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“I have never heard anything like it on Earth”: Yuri Gagarin speaks

Neil Tyson reminded folks on Twitter that today is Gagarin’s birthday, so I went and looked up an old book I’ve got on the early Russian space program in search of his description of man’s first journey into space (1961).  There’s a stereotype that astronauts aren’t too articulate in describing the wonders of space; if that’s the case, Gagarin was definitely an exception:

The roar was loud, but not really any louder than what you usually hear in the cockpit of a jet plane.  Another interesting thing is that a great many new musical nuances and timbres can be heard in that roar.  I have never heard anything like it on earth.  I got the impression that the powerful rocket engines were creating the music of the future—perhaps more moving than the music of our time.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 8:50 am and is filed under Space exploration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to ““I have never heard anything like it on Earth”: Yuri Gagarin speaks”

  1. ael Says:
    March 16th, 2010 at 6:28 am

    Great quote.

    Btw, reality getting ready to catch up with your books? http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/15/x_37_go_for_april/

  2. David J. Williams Says:
    March 16th, 2010 at 10:49 am

    ah interesting . .didn’t realize the X-37 was back. . . .thanks for this!