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Author
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Topic: Most significant human spaceflight event
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LM-12
Member Posts: 3207
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 06-25-2011 12:08 AM
  
What do you think is the most significant event in manned spaceflight history? - the first manned flight - Vostok 1
- the first manned flight to leave Earth orbit - Apollo 8
- the first manned lunar landing - Apollo 11
- the first manned space station - Salyut 1
- the first EVA - Leonov
- the Apollo 13 rescue
My choice would be the flight of Apollo 8. First crew to leave Earth orbit. First crew to orbit the Moon. Truly a major turning point in human history. |
Rusty B
Member Posts: 239
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Oct 2004
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posted 06-25-2011 12:54 AM
Other significant manned space events: - First rendezvous - Gemini 7/6.
- First space docking - Gemini 8.
- First winged spaceflight - suborbital - X-15
- First winged spaceflight - orbital - Columbia
- 1 Day in space, 1 week in space, 1 month in space, 1 year space.
- 1st person in space twice - suborbital - Joe Walker.
- 1st person in space twice - orbital - Gordon Cooper.
- 2 people in space, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 people in space at once.
I would still say the Apollo 11 moon landing. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3207
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 06-25-2011 01:16 AM
My question was really about major events. |
Jay Chladek
Member Posts: 2272
From: Bellevue, NE, USA
Registered: Aug 2007
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posted 06-25-2011 01:17 AM
For me, the first flight. Because nobody knew for sure it could be done (they were pretty sure) until it was done. Everything else came after. |
moorouge
Member Posts: 2454
From: U.K.
Registered: Jul 2009
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posted 06-25-2011 01:17 AM
Can add - - First woman to orbit - Tereshkova
- First single orbit rendezvous - Gemini 11
The most significant - Apollo 13 as it proved the value of ground support and detailed planning. |
Henry Heatherbank
Member Posts: 244
From: Adelaide, South Australia
Registered: Apr 2005
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posted 06-25-2011 04:45 AM
Populists would say it is a toss-up between Vostok 1 (first flight) and Apollo 11 (first landing).Purists would add Apollo 8 (first humans beyond Earth orbit). |
Jim Behling
Member Posts: 1463
From: Cape Canaveral, FL
Registered: Mar 2010
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posted 06-25-2011 06:57 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Henry Heatherbank:
Purists would add Apollo 8 (first humans beyond Earth orbit).
Apollo 8 was still in Earth orbit. The moon is in earth orbit. |
Spaceguy5
Member Posts: 427
From: Pampa, TX, US
Registered: May 2011
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posted 06-25-2011 07:09 AM
I think completing the International Space Station was much more significant, even if it's had much less of a cultural impact. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3207
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 06-25-2011 07:59 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Byeman:
Apollo 8 was still in Earth orbit. The moon is in earth orbit.
Not quite the answer I was looking for. |
HistorianMom
Member Posts: 105
From: Columbia, Missouri USA
Registered: Nov 2010
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posted 06-25-2011 08:14 AM
From the technical standpoint of the history of flight, I really don't know. But from the perspective of world history, either Apollo 8 or Apollo 11. Both changed the relative positions of the USA and the USSR in the Cold War pretty dramatically. The competitor would be Sputnik I, but that wasn't a manned flight.
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Cozmosis22
Member Posts: 968
From: Texas * Earth
Registered: Apr 2011
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posted 06-25-2011 08:29 AM
Lest we forget, they said it couldn't be done: Breaking the mighty sound barrier - Chuck Yeager in Glamorous Glennis.#1 and forever to be remembered as a milestone of mankind: "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." First human visit to another heavenly body. |
Max Q
Member Posts: 399
From: Whyalla South Australia
Registered: Mar 2007
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posted 06-25-2011 09:07 AM
Apollo 12: first non-free return trajectory. |
alanh_7
Member Posts: 1252
From: Ajax, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Apr 2008
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posted 06-25-2011 12:12 PM
If by space events you mean actual missions I will say say in the following order
Vostok 1
Apollo 8
Apollo 11
If by events you mean a significant event that effected the manned space program I will say Kennedy's address to Congress on the decision to go to the Moon. |
SkyMan1958
Member Posts: 867
From: CA.
Registered: Jan 2011
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posted 06-25-2011 02:05 PM
Vostok 1 seems pretty blazingly obvious to me.At some point in the future I would say the first human birth off of the planet (be it on another solar system body or born in space). |
Blackarrow
Member Posts: 3118
From: Belfast, United Kingdom
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 06-25-2011 02:16 PM
While a good case can be made for Apollo 8 (the first time human beings have travelled away from Earth to another planetary body) I really don't see how there can be any serious argument that the key moment in the human exploration of space was when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the surface of the Moon. Vostok 1 and Apollo 8 were hugely important enabling events, but they were curtain-raisers for Apollo 11 which was so much more than a key event in human history: it was a step in human evolution. For the first time, human beings had come to rest on a shore which was not on this Earth. I will accept no argument about this. |
star61
Member Posts: 294
From: Bristol UK
Registered: Jan 2005
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posted 06-25-2011 03:16 PM
Absolutely 100% agree with Geoffrey (Blackarrow)... the effect on the human psyche of looking back at Earth from the surface of another world must surely be a defining moment. Yes only 12 men have known that experience! But hundreds of millions of humans have lived that moment in their own minds and said to themselves, "what must that have felt like?"No other event has come near to having such a result as that of Apollo 11... sends shivers down my spine even now after 42 years. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3207
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 06-25-2011 05:17 PM
Geoffrey has touched on what prompted me to ask my original question. There are some major spaceflight accomplishments that are so significant that they are indeed milestones in human evolution. To be able to witness something on that scale in your own lifetime is absolutely incredible. |
Bob M
Member Posts: 1744
From: Atlanta-area, GA USA
Registered: Aug 2000
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posted 06-25-2011 05:41 PM
quote:
Originally posted by star61:
No other event has come near to having such a result as that of Apollo 11... sends shivers down my spine even now after 42 years.
And remembering Apollo 8's live TV broadcast on Christmas Eve, 1968, and marveling at the lunar surface slowly passing underneath out the CM's window, still sends shivers down my spine... and a close 2nd, was hearing Armstrong's: "Houston, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed!" |
Henk Boshuijer
Member Posts: 450
From: Netherlands
Registered: May 2007
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posted 06-25-2011 05:57 PM
Apollo 11 first moon landing is most significant to me. People will never forget the date (or where they were when the landing took place). The most courageous manned spaceflight to me is the STS-1 mission. The first manned launch without unmanned test flights. |
GoesTo11
Member Posts: 1309
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Jun 2004
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posted 06-25-2011 06:01 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Blackarrow:
I will accept no argument about this.
You won't get one from me.I can't think of any other event in human history that actually seems more extraordinary with every year it recedes further into the past. |
DChudwin
Member Posts: 1096
From: Lincolnshire IL USA
Registered: Aug 2000
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posted 06-25-2011 08:36 PM
Historically, Apollo 11. Ten thousand years from now people will still remember that Armstrong and Aldrin were the first humans to set foot on another celestial body.Psychologically, Apollo 8. Nobody who heard the Christmas broadcast will ever forget Genesis being read with the white and black shadows of the Moon in the primitive telecast. Post-flight, the release of the "Earthrise" photograph fundamentally changed how many people regarded their home planet. That and other photos showed the Earth as a small blue globe in a vast cosmos. Apollo 8 ended forever the notion of an Earth-centered universe which went back thousands of years.
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LM-12
Member Posts: 3207
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 06-25-2011 08:55 PM
quote:
Originally posted by DChudwin:
Ten thousand years from now people will still remember that Armstrong and Aldrin were the first humans to set foot on another celestial body.
Hopefully, they won't still be saying that Cernan and Schmitt were the last. |
randy
Member Posts: 2176
From: West Jordan, Utah USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 06-25-2011 11:34 PM
I would also add the first ISS construction flight and the launch of the first crew. |
Colin E. Anderton
Member Posts: 63
From: Newmarket, Suffolk, England
Registered: Feb 2009
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posted 06-26-2011 04:09 AM
Has to be Apollo 11.And, as Walter Cronkite said, the fact that we were able to witness the moonwalk 'live' was as much a miracle as the flight itself.
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LM-12
Member Posts: 3207
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 06-26-2011 07:51 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Henry Heatherbank:
Apollo 8 (first humans beyond Earth orbit).
When you consider that the universe is infinite and ours to explore, the future implications of that "GO for TLI" burn on Apollo 8 are absolutely mind-boggling! |
history in miniature
Member Posts: 600
From: Slatington, PA
Registered: Mar 2009
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posted 06-27-2011 09:42 AM
It must be Apollo 11. |
Gilbert
Member Posts: 1328
From: Carrollton, GA USA
Registered: Jan 2003
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posted 06-27-2011 10:04 AM
Vostok 1 |
HistorianMom
Member Posts: 105
From: Columbia, Missouri USA
Registered: Nov 2010
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posted 06-27-2011 10:12 AM
quote:
Originally posted by DChudwin:
Historically, Apollo 11. Ten thousand years from now people will still remember that Armstrong and Aldrin were the first humans to set foot on another celestial body.
I agree. Apollo 11 will go down in history as a pivotal event in the history of mankind. I don't want to predict who will remember what in 10K years, but I think in five hundred years, schoolchildren will learn about Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon the same way they learn that Columbus discovered America. It is quite likely that, just like with the Columbus narrative, there will be misconceptions built into the story people tell their children... but Armstrong's first stops on the moon will be remembered as part of human history. |
Delta7
Member Posts: 1505
From: Bluffton IN USA
Registered: Oct 2007
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posted 06-27-2011 11:04 AM
The moment Neil Armstrong uttered the words "That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind." hands down. To think that prehistoric ancestors looked up at the moon and pondered what it was and it's significance. And now there was a human footprint there. |
Scott
Member Posts: 3307
From: Houston, TX
Registered: May 2001
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posted 06-27-2011 12:37 PM
Apollo 8 |
JohnPaul56
Member Posts: 180
From: Montclair, NJ, USA
Registered: Apr 2010
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posted 06-28-2011 01:05 AM
As we can all see from the examples others have referenced, there are many significant events in manned spaceflight history. But because Apollo 11 represented a huge" leap for mankind", for me its the most memorable after Apollo 8. |
albatron
Member Posts: 2732
From: Stuart, Florida
Registered: Jun 2000
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posted 06-28-2011 08:50 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Henry Heatherbank:
Populists would say it is a toss-up between Vostok 1 (first flight) and Apollo 11 (first landing). Purists would add Apollo 8 (first humans beyond Earth orbit).
I agree with this.This sums it up completely. Nothing denigrating Apollo 11 and I do include it in the top 3, but this is the correct order. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3207
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 06-28-2011 09:35 AM
Mike Collins, who was originally assigned to the prime crew of Apollo 8 prior to his medical surgery, said something very interesting in a documentary that I remember seeing a few years back. He commented on what Apollo was all about. He said it was all about leaving. |
bwhite1976
Member Posts: 281
From: Belleville, IL
Registered: Jun 2011
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posted 06-29-2011 10:57 AM
For Americans to begin in a decade with the flight of Alan Shepard in Freedom 7 and by the end of that decade have walked on the moon twice is surely one of the greatest achievements in mankind. Vostok 1 aside, Apollo 11, and the flights previous that made it possibile, is surely hands down one of the greatest acheivements in history. |
ilbasso
Member Posts: 1522
From: Greensboro, NC USA
Registered: Feb 2006
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posted 06-29-2011 12:51 PM
Whatever the greatest achievement was, I hope that I have a collectible associated with it! |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3207
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 06-29-2011 03:53 PM
It's interesting to see how members rank what most would consider to be the top three flights - Vostok 1, Apollo 8 and Apollo 11. |
garymilgrom
Member Posts: 1966
From: Atlanta, GA
Registered: Feb 2007
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posted 06-30-2011 07:59 AM
quote:
Originally posted by LM-12:
He said it was all about leaving.
While that might be true to some philosophers and other people, to the politicians Apollo was about politics, to the engineers it was about the machines, to many of the astronauts it was about the flying, etc. I think this shows how Apollo touched so many lives and is another reason to see it as the defining event of the 20th century. |
GACspaceguy
Member Posts: 2474
From: Guyton, GA
Registered: Jan 2006
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posted 07-01-2011 12:20 PM
Vostok 1, while historically a first, manned entry into LEO has been repeated many times and by two other nations. Apollo 8 is also a historic first, has only done 8 other times and was accomplished by one nation. It is Apollo 8 for me.
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LM-12
Member Posts: 3207
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 12-22-2015 07:14 AM
quote:
Originally posted by LM-12:
He said it was all about leaving.
Collins also talked about that in his 1997 JSC Oral History Project interview: That's an interesting question, the historical importance of Apollo 8 versus Apollo 11. To summarize that, I think Apollo 8 was about leaving and Apollo 11 was about arriving, leaving Earth and arriving at the moon. As you look back 100 years from now, which is more important, the idea that people left their home planet or the idea that people arrived at their nearby satellite? I'm not sure, but I think probably you would say Apollo 8 was of more significance than Apollo 11, even though today we regard Apollo 11 as being the showpiece and the zenith of the Apollo Program, rightfully so, because that was President [John F.] Kennedy's mandate, to, as he said, land a man on the moon, not two or not a woman, but just a man on the moon. So that was the focus, and when that was done by Apollo 11, then that naturally put Apollo 11 up on a pedestal, but, as I say, 100 years from now, historians may say Apollo 8 is more significant; it's more significant to leave than it is to arrive. That's all. |
Tykeanaut
Member Posts: 2212
From: Worcestershire, England, UK.
Registered: Apr 2008
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posted 12-22-2015 08:57 AM
It's always been Apollo 8 for me. I was at the right age and it made a memorable Christmas. |
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