The Journey(s) of Ian

Yuri Gagarin holds a rare place in human history, of a type which is shared by the first person to tame fire, to discover crop cultivation, to invent the wheel. Each of these events demarcates a profound change in human history. Fifty years ago, on April 12th, 1961, the Russian hero Gagarin did just this, by becoming the first man to leave the surface of the Earth, take the first steps beyond the bounds of our home planet, and to fly through space. At that time the cold war at its coldest—school children were preparing for nuclear holocaust by hiding beneath their desks. The dangerous struggle between east and the west was expected to erupt inevitably into nuclear war at any time. Against this background Gargarin climbed into his small, cramped Vostok 1 capsule and waited for the signal to launch. It is true to say that his flight was a propaganda stunt, and that without the superpower competition Gagarin might never have flown, howev...