There is a tight thread, for 62 years, which unites Gagarin and Samantha Cristoforetti. One boss is tethered to the Vostok spacecraft, the first capsule to ever carry a human into orbit around the Earth. Inside him was Yuri Alekseevic Gagarin, in his red overalls. One of the phrases that have been attributed to him is perhaps less known, but even more powerful than the words that Neil Armstrong recited as he descended the steps of the lunar module. “From up here the Earth is beautiful, without frontiers or borders”. Whether he said it or not, it doesn’t matter at this point. That April 12, 1961, he was the first to see our blue planet and the horizon that curved under his porthole. It was the beginning of the human adventure in space, and it is in honor of the first man who ever crossed the Hercules columns of the atmosphere, that on this day we celebrate the international day dedicated to human spaceflight.
Scenarios
Space 2023: month after month, who will go into orbit, how and why
by Emilio Cozzi
It took just over an hour and a half for “Cedar”, the code name of Gagarin, to enter history. A single orbit, which took him where no one had ever dared. The space race had begun four years earlier, with the launch of the first satellite, Sputnik, which made the Americans pale. That “beep” that even radio amateurs could hear on the radio meant that the Russians could reach over their heads with no way to counter them at the time. A muscular competition, warlike but somehow disguised as a technological challenge and exploration of the unknown.
The USA put in monstrous funding to overcome the Soviets, first of all to learn how to reach space, then, once the first astronauts were brought in (even the difference in name, from the Russian cosmonauts, which is still valid today, says a lot about this rivalry ) in space it was necessary to learn to survive, live, and aim far. Thus the Mercury and Gemini programs were born, alongside the Vostok and Voskhod and then Soyuz. The head-to-head soon turned into a forward flight when, under the pressure of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, on July 20, 1969 the challenge was won and the stars and stripes flag planted in the sea of Tranquility.
Interview
Physicist Battiston: “Elon Musk could really get to Mars within 10 years”
by Carlotta Scozzari
In his “To Be Opened Only In Case Of Lunar Disaster” speech, Nixon reportedly said, in the event of the impossibility of recovering Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin from the surface of the Moon, “These fearless men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know there is no hope for their recovery. But they know there is hope for humanity in their sacrifice. These two men are giving their lives for humanity’s noblest goal: the pursuit of truth and knowledge.” Fearless because seated on a rocket, a volcano of power, they let themselves be projected towards the cosmos, because having landed on another world, without an atmosphere, they put their lives in the hands of NASA engineers to attempt the unknown. Thankfully Nixon never had to deliver that speech. The flag on the moon is still there, maybe now it’s white, because of the radiation, but it’s American. That mattered.
Once the lunar thrust had run out, it was necessary to make space the environment in which to work, in peace, to build the future. The first awareness that this shouldn’t be a battlefield, a land to be conquered, came in the ’70s, when even Apollo and Soyuz managed to hook up in orbit, and cosmonauts and astronauts shook hands. It happened again, this time in the rendezvous between the Shuttle, the new American vehicle, which docked at Mir. Humanity had learned to carve out an environment in which to live, for days, weeks and even months.
Innovation
From trips out of town to deep space: the path of 2 Genoese startups on the path to sustainability
by Emanuele Capone
Until the USA and Russia, in the 1990s, decided that it was appropriate, more reasonable and also cheaper, to join forces in what remains the most extraordinary adventure and example of collaboration that our species has ever been able to build: the International Space Station. Over 250 astronauts from around twenty countries met here, carrying out scientific and technological experiments. Operations on the ISS have continued since 2000 without interruption. For 23 years there has always been someone who has orbited up there and can admire this blue land without borders.
On 22 July 2022, the Italian ESA astronaut, Samantha Cristoforetti, went out for the first time for a “spacewalk”, an extravehicular activity wearing a suit, the Orlan, made in Moscow, working side by side with her colleague Oleg Artemyev. Four hundred kilometers below, the Russian army was busy invading the Ukraine. But orbit, there’s no time to go to war. It’s a question of survival and awareness. Looking from the dome of the Space Station, as Gagarin did from his porthole, all the astronauts have learned that borders cannot be seen from up there.
Space
What Samantha Cristoforetti is doing on her space “walk”.
by Emilio Cozzi
