A smalltown farmboy born in the mud learns he is destined for something more. His launch into space on the Vostok reads like a storybook. The light of his first flight glows even now, but what does the light blind us to? Can we separate the shine from the star?

 

I used "Starman" by Piers Bizony and Jamie Doran, "Escaping the Bonds of Earth: The fifties and sixties" by Ben Evans and "Rockets and People Vol 3" by Boris Chertok along with supplemental sources including Nikolai Kamanin's diary. 

 

Stars-intro music was "Labyrinth" by Sergey Cheremisinov. Then (and at the end) we had "On the Moon" by johnny_ripper. The middle, in various combinations and loops, was the Prelude to Richard Wagner's "Das Rheingold," as performed by the United States Military Band. The outro, as always, was Podington Bear's "Afterglow."