14 DAY TRIAL // Today marks the 50th anniversary of man's first space flight. To celebrate the occasion, YouTube is premiering First Orbit, a movie which aims to recreate that first flight, giving viewers a way of seeing what Gagarin might have seen as he orbited the Earth.
The movie can be watched at youtube.com/firstorbit and can even be downloaded from the official website.
On April 12, 1961 Yuri Gagarin became the first human to leave the Earth's gravity and go into space orbit.
His flight was a momentous occasion for mankind and, though manned space exploration hasn't been booming in recent years, it was a first step of many.
"In collaboration with the European Space Agency and the astronauts onboard the International Space Station, filmmaker Chris Riley has captured the magnificence of Gagarin’s original orbit," the film's creators described.
"Filmed by astronaut Paolo Nespoli, ’First Orbit’ delivers breath-taking digital, full high-definition views of the Earth from above," they added.
"The footage matches the orbital path of the International Space Station as closely as possible to that of Gagarin's original route, allowing viewers to see incredible vistas of the Earth through the Space Station’s new giant cupola window," the description continues.
There is little archival footage of the first flight and the preparations for it. The surviving audio recordings, of the communications between the ground and Gagarin, serve as a backdrop for the new footage shot from the International Space Station. The original score by composer Philip Sheppard completes the movie.
The movie follows the first flight in real time, but it's not a fully accurate recreation since the ISS doesn't follow the exact trajectory of the Vostok 1 space ship and orbits at a different height.
Once a week though the ISS does come close enough that the film's creators believed it would be enough to give viewers a good idea of what Gagarin might have seen.
Google is also celebrating the occasion with a special anniversary doodle featuring Gagarin and the Vostok-K rocket that took him into space. YouTube is also running a custom logo, a "yoodle" linking to the First Orbit channel.