John Glenn. Alan Shepard. Scott Carpenter. Gordon Cooper. Gus Grissom. Deke Slayton. Wally Schirra. These are the names of the members of the Mercury Seven— America’s first astronauts, charged with the task of being the human faces of a massive collective effort to beat the Soviet Union in a race to space. And, of course, charged with the task of actually manning the rockets that could take them higher than man had ever flown before.  

The Soviets Union had their own astronauts, or more accurately, cosmonauts.  Their story, especially the most famous among them, Yuri Gargarin, is fascinating, in part, because their story has many parallels to our own American astronaut program, but also because of the differences.  Some subtle, some glaring.  The differences make their story poignant, something to be understood and appreciated, if only to understand what is true about the human condition. Listen to learn more about

• Early space projects in the United States and the Soviet Union, including Sputnik, Mercury, and Vostok and key leaders like Sergei Korolev.
• The life of Yuri Gargarin, including his childhood in Klushino, his education, interest in flight, recruitment and training as a cosmonaut.
• The first non-humans in space, including Albert I, Albert II from the United States plus the Soviet space dogs, Tsygan, Dezik and the most famous Laika.
• The launch of Vostok 1 and Yuri Gargarin’s mission.  Insights about his instant global celebrity, his fall from Soviet grace and his controversial death in a flying accident.

The full show notes can be found at https://www.mydarkpath.com/season1episode7

Read MF Thomas' novels

Like Clockwork https://amzn.to/417lOzy
Arcade https://amzn.to/4aTpisx
A Sickness in Time https://amzn.to/41apSPK
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