Persons [ ] I Could Have Continued To Fly In Space Forever | Yuri Gagarin, 1934-1968
Yuri Gagarin, 1961
“Orbiting Earth in the spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it!”
“The road to the stars is steep and dangerous. But we are not afraid…”
“The path of a cosmonaut is not an easy, triumphant march to glory. You have to get to know the meaning not just of joy but also of grief before being allowed in the spacecraft cabin.”
“The transition into the Earth’s shadow took place very rapidly. Darkness comes instantly, and nothing can be seen.”
Sculptor Ivan Misko working on a sculpture of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, 1962
“I was in a cloud of fire rushing toward Earth.”
“The Earth is surrounded by a characteristic blue halo. This halo is particularly visible at the horizon.”
“I saw for the first time the Earth’s shape. I could easily see the shores of continents, islands, great rivers, folds of the terrain, large bodies of water. The horizon is dark blue, smoothly turning to black…the feelings which filled me I can express with one word – joy.”
“An astronaut cannot be suspended in space and not have God in his mind and his heart.”
“Looking at the Earth from afar, you realize that it is too small for conflict and just large enough for cooperation. Nothing will stop us.”
“What an indescribable gamut of colors! Just like the paintings of the artist Nicholas Roerich.”
“To be the first to enter the cosmos, to engage, single-handed, in an unprecedented duel with nature. Could one dream of anything more?”
“Space flights cannot be stopped. It is not the work of one man or even a group of men. It is a historical process that humanity carries out in accordance with the natural laws of human development.”
“I could have continued to fly in space forever.”
“I looked and looked but I didn’t see God.”
[Speaking about, in 1961, becoming the first human to enter space.]”
Yuri Gagarin, 1934-1968
Boys looking at newspapers about Yuri Gagarin’s historic space flight (April 13, 1961)
Marc Riboud, Women looking at posters celebrating Yuri Gagarin’s space flight (Moscow, April 1961)
A boy shares the news of Yuri Gagarin’s space flight with local shepherd, 1961
Also:
Persons [ ] The cosmos is within us | Carl Sagan, 1934-1996
