Word: vostok
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Next day, the stories began to take on an added polish. Russian papers published reports that Gagarin had slept like a baby the night before his flight, that he had climbed into the Vostok as calmly as if he were taking off on a fishing trip. At a press conference in Moscow's green and white House of Sciences, Gagarin and a group of scientists, including Aleksandr N. Nesmeyanov, president of the Soviet Academy of Sciences (TIME cover, June 2, 1958), added little new information, but they rehashed the flight with unflagging enthusiasm. And they promised to release more...
Sophisticated Circuit. The U.S., which had long since conceded Russia this impressive victory in space, was embarrassed just the same. And the U.S. Mercury Project, still straining to perfect a rocket system capable of lofting a man into a short trajectory far less impressive than the Vostok's sophisticated circuit of the earth, seemed especially belittled...
...reported. The U.S. Navy spotted Soviet tracking ships in the Pacific; Soviet trawlers, perhaps radio-relay ships, were in the South Atlantic. Rumors circulating through the U.S.S.R. reached Washington promptly. Most of them were discounted, but one day before the shot, U.S. intelligence sent an urgent alert. Although the Vostok was launched at 1:07 a.m. Washington time, and the first Russian radio announcement was delayed until 2 a.m., it was only 1:30 a.m. when the Pentagon told Presidential Science Adviser Jerome Wiesner that a big Russian bird was aloft...
Instruments v. Men. Aside from its tremendous value as propaganda, the latest Soviet shot accomplished little. During his trip around the earth, Major Gagarin apparently saw nothing of scientific interest, and reported less than his weight in instruments would have reported. He did not even exercise control over the Vostok; all button pushing was done from the ground...
...When the Vostok circled the earth, it got its impetus not from Russian science alone. Built into its structure were Brit ish, German, American, French, even Chinese and ancient Egyptian ideas. Russian scientists have often said as much, and they did so again last week. Said an official Soviet Government and Communist Party announcement: "We regard these victories in the conquest of outer space not only as the achievement of our people but as an achievement of all mankind." However chagrined U.S. scientists felt last week, they also partook of the Russian triumph...