User:GW Simulations/SpaceflightPortal
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Arts · Biography · Geography · History · Mathematics · Philosophy · Science · Society · Technology  Spaceflight is the movement of spacecraft into and through outer space, primarily using rocket technology for propulsion. Spaceflight is a necessary component of space exploration. It is also necessary for commercial uses of space, such as space tourism and the launching of telecommunications satellites. Additional, non-commercial uses of spaceflight include space observatories, reconnaissance satellites and other earth observation satellites. Portal:Spaceflight/Selected article/Week 15 2007  Launch of the last Saturn V rocket (Actually a Saturn INT-21) carrying the Skylab space station into orbit. Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (Russian: Юрий Алексеевич Гагарин; March 9, 1934 – March 27, 1968), was a Soviet cosmonaut who in 1961 became the first human to travel into space, as well as orbit the Earth. Yuri Gagarin was born in Klushino near Gzhatsk, a region west of Moscow, Russia, on March 9, 1934 (the town would be renamed Gagarin in 1968 to honour Yuri), and his parents worked on a collective farm. After starting an apprenticeship in a metalworks as a foundryman, Gagarin was selected for further training at a high technical school in Saratov. While there, he joined the "AeroClub", and learned to fly a light aircraft, a hobby that began to take up an increasing proportion of his time. After completing his technical schooling, he entered military flight training at the Orenburg Pilot's School. While there he met Valentina Goryacheva, whom he married in 1957, after gaining his pilot's wings in a MiG-15. After graduating, he was posted at an airbase in the Murmansk region, near the Norwegian border On April 12, 1961, Gagarin became the first human to travel into space in Vostok 3KA-2 (Vostok 1). His call sign in this flight was Cedar (Russian: Кедр). After the flight, Gagarin became an instant, worldwide celebrity, touring widely to promote the Soviet achievement. On March 27, 1968 he was killed in a crash of a MiG-15 UTI on a routine training flight near Kirzhach together with his instructor. It is uncertain what caused the crash, but a 1986 inquest suggests that the turbulence from a Su-11 interceptor airplane using its afterburners may have caused Gagarin's plane to go out of control.
The next manned launch will be the Space Shuttle Atlantis on the STS-117 mission to install solar arrays aboard the ISS. The launch date has not been set, but is scheduled to be sometime in May or June. For a full launch schedule, see 2007 in spaceflight. 10 April View today's anniversaries | View all April anniversaries |
