Making Light :: Fifty years up :: comments

Fifty years up

Today, as you have almost certainly heard by now, is the fiftieth anniversary of the (unbelievably dangerous--Yuri Gagarin was an...

Fifty years up -- comment #1 from Martin Haywood

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:00:31 -0500

Restores faith in humanity.

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Posted April 12, 2011 10:00 AM by Martin Haywood

Fifty years up -- comment #2 from Lila

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:07:59 -0500

I don't know which is cooler:

1. Going into space

2. Playing a duet with someone on earth while you're in orbit, or

3. Playing a duet with Ian Anderson omg eleventy!!1!

Have sent this to my daughter the astronaut-wannabe.

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Posted April 12, 2011 10:07 AM by Lila

Fifty years up -- comment #3 from Craig R.

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:47:11 -0500

Yeah, arguments in re priorities and imperialism granted, but Dude!

I don't really care that someone might think of Jethro Tull as dinosaurs. They made the *FLUTE* a rock instrument!

(and Anderson plays a mean flute!)

(I also laughed at the Colonel playing zero-G tricks with her flute, and the obligatory "Hi mom!" wave at the end)

But, yeah, cool

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Posted April 12, 2011 10:47 AM by Craig R.

Fifty years up -- comment #4 from Keith Kisser

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:53:47 -0500

Yes, yes, all those arguments against are valid. But. Astro/Cosmonauts: they let math geeks strap them to ICBMs and launch them into space, just to see if they could do it. That's my bar for heroism.

Yuri Gagarin is the closest thing to a Saint in my book.

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Posted April 12, 2011 10:53 AM by Keith Kisser

Fifty years up -- comment #5 from KristianB

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:37:47 -0500

That.
Was.
Awesome.

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Posted April 12, 2011 11:37 AM by KristianB

Fifty years up -- comment #6 from Madeleine Robins

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:43:27 -0500

You know, this is the sort of thing I thought the future was about when I started reading SF. I still do, for that matter.

Damn, that was cool.

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Posted April 12, 2011 11:43 AM by Madeleine Robins

Fifty years up -- comment #7 from Carrie V.

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:45:56 -0500

Excuse me, having trouble seeing the screen because my eyes have something in them...

I love the happy twinkle in her eyes...

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Posted April 12, 2011 11:45 AM by Carrie V.

Fifty years up -- comment #8 from Tom Whitmore

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 12:03:29 -0500

We are the chorus, and we agree. Thanks -- I'm sharing that.

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Posted April 12, 2011 12:03 PM by Tom Whitmore

Fifty years up -- comment #9 from Trevin M

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 12:49:12 -0500

Carrie V at #7

My eyes too. I can't believe the emotional impact that two minutes had on me. Wow.

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Posted April 12, 2011 12:49 PM by Trevin M

Fifty years up -- comment #10 from Zeynep

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 12:52:32 -0500

I can't stop grinning. Thanks for sharing this.

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Posted April 12, 2011 12:52 PM by Zeynep

Fifty years up -- comment #11 from Velma

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:12:42 -0500

That was so damned cool. I cannot stop smiling.

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Posted April 12, 2011 1:12 PM by Velma

Fifty years up -- comment #12 from Mark

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:14:10 -0500

The sheer childlike joy of Col. Coleman is contagious. Is she more excited about being able to play with Ian Anderson, or with being able to play on a space station? Who cares? :-D

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Posted April 12, 2011 1:14 PM by Mark

Fifty years up -- comment #13 from Lila

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:19:39 -0500

Incidentally, this video solves the problem of (male) Centauri hairstyles: they're obviously designed to allow the wearer to broadcast video without giving away whether or not the artificial gravity is still working aboard their ship.

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Posted April 12, 2011 1:19 PM by Lila

Fifty years up -- comment #14 from D. Potter

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:21:05 -0500

Yeah, I've heard the arguments against; I don't think much of them. (Particularly the musical dinosaur one; those dinosaurs produced songs and licks that the current crop of musicians are still using, much as the original dinosaurs became the petroleum we're going to run out of.)

I seem to recall that there is a very slight lag in transmission, so I was impressed by the duet portion.

Just watching the flute float made my day.

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Posted April 12, 2011 1:21 PM by D. Potter

Fifty years up -- comment #15 from Mark

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:27:01 -0500

D. Potter @ 14: Much as I hate pulling back the curtain on the wizard like this, I am given to understand that the two parts were recorded separately - Col. Coleman on Thursday night and Ian Anderson over the weekend. This does very little to diminish the coolth of the whole thing, IMHO.

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Posted April 12, 2011 1:27 PM by Mark

Fifty years up -- comment #16 from Terry Karney

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 14:29:12 -0500

I keep watching it... the opening "drop" to the end of the music..., and I'm a bleary-eyed, giggling wreck.

Thanks, I needed this.

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Posted April 12, 2011 2:29 PM by Terry Karney

Fifty years up -- comment #17 from DaveMB

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 14:30:12 -0500

Col. Coleman, when not in orbit, lives in Shelburne Falls MA with her husband Josh Simpson, a glass artist famous for his "inhabited planets". Some years ago Simpson made the balls for an orrery, which was displayed during a performance of Holst's _The Planets_ by a local orchestra, along with pictures she took from orbit.

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Posted April 12, 2011 2:30 PM by DaveMB

Fifty years up -- comment #18 from Lee

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 14:45:47 -0500

Mark, #15: Ah, thank you; I was wondering about the transmission lag as well. But as you say, still cool.

DabeMB, #17: You tease! Josh Simpson's glass planets.

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Posted April 12, 2011 2:45 PM by Lee

Fifty years up -- comment #19 from Lee

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 14:46:47 -0500

... aaand it's the ohnosecond! My apologies to DaveMB for the typo not caught.

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Posted April 12, 2011 2:46 PM by Lee

Fifty years up -- comment #20 from Xopher

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:06:55 -0500

I'll have to watch the video when I get home, but it seems cool beyond belief.

Has anyone else noticed (I'm sure they have, over the past 50 years) that Gagarin's flight took place 100 years to the day after the firing on Fort Sumter?

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Posted April 12, 2011 3:06 PM by Xopher

Fifty years up -- comment #21 from glinda

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:09:00 -0500

*lump in throat* *sniffle* *incoherent happy babbling*

Sometimes I really, really love living in the future, y'know?

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Posted April 12, 2011 3:09 PM by glinda

Fifty years up -- comment #22 from Stefan Jones

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 16:04:34 -0500

Streaming video is blocked at work, so I'll have to watch the duet tonight.

I've Soviet-era capsules in museums. They are . . . really basic. I'd be afraid to close the door on one that's solidly attached to the ground.

Flying in one . . . that took balls.

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Posted April 12, 2011 4:04 PM by Stefan Jones

Fifty years up -- comment #23 from Clifton Royston

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:26:29 -0500

Since nobody has commented on it yet, equally wonderful is that 50 years after Yuri Gagarin's flight, we consider it perfectly unremarkable that an astronaut is a woman. That also helps me feel a little bit more faith and hope. (I only took notice because I was reading Cady as a male nickname.)

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Posted April 12, 2011 5:26 PM by Clifton Royston

Fifty years up -- comment #24 from Erik Nelson

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 18:54:50 -0500

I am reminded of this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helikopter-Streichquartett

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Posted April 12, 2011 6:54 PM by Erik Nelson

Fifty years up -- comment #25 from Erik Nelson

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 18:56:55 -0500

Speaking of orrerys, I hear that somebody built one but got the balance wrong, so that when all the planets are in alignment, the machine will be off balance and fall over. But that won't happen for another hundred and fifty years.

Consequently, it's a long wait to tip an orrery.

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Posted April 12, 2011 6:56 PM by Erik Nelson

Fifty years up -- comment #26 from j h woodyatt

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 19:26:24 -0500

While this is very very cool, it's not entirely unprecedented for a musician on the ground and an astronaut to perform a duet. Or, at least, it was supposed to have been preceded... c.f Ronald McNair and Jean Michel Jarre and their piece Last Rendez-Vous, which was to have been performed at Rendez-Vous Houston in 1986.

Sadly, McNair was unable to record his part for the concert, and it had to be played by a stand-in.

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Posted April 12, 2011 7:26 PM by j h woodyatt

Fifty years up -- comment #27 from j h woodyatt

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 19:30:39 -0500

The obligatory YouTube link for the Jean Michel Jarre and Ron McNair piece is probably this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtGG1WLP1pk

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Posted April 12, 2011 7:30 PM by j h woodyatt

Fifty years up -- comment #28 from Jo MacQueen

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 19:35:27 -0500

Erik "Goodbye Piccadilly, farewell Leicester Square" Nelson at 25: *tips hat to you, groaningly, then goes back to lurking*

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Posted April 12, 2011 7:35 PM by Jo MacQueen

Fifty years up -- comment #29 from Fragano Ledgister

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 20:22:57 -0500

Now, that is truly amazing. So was Gagarin's flight.

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Posted April 12, 2011 8:22 PM by Fragano Ledgister

Fifty years up -- comment #30 from Geri Sullivan

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 22:14:55 -0500

#17: Thanks, DaveMB! I knew Josh Simpson's wife is an astronaut, and that she was up on the ISS when Josh was Artist GoH at Arisia this past January, but didn't connect that with the video. Small World Win.

I love Shelburne Falls. Glacial Potholes! And the Bridge of Flowers, too. Not to mention the artist's co-op where I picked up my silk flamingo whatsit.

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Posted April 12, 2011 10:14 PM by Geri Sullivan

Fifty years up -- comment #31 from JamesK

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 00:00:43 -0500

My husband comments: "That makes me proud and happy to be a human being."

I can't put it any better then that.

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Posted April 13, 2011 12:00 AM by JamesK

Fifty years up -- comment #32 from KeithS

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 00:05:38 -0500

Sometimes I'm glad we're living in the future.

Erik Nelson @ 25:

I'm not sure if applause or groans are more warranted, but you can have both.

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Posted April 13, 2011 12:05 AM by KeithS

Fifty years up -- comment #33 from Mark Richards

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 02:04:40 -0500

Gagarin was, indeed, an amazing badass.

And now this.

Bourée

I smiled. I cried. Damn.

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Posted April 13, 2011 2:04 AM by Mark Richards

Fifty years up -- comment #34 from Rob Hansen

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 04:13:24 -0500

Wow. That was wonderful. (And I now have a sudden urge to pull out one of my old Jethro Tull albums.)

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Posted April 13, 2011 4:13 AM by Rob Hansen

Fifty years up -- comment #35 from Evan

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 14:30:15 -0500

This, in my opinion, hits fairly close to the theoretical upper limit of awesome.

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Posted April 13, 2011 2:30 PM by Evan

Fifty years up -- comment #36 from Branko Collin

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 16:40:09 -0500

@23, in two years we will be celebrating it's been 50 years since the first woman in space, and with any luck she'll still be around to celebrate it with us.

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Posted April 13, 2011 4:40 PM by Branko Collin

Fifty years up -- comment #37 from Juli Thompson

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 16:54:38 -0500

@23, @36

Courtesy of Wikipedia, here is a photo of Tereshkova and Coleman at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, taken last December.

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Posted April 13, 2011 4:54 PM by Juli Thompson

Fifty years up -- comment #38 from Pete Wright

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 03:38:47 -0500

That certainly brought a smile to my face. Very cool indeed.

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Posted April 14, 2011 3:38 AM by Pete Wright

Fifty years up -- comment #39 from robert pearce

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 08:41:45 -0500

as a long time fan of both the space program and the ongoing career of ian anderson this vidy and the very concept of the tribute is something that spoke to me in a good way.thank you both for this tribute to the first hero of the space age.

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Posted April 14, 2011 8:41 AM by robert pearce

Fifty years up -- comment #40 from Nicole J. LeBoeuf-Little

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 12:39:16 -0500

Joining the ranks of the grinning and misty-eyed. That just made my day - and I've a lot of day left in today, so there you go.

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Posted April 14, 2011 12:39 PM by Nicole J. LeBoeuf-Little

Fifty years up -- comment #41 from Lin D

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:52:24 -0500

What Glinda @21 said!

*sigh* It is, indeed!

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Posted April 15, 2011 4:52 PM by Lin D

Fifty years up -- comment #42 from Jacque

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 21:40:44 -0500

Yargh. I still haven't been able to watch it. My MacBook's logic board died, and my iBook says "I can't deal!"

Hmph. Technology is so cool. Especially when it works.

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Posted April 15, 2011 9:40 PM by Jacque

Fifty years up -- comment #43 from Mel

Sun, 17 Apr 2011 01:48:06 -0500

Now I remember why I liked the flute. That is beautiful music, and some kick-ass people playing it. It's not surprising that an astronaut plays her chosen instrument very, very well.

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Posted April 17, 2011 1:48 AM by Mel

Fifty years up -- comment #44 from PurpleGirl

Sun, 17 Apr 2011 16:39:24 -0500

I went to the SOFA Expo this afternoon and saw two glass space globes by Josh Simpson (Col. Coleman's husband). They were beautiful. They have spirals moving into the middle of glass globe with different colors and effects. Really beautiful.
(Mentioned by DaveMB #17 and Lee #18.)

And I've played the video again. I keep coming back here and playing it.

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Posted April 17, 2011 4:39 PM by PurpleGirl

Fifty years up -- comment #45 from Kieran

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 17:43:54 -0500

Also a little misty eyed. :)

Anyone else notice the resemblance between Col Coleman and Jewel Staite's character Kaylee in Firefly?

Here's another impishly cheerful photo of Coleman in space.

Of course, at another level, I was wondering how they were handling latency issues between the two flutes, and just how live this really was. I would suspect that they synced them up a little (just the few ms or so they were out) in post-processing, but it does look like they were reacting to each other to some extent...

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Posted April 21, 2011 5:43 PM by Kieran