Gargarin

Space. 

This week the media (TV, Press, Google etc) recognised the 50th anniversary of the first manned space flight.  Vostok 1.  April 12, 1961.  Yuri Gargarin completed one orbit of the Earth - and at its highest point he was 327 km above the surface. 

It was then, and remains, an amazing technological achievement, of course.  And from very early on, also, the Soviet Union projected him as a hero -

- and there was something of a cult of 'Gargarinia' - hero-worship as he travelled the World (as when he came to London in July 1961):

 He was on the cover of 'Time' and 'Life' magazines, and drew large crowds wherever he went.

At the same time, you can see the beginnings of the explicit romanticisation of successful space flight:

Many of these images, of course, built upon or echoed those in early SF magazines.  They still had power, of course, because the told a story about what was really happening - how those earlier imagined voyages were 'becoming true'.

I can certainly remember - first as a young boy and then a teenager - being influenced hugely by the romantic allure of the adventure of spaceflight. 

To the point that even today, although I have no head for heights at all and abhor flying, if I was offered a trip to the ISS I would definitely think about it...