50 Years ago today, April 12, 1961, Man First flew in Space.

[SkyMan]

Fifty years ago today Man First went into space. The First Cosmonaut was Yuri Gagarin. It seems likely that in the long scale of human history this will be considered a seminal event. As an aside 20 years later, 4/12/81, e.g. 30 years ago today, was the First Space Shuttle flight. In celebration of this event post a coin from 1961 (or 1981), or a numismatic item that has a picture of a celestial body or a spacecraft.

 

 

Here is a Soviet era pennant. The middle signature is Gagarin's (the top signature is Tereshkova's, the First woman in space).

 

 

Here's a picture of the First shuttle liftoff.

 

An STS-1 flown Flag and patch (ex: Deke Slayton).

 

... and finally a couple Franklins from 1961.

 

[physics-fan3.14]

On a similarly important but completely unrelated note, today marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the War of Northern Aggression.

[SkyMan]

On a similarly important but completely unrelated note, today marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the War of Northern Aggression.

 

Or the revolt of the people who believed in slavery.

[physics-fan3.14]

On a similarly important but completely unrelated note, today marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the War of Northern Aggression.

 

Or the revolt of the people who believed in slavery.

 

Then, as now, the issue is states rights. Then it was states rights to determine slavery, now its states rights on health care. The federal government has been grasping more and more power for 200+ years, power which was never intended for the federal government. States rights, always and forever.

 

But lets not derail your thread anymore. Three cheers for human spaceflight! What are your thoughts on the up-and-coming private spaceflight industry?

[SkyMan]

Then, as now, the issue is states rights. Then it was states rights to determine slavery, now its states rights on health care. The federal government has been grasping more and more power for 200+ years, power which was never intended for the federal government. States rights, always and forever.

 

But lets not derail your thread anymore. Three cheers for human spaceflight! What are your thoughts on the up-and-coming private spaceflight industry?

 

I always love people who try to get in the last word of an argument and then say, "but enough of that, let's move on".

 

You can dress a pig up and put lipstick on it, but it is still a pig. The likelihood of there being the Civil War without slavery being the burning issue it was is extremely remote. Southerners supported slavery. Northerners did not. Every single state that seceded allowed (and indeed supported) slavery on it's territory. Furthermore, they attempted to export it's enforcement to other States that were "Free" States. Let's not beat about the bush, slavery is the OWNING by one Human of another Human. The owner can have the slave WHIPPED and their children SOLD.

 

If you wish to start a thread about the Civil War you are welcome to, but please do NOT post any more about it or it's issues on this thread. This is a thread where we CELEBRATE humanity. As mentioned you are WELCOME to post some of your 1961 coins to this thread (and I know you have some attractive Franklins of that date).

 

As to commercial space, there really are several different iterations of it. There is the suborbital hop group (such as SpaceShip Two) that will take people for ~$250,000 up to 100+ km for the view and 5 minutes of weightlessness. This is a valid field, but we really are talking just a short hop (speeds of 3,000 mph MAX, compared to 17,500 mph necessary to orbit the earth). However, my best guess is that this will incrementally over time lead to much better designed spacecraft for human functionality.

 

Then there are the launch groups that NASA is pumping some money into. In my opinion this is THE most exciting field, very comparable to the Federal government support in the 19th century to the nascent railroad industry. SpaceX is probably the best known of these groups and I wish them well. They have already tested a rocket (Falcon 9) with ~1.1 million pounds of thrust (roughly 2.25 times the power of the Titan rockets that launched Gemini spacecraft in the 1960's). This week SpaceX announced plans for it's heavy lift vehicle (Falcon Heavy) to launch in 2013-4. This vehicle will produce 3.8 million pounds of thrust, and IF it lives up to it's hype it should cost ~$1,000 per pound of cargo to low earth orbit, ~200 km high. That is SUBSTANTIALLY less than any other launch vehicle out there (essentially 1/4 of what it currently costs the US to launch payloads into space on expendable boosters, and FAR less than the shuttle). Cost has ALWAYS been THE major factor in space endeavors. If SpaceX can get the bugs out, this will be a HUGE step forward in opening space up to everyone. Here's a link to the Falcon Heavy website, with a fun video animation:

 

Link

 

Finally you've got the Google Lunar X prize going on. Google has a prize of $30,000,000 for the first PRIVATELY FUNDED team to safely land a robot on the surface of the Moon and have that robot travel 500 meters over the lunar surface and send images and data back to Earth. This has the potential to revolutionize lunar exploration as every group that is attempting to win the prize is severely constrained by their budget, so a lot of very good thinking is going into how to get the necessary functionality on a shoestring budget. It is interesting to note that many of the teams (last I heard tell there were 29 of them) are planning on using SpaceX as their launch partner as SpaceX is willing to do it for cost. Given how relatively close the Moon is to the Earth, this could lead within a couple of decades to fully functioning manned bases on the Moon. Here's a link to Google Lunar X prize:

 

Link

 

And in celebration of Yuri's flight here's another coin...

 

 

[lcoopie]

 

 

 

I love your registry Sy.

[Hard Times]

AND TODAY, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT MADE THE DECISION TO NOT AWARD THE JOHNSON SPACE CENTER FOR ITS CONTRIBUTION TO THIS GREAT ACHIEVEMENT.

 

NO SPACE SHUTTLE FOR YOU HOUSTON, STICK IT IN YOUR FACE - SAYS OUR GOVERNMENT.

 

[SkyMan]

Those are Gorgeous Les!!!

 

 

 

Edited to add: It seems this came up while I was creating this post to the thread...

 

AND TODAY, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT MADE THE DECISION TO NOT AWARD THE JOHNSON SPACE CENTER FOR ITS CONTRIBUTION TO THIS GREAT ACHIEVEMENT.

 

NO SPACE SHUTTLE FOR YOU HOUSTON, STICK IT IN YOUR FACE - SAYS OUR GOVERNMENT.

 

Yeah, I wonder what strings were pulled on that one. For the life of me, I can't see why the ENTERPRISE didn't go to Houston instead of NYC. It makes no sense either historically OR geographically.

[Hard Times]

To their discredit, the JSC group and the congresspersons of Texas were slow to rally behind the obvious and let the politics roll over them. But still, putting one in California to appease Democratic congresswomen? Why should something like this be about politics? 50 years of effort by the Johnson Space Center, perhaps one of the key participants (the other being KSC) in possibly the most important scientific achievement and adventure humankind has been involved in, at least in the past century, and politics left them out of getting pie?

 

Having said that, stunning Frankie's folks! Well imaged!!

[lcoopie]

I got those Franklins from a Zappa look-a-like.

Does he post here?

[SkyMan]

Les, I've never seen the Bushie one post here.

 

 

To their discredit, the JSC group and the congresspersons of Texas were slow to rally behind the obvious and let the politics roll over them. But still, putting one in California to appease Democratic congresswomen? Why should something like this be about politics? 50 years of effort by the Johnson Space Center, perhaps one of the key participants (the other being KSC) in possibly the most important scientific achievement and adventure humankind has been involved in, at least in the past century, and politics left them out of getting pie?

 

Having said that, stunning Frankie's folks! Well imaged!!

 

HT, learn your history. The shuttle was NOT put in So. Cal. mainly for political purposes. A VERY large chunk of the shuttle was created and manufactured in CA... not to mention, what goes up tends to come down and for many years the shuttle's landing site was Edwards AFB. The ridiculous placing of a shuttle in NYC was the political power pull.

[lcoopie]

perhaps we can coax him out

[Hard Times]

Actually if you read the news reports, some of these clearly state that it was put in California because of the lobbying efforts of Boxer and Pelosi who are both Dems. Boxer's quote was something like 'we were involved in the shuttle program, yada, yada, yada'.

 

Wail, JSC trained all of the astronauts, they live in the community around JSC, mission control is there, about 10,000 folks at JSC are involved in shuttle operations including all of the payload activities, shuttle simulators are there, and it goes on and on. But the congresspersons involved were Reps not Dems. It simply came down to that, politics. If Texas were a blue state, Houston would not have a problem. But Californicated west coast is blue, this was to appease a state that will vote for Obama, simple as that.

 

No don't get me wrong, I am no friend of the elephant, but I don't like politics making a stupid decision like this. Having said that, you are correct, CA deserved one B4 NY, without question. But the news reports indicate that Houston was no where near the top 4, that speaks for itself.

 

But again, nice frankies everyone!!!