SIXTY long years ago, Soviet union’s cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin took that pioneering flight into outer space. Before that, a couple of animals had been sent on such journeys around Planet Earth, as essential steps in Man’s quest to reach to the farthest possible frontiers of the universe. Space research had begun much earlier, locking two of world superpowers in a race in which even a loser was a winner, in a sense. For, the effort was to master space, to go beyond the horizon and deep into something beyond ‘sky’ that the normal human eye saw. And then came that historic flight out into space as Yuri Gagarin circled around Planet Earth taking 90 minutes each for one full circle.

 

 

 

The ecstasy that the humanity enjoyed that day was beyond any nationalistic considerations. For everybody on Earth, it was a common achievement, a common point to feel proud of! That was sixty years ago chronologically. Spiritually, too, that has been long ago, given the subsequent achievements on frontiers of space. Yet, culturally, that moment sixty years ago seems ‘just yesterday’. So fresh it is in collective human memory, in collective human consciousness. Yuri Gagarin, that day, became the permanent metaphor of human progress in science. Of course, that Soviet achievement made United States President Mr. John F. Kennedy to announce a ten-year programme to place first human right on the Moon. And then came that moment when Neil Armstrong stepped on the surface of the Moon -- to become yet another metaphor of progress in science.

 

No matter that, what Yuri Gagarin’s flight into space means is something that nothing else can equal in emotional gravitas. Now, humans are spending months -- and even years -- in space conducting research at the International Space Station -- ISS. Regular space sorties carry merchandise to the ISS and back as if just an airline is operating trans-Atlantic flights. Such a long journey it has been. Yet, it seems almost ‘yesterday’ when we think of Yuri Gagarin’s flight into space! Space science has done the human community a lot of good in ways that ordinary mortals cannot imagine. At almost every minute all of us are benefitted by or are using this or that reward of space science -- computers, mobile phones, microwave ovens, for example. Much of our lifestyle now stands influenced by utilitarian achievements in space science. All that began a little less than a century ago -- with Yuri Gagarin offering a glorious mid- point!