On Sun, 26 Aug 2012 08:32:21 +0100, charles
wrote:

In article , Graham.
wrote:
On Sun, 26 Aug 2012 00:04:42 +0100, charles
wrote:

In article , Andrew Gabriel
wrote:
I loved a comment he made many years later on Radio 4 when the
presenter asked "What was going through your mind when you were
waiting on the launch pad?", to which he replied, "Every part of this
rocket was subcontracted to the cheapest bidder"

That was previously said by John Glenn - the first American into space.

So Alan Shepard's sub-orbital flight doesn't count?

John Glenn did sub-orbital, too.

So will I when I when I go to the Isle of Man in two weeks.

Shepard's Freedom 7 flight is universally regarded as the first
American space flight it reached 187km altitude and splashed down
486km downrange, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Shepard

I wonder who set the criteria of what is considered to be a space
flight?

Even Shepard himself must have conceded that Gagarin's flight was
infinitely more spectacular.


--
Graham.
%Profound_observation%