DIARY - It was 50 years ago today.
Date: 2011-04-12 16:03:03
50 years ago today, a solitary Russian sat aloft what could best be described as a missile with a human warhead.What he did exploded the world we lived in up to that time.
Yuri Gagarin became the first human to fully orbit the earth in a man-made spacecraft. Because he was Russian and the world was in the depths of an east-west cold-war his journey sparked fear, global war theories and the greatest adventure man was ever to embark upon.
I was 5 years old when Gagarin went into space, it didn't matter to me whether he was Russian or not, it sparked my imagination and my love of 'space'. I grew up in the 'space race' years and consumed every bit of it, from the world of my astronaut heroes through fanastic science fiction and even tales of aliens and UFO's.
These men and women were real heroes, pioneers and explorers who took our knowledge to new arenas and took the human race to new realms.
If only we had politicians with foresight now to see what that potential could bring to a drab, gray world full of strife and little hope.
The world needs adventure, it needs explorers, it needs to journey out beyond it's small, blue home. We need to expand our place in the universe.
I've said it before, but my thanks to Gagarin and all those who preceded him and those that followed for making my world full of your adventure. If only the crop of weak-willed politicians that killed the space programme had your spirit, courage and detemination, if they had, we would already be standing on Mars and looking to our next goal.
Instead we sit in the gutter and stare at the stars, such a shame, when we could be amongst them.
Pat K
© Pat Kent 2011 – All rights reserved. Pat Kent exercises his right to be identified as the author 2011