[marshmallow_12]

I always felt bad for Yuri. The Americans made a huge deal about John Glenn, yet his record is basically worthless. Yuri had done it all before, but it seems some people refused to acknowledge it. This was one of the first things that opened my eyes that propaganda still exists.

[deanCommie]

Americans always like to overinflate their early spaceflight accomplishments.

There is a whole fight on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:List_of_spaceflight_recor... about it

tl;dr: Yuri Gagarin is listed first on the page with 2 "Firsts", but Alan Shepard is listed second with four.

Even though, two of his "firsts" are already superceded by what Gagarin did.

"First Person to make suborbital flight"? So? Gagarin already made a suborbital flight before he made his orbital flight.

"First Person to land in water"? So? Shouldn't that mean that Gagarin should have an entry that says "First person to land on land?"

[sangnoir]

> The Americans made a huge deal about John Glenn, yet his record is basically worthless.

The whole reason the US was in the race to the moon was because the had lost the race to space (Sputnik, and then Yuri). The US badly needed a win.

[sangnoir]

Though I do wonder: had the Soviet Union been first to the moon as well, would that have sparked a race to Mars?

[spzb]

I would have thought most people here in the UK remember Gagarin but few would remember Glenn without prompting. Is that not the case elsewhere in the world?

[marton78]

Gagarin is my childhood hero, never heard about Glenn.

[mixmastamyk]

If you've seen The Right Stuff or Hidden Figures, you'd be hard pressed to forget.

[grecy]

It's very common for movies made by Americans, with American money and intended to be viewed by Americans to glorify America and Americans.

[mixmastamyk]

Yep, they're both about Americans. Although the Soviets do play their parts as competitors. He also rode a space shuttle in retirement.