"Poyekhali" – Off we go! Words made famous by Yuri Gagarin

Monday, April 18. 2011
In the news

50 years ago, on the morning of 12 April 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin accomplished the feat of becoming first man in space - an event followed closely by people all over the world. The 50th anniversary of this pioneering space travel didn’t go unnoticed and as London is waiting for its very own Yuri Gagarin statue, donated by the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos), we take a closer look in what was to become a great milestone in space history.

Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Gagarin

In the backdrop of the Cold War, the United States and Russia had both experimented with sending up animals in space, but until 1961 there had been no humans. As the Americans were training cosmonaut Alan Shepherd, the Russians speeded up their launch of the ball-shaped Vostoc 1 spacecraft, positioned on top of the R-7 rocket. As the rocket blasted off in the morning of 12 April, Gagarin famously exclaimed: "Poyekhali", or "off we go". His spaceflight lasted 108 minutes and ended in a Russian field where Gagarin safely stepped out in front of curious onlookers.


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Posted by Robin Wolstenholme in In the news at 09:10 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Satellites improving UK emergency response

Friday, April 1. 2011
In the news

You may have heard of the severe flooding taking place in the UK within the last few weeks, fortunately only as part of a simulation conducted by the Environment Agency for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Welsh Assembly. Known as ‘Exercise Watermark’, the exercise was conducted to test the arrangements and response to severe, wide-area flooding across England and Wales.

The simulation formed the perfect opportunity for a DMCii led team of space experts to observe and participate in the practical aspects of a disaster to see how data and services from space could be used to improve UK emergency response.

During a disaster, such as severe flooding, space-based services can provide disaster response teams with up-to-date satellite maps and asset tracking capabilities to improve their situational awareness. Damaged or overloaded communications infrastructure on the ground can be reinforced using satellite telecommunications. ‘Exercise Watermark’ provided the team with a unique first-hand view of how a disaster is handled on the ground. Adina Gillespie, DMCii Project Manager pointed out:

“We know the contingency community doesn’t need to understand whizzy gadgetry, so now we’re asking ourselves how can we incorporate information from space assets seamlessly into their existing disaster response procedures”.

Rescue workers during the Bala lake simulation
Rescue workers during the Bala lake simulation


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Posted by Robin Wolstenholme in In the news at 15:35 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
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