God has no intention of setting a limit to the efforts of man to conquer space.
— Pope Pius XII
Google Doodle today honors Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human to blast off into outer space. The doodle features the stylized Soviet style poster art of the time, with Gagarin's helmet as one of the "o's" in Google. When you mouse over the orange planet next to Gagarin, a rocket blasts off.
Yuri Gagarin in Sweden
Gagarin orbited earth for 108 minutes. The Christian Science Monitor postulates what Gagarin would say today had he the chance to do it again:
Were the first manned flight to outer space to happen now, perhaps Mr. Gagarin would avail himself of a Twitter account. “I’ve still got all my marbles,” he might have written. “My eyes are not turning to jelly.” (These were just two of the fears people had about space flight in the 1961. One can only imagine what fears Gagarin himself had, hurtling off into the unknown.)
Gagarin became a national celebrity, and was awarded many medals and honors, among them "Hero of the Soviet Union." He served as backup crew to the Soyuz 1 mission which ended in a fatal crash. Gagarin survived this and later died in a MiG crash in 1968 that has been the subject of speculation and conspiracy theories ever since.
For more about Yuri Gagarin, click on the Google Doodle next time you're in Google!
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