posted 07-24-2022 03:30 PM            

Interestingly, near the end a passage from the Section 8 of FAI sporting code was brought up.

UNCOMPLETED FLIGHT
A flight is deemed to be uncompleted if:

a) an accident occurs during the flight resulting in the death of any member of the crew within 48 hours or,

b) any member of the crew definitively leaves the spaceship during the flight.

Note: In the case of space stations which qualify as spaceships under 2.16 below, 2.15 (b) above shall not apply.

posted 07-27-2022 12:32 PM            

This unduly long and repetitious discussion should end, and a formal closure has been requested. There is a clear consensus that Yuri Gagarin made the first human spaceflight and that our articles should reflect that fact. The assertion that Gagarin's flight might not contemporaneously have been regarded as a "completed" flight, under one organization's definition that had been created for other purposes, does not change the fact that Gagarin was the first person to fly in space.

At best, the assertion that one organization might not have recognized Gargarin's flight as a valid spaceflight at the time is a minor aspect that should not be given undue weight. Whether that historical-definitional issue warrants any degree of passing mention on one or more articles can be discussed on the relevant talkpage(s). It certainly does not need to be discussed in every article where Gagarin's or Shepard's flights are mentioned. The consensus here and on other related discussions is sufficiently clear that I see no need for an RfC as had been proposed.

The principal dissenter from the consensus was the IP editor (as noted, the IPs participating in this discussion are the same editor, whose assurance I accept that the IPs involuntarily changed for network reasons). That editor has now withdrawn from the discussion. To that editor if you read this, I say that while striving for accuracy on Wikipedia is often commendable, so too is accepting consensus when it has become clear, particularly where the issue is a purely definitional one rather than an alleged misstatement of objective fact. I hope you will bear this in mind if you return to Wikipedia in the future; your doing so would substantially improve both your editing experience and that of your colleagues.

posted 07-28-2022 01:29 PM               

Is that splitting hairs, maybe, different camps have different opinions based on their bias. In my opinion, according to the widely accepted definitions, he did not complete an orbit around Earth, which makes John Glenn the first man to orbit.

posted 07-28-2022 03:05 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Spacepsycho:
...which makes John Glenn the first man to orbit.

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posted 08-01-2022 01:36 PM            

Those ranging from the Ukrainian government down to underground hacktivist groups could latch on this and ironically cause the "controversy" to meet Wikipedia's notability standard and become an article of its own, which in turn might resolve editors' debate on the topic's proportionate presentation.

It sounds like IAU's definition of Pluto at a glance, but it's also similar the controversy of Haumea to a degree. The name for this could be "FAI definition of spaceflight", "Controversy over the definition of spaceflight" or "Claims to the first spaceflight".