Spoiler: Boeing Starliner launch was canceled the day after.
Did they delete this tweet? I don't see it on their nitter page. It would have been on May 5.
Also, just found this on Alan Shepard's wiki page: "On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space, and the first to orbit the Earth.[70] It was another body blow to American pride.[67] When Shepard heard the news he slammed his fist down on a table so hard a NASA public relations officer feared he might have broken his hand.[71]"
You can't get to space first!
Yes, they deleted it. The Russian Embassy in South Africa twitter account replied and the link it pointed to is now unavailable.
I learned from the replies there that some weirdos don't think his flight counts because he ejected before landing and one of those "international" organizations that are always fucking French said you have to land for it to count.
I’m quite sure that Gagarin actually landed after going to space, not like he’s still up in the air somewhere. Having to be in the launch craft when you land is such a ridiculous technicality lmao nobody should take that seriously. Like he went to space and came back, and he was the first person to do so, nobody can dispute that.
The criterion of having to be in the craft when it touches the earth again came exclusively from the West realizing that Soviet craft would most likely come down onto land because of how large and how far from the oceans the USSR was. Since US craft could come down into the ocean and the astronauts could be easily recovered, they basically got the international aeronautics body to add that little detail in there. Absolute bullshit
Sorry but you have to comedown on land for it to count as "landing", if you comedown on the ocean it is technically diving
You know what they say, orbiting is just falling without landing. He never landed. #GagarinTruther
I think you mean Columbia. I don't think anyone would argue challenger counts.
I knew there was a better one and couldn't think of the name and decided not to look it up
Challenger crew got pretty high up, depending on your religious views.
i love the kerbal-ass way they had to eject before landing. if it works it works
The American mission didn't travel very far at all either
ShowCompared to Gagarin's orbit
ShowIt wasn’t even orbital. It was a 15-minute suborbital flight which is even more embarrassing.
And it took the Americans almost another year to achieve an orbital flight
But they did learn some things
In addition, due to the lessons learnt from the previous two manned flights, MA-6 was the first American spaceflight to include a dedicated urine collection device
First person in orbit: Yuri Gagarin
Second person in orbit: Gherman Titov
Amerikkka took third place in a one on one race
I'm half awake from a nap and typed "Yuri" into the search bar not thinking 😑
Yuri Gagarin's name will one day be remembered on other planets. Alan Sheppard will be remembered as Tom Cruise.