Yuri Gagarin - his part in my career

On 12 April 1961, the Vostok 1 mission launched Yuri Gagarin on the first ever human spaceflight. Gagarin's flight lasted only 108 minutes, but its impact was immense. Although the amazing scientific and technical achievements that followed were undoubtedly spurred on by the original competition between the two space powers of the era, the USA and the then-USSR, there is another, more human story to be told: that of the 'Gagarin effect'. When Yuri Gagarin returned safely from space, he travelled the world promoting the USSR, its scientific and technological achievements and the myriad future possibilities for space travel. Arguably more important, though, is the inspirational effect that Gagarin had. He became a global celebrity overnight and wherever he went, huge crowds of people would throng the streets to see this man who, for them, personified the best in humanity and its curiosity and drive to explore. Some of these people - including the speaker - were children at the time, and the Gagarin effect was to inspire him through the rest of his life, either directly or indirectly. Because of Gagarin's influence, the speaker studied physics at the University of Cambridge, followed by a PhD at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London. Subsequently, he has had over 30 years experience of space research spanning a number of space missions, including sounding rockets, Earth-orbiting missions and interplanetary flights, at British Aerospace, the University of Kent and now the Open University. These have included a range of high-profile space missions, including the Hubble Space Telescope, the Giotto mission which flew past Halley's comet and the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan. The speaker is a Vice-President of the Royal Astronomical Society and a member of a variety of national and international bodies in the field of Space Research. He is also the holder of awards from NASA and ESA, and was inaugural winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Individual Achievement in UK Space Research in 2005. He is currently involved in developing several instruments for possible future space missions to Mars, the Moon, Titan and Europa.