NASA: One Pinnacle of Human Achievement to Another - From Gagarin to our days

Open your mind, your heart to other cultures
Abra su mente, su corazón a otras culturas
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Usted será una mejor persona
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One Pinnacle of Human Achievement to Another

On April 12, 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to reach Earth orbit. Launching from Baikonur Cosmodrome on Vostok-1, he flew for 108 minutes and nearly circled the planet before landing in Kazakhstan. From a porthole at his feet, he could view our blue planet as a sphere. He declared: “It is indescribably beautiful.”

On April 12, 1981, astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen rode the space shuttle Columbia into the sky, launching from Cape Canaveral in the world's first reusable space vehicle. It was the first time in history that a new spacecraft was launched on its maiden voyage with a crew aboard. Thirty years and 513 million miles later, the NASA space shuttle fleet—Discovery, Endeavour, Atlantis, together with Columbia and Challenger (both lost)—has carried 350 people into orbit on 133 flights.

In honor of this double anniversary, Earth Observatory offers this astronaut photograph of the place where many historians say the march of civilization began: the “Fertile Crescent” region of the Middle East. Known to many as “the cradle of civilization,” the stretch of land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers nurtured several of the earliest known cities and empires.

Astronauts on flight STS-1 captured this view of the Tigris and Euphrates delta through a viewport on the space shuttle on April 13, 1981. The photo was taken with a handheld camera on the 15th orbit around Earth, during a flight that lasted 54 hours.

The space shuttle has “helped us improve communications on Earth and understand our home planet better,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on April 12, 2011. “It's set scientific satellites like Magellan and Ulysses speeding on their missions into the solar system, and launched Hubble and Chandra to explore the universe. It's enabled construction of the International Space Station, our foothold for human exploration, which is leading to breakthroughs in human health and microgravity research.”

It all started fifty years ago this day. The United Nations has declared April 12 to be the International Day of Human Space Flight.

Astronaut photograph STS001-8-230 was acquired on April 2, 1981, with a Hasselblad medium format camera using an 80 mm lens, and is provided by the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by the first Shuttle Flight crew. The image in this article has been enhanced to improve contrast. Lens artifacts have been removed. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by Mike Carlowicz.

Instrument: 

Space Shuttle - Medium Format Camera

NASA: One Pinnacle of Human Achievement to Another - From Gagarin to our days

You have an alphabetical guide in the foot of the page in the blog: solitary dog sculptor
In the blog: Solitary Dog Sculptor I, the alphabetical guide is on the right side of the page
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Usted tiene una guía alfabética al pie de la página en el blog: solitary dog sculptor
En el blog: Solitary Dog Sculptor I, la guia alfabética está en el costado derecho de la página
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My blogs are an open house to all cultures, religions and countries. Be a follower if you like it, with this action you are building a new culture of tolerance, open mind and heart for peace, love and human respect.

Thanks :)

Mis blogs son una casa abierta a todas las culturas, religiones y países. Se un seguidor si quieres, con esta acción usted está construyendo una nueva cultura de la tolerancia, la mente y el corazón abiertos para la paz, el amor y el respeto humano.

Gracias :)