of Gagarin in the spa town of Karlovy Vary (in what was Czechoslovakia when I had lunch there on Christmas Day 1984) - I looked at my album and to my intense disappointment I don't seem to have taken a photo. Can't think why. He looked as if he'd just landed in the square, and was waving to its astonished inhabitants. The only photo I can find online is this one (http://www.visualrian.com/storage/PreviewWM/6811/46/681146.jpg?1276264847), taken a year and a half earlier; apparently the statue has been moved to the airport now, and there's a glass building housing one of the town's hot springs on the site.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I like it! He looks very friendly.

I'm pretty sure Greg took photos of a Gagarin statue in Bulgaria, in a Varna park. [goes to look] It was the Sea Gardens and the only one I could find was Greg kneeling by a plaque devoted to Gagarin. He's always had a special affinity for him for making his flight on his birthday. :-)

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday to Greg!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It's the 12th where he is now so I can pass that on with my wishes when he Spypes me today. :-D