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American Morning

Today Marks 40th Anniversary of First Manned Space Flight

Aired April 12, 2001 - 09:47   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: There is some other literally uplifting news to talk about this morning: Today marks two milestones in space exploration; today is the 40th anniversary of the first manned space flight. Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space when he circled the earth 40 years ago. And 20 years ago today the U.S. launched its first shuttle mission.

LINDA STOUFFER, CNN ANCHOR: And we are lucky enough to be joined this morning live by Story Musgrave, former NASA astronaut, to talk to us about both of these.

Thanks so much for joining us.

STORY MUSGRAVE, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: Thank you, Linda.

STOUFFER: First of all, this double anniversary; what are you thinking about today?

MUSGRAVE: Oh, you're thinking about the vision of space flight; you're thinking about Yuri pioneering our quest for the heavens.

STOUFFER: Well, take us back -- it is the 40th anniversary of that first manned space flight. Russia just beat the U.S. by a matter of weeks; tell us how competitive that space race was at that point.

MUSGRAVE: Well, clearly it was a competition back then. Clearly we used the Cold War and the competition between the two countries to build an infrastructure to build a space program. But, as you well know, we've gone beyond that now and we're linked up and we're cooperating, as we should be.

STOUFFER: And there's so much cooperation right now, with the International Space Station. Are you surprised that it has reached this level of the two countries working hand-in-hand?

MUSGRAVE: No, ma'am. I was idealistic that, especially space flight -- it gives you a global perspective of things. It let's you know that, you know, earth -- this little home that's floating through an ocean of space, that all of the folks on there are going to get together and the quest for the heavens will be done together.

STOUFFER: Well, you had so much to do, also, with the success of the shuttle program. Twenty years since the first flight what do you remember about that day 20 years ago? MUSGRAVE: Linda, that was a culmination of a huge technical effort. The shuttle is a very fragile vehicle; a very complex vehicle. And there's a lot of things you can't test in the laboratory, you have to do by computer simulations. There's a whole bunch of stuff that has to come together to make that technology happen. And lighting those solids off that day, that was the fruition, that was the convergence, that was the test of all the efforts we put in.

STOUFFER: And we'll just have see what's next. Story Musgrave, former NASA astronaut, we appreciate your time and your thoughts. Thank you very much.

MUSGRAVE: Thank you.

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