A New Video from Our Young Sailor — Space in 5 Minutes

He said, “LET’S GO!” and waved his hand. — 12 April 1961. The clock at the Baikonur Cosmodrome reads 14:07. In 108 minutes, the world will change forever. First Mate Marina: “Gagarin’s flight into space confirmed my mum’s determination to study at the Kazan Aviation Institute. There, at KAI, she saw Korolev, made 36 parachute jumps and took up mountaineering. It was also there that Mum met Dad. Most likely, if it hadn’t been for that first flight into space, there would have been no me, no round-the-world expedition through the wilds of the Southern Ocean, and none of this whole chain of intertwined lives. That’s the kind of anniversary this is. To mark it, the Russian school in Perth, Mosaic, motivated Yulia’s and my space girls, Lada and Mila, to tear themselves away from the sailing cruise and embark on some creativity of cosmic proportions :). Had they been on their own, the story would not have turned out nearly as funny and informative. But Mila and Lada have a great effect on each other—their growth synergy really kicks in. The children wrote the script, searched for facts, watched films about space, and fashioned alien horns and a cosmonaut’s helmet. The latter simply refused to come together, because we were learning the art of papier-mâché as we went along, hampered by the shortage of glue, thread and paper aboard the boat. Let’s go! Once the thermometer in the saloon reached +29, the space children bravely donned neoprene and polyester batting, pulled on the cosmonaut’s helmet, and tucked a long sock underneath it as padding. They squeezed the alien’s skull into a rubber cap (“Muuum, I can’t take it anymo-o-ore! My head’s being crushed!” “At least your brain is more concentrated now—it works better. ... Camera! Action!”) and worked for the camera for four hours. Even the challenge of not shifting the green screen and keeping within the 2 sq. m of available floor space where the encounter with the alien was filmed was successfully met. “Attention, all radio stations!” Baikonur Mission Control—Mila’s dad, Sergei—said sternly into the yacht’s VHF radio. Yulia clicked away with the camera, trying to stay out of shot, while the watermaker hummed against the tripod legs. The tripod had been set up in place of the saloon table. Had the table remained, there would have been no room for the camera. Nastya kept the pies coming, while our captain prepared for his part of the job—editing and keying out the green background (for the first time in his life). He would take over once the actors and crew on set had gone to bed. The International Competition “The First Flight into Space” The video won the international competition organised by the Committee for Educational Activities under the Council of Russian Compatriots of Australia. The winners were announced live on the Russian television channel Rustalk TV. This is what the behind-the-scenes life aboard a yacht looks like in photographs by Yulia Galushina —and in real life. Ksenia Arkhipova’s gift of an orange Shell space jacket “just like Gagarin’s” came at exactly the right time! Thank you. And here is the video itself, “Space for Children and Adults.” Watch it with the whole family—we guarantee five minutes of useful positivity! Happy anniversary of the first flight into space, friends! And how are you celebrating the occasion? #TravelyFamily #12April #CosmonauticsDay