To mark the 50 years since Yuri Gagarin was launched into space, a stunning, real time recreation of his pioneering flight has been released on YouTube.
Original audio, brand new footage
The breathtaking high definition footage shot from the International Space Station is accompanied by a suitably atmospheric new musical score by composer Philip Sheppard (solo cellist and a Professor at the Royal Academy of Music), interwoven with original audio recordings from Gagarin’s first spin around planet Earth.
Here’s how the project is introduced on the companion website:
April 12th 1961 – Yuri Gagarin is about to see what no other person has seen in the history of humanity – the Earth from space. In the next 108 minutes he’ll see more than most people do in a lifetime. What sights awaited the first cosmonaut silently gliding over the world below? What was it like to view the oceans and continents sailing by from such a height?
In a unique collaboration with the European Space Agency, and the Expedition 26/ 27 crew of the International Space Station, we have created a new film of what Gagarin first witnessed fifty years ago.
At one hour and forty minutes long, this makes for a perfect Sunday afternoon distraction!
For more information: http://www.firstorbit.org/
[The first appeared on our sister blog, urban75]
Fell out of bed feeling down. This has brignheted my day!