On 8/4/11 11:02 AM, George Henry wrote:
Correction: I don't recall the celebration of Gagarin's flight ever being a SIGNIFICANT part of ARISSat-1's mission...
Although Gagarin's flight was undertaken at a time of intense and heated competition with the United States, it was still a significant accomplishment and one that the Russians have every right to be proud of. So I'm not going to begrudge them this.
I am more concerned about the inaccurate reports that say this spacecraft was built entirely by Russian university students. The project managers should write a polite note pointing out the facts of the matter -- that the spacecraft was actually designed and built by US volunteer radio amateurs under the auspices of AMSAT and NASA and with significant support from several American corporations. Only the *science experiment* it is carrying was built by Russian university students.