Unconventional World Records

For the auditions of X Factor 4, Totoshko travelled all the way from Japan to meet her idol, Simon Cowell in the Birmingham auditions of the show in August. It’s obvious that getting thru the audition was secondary in the 31-year old soft-spoken woman’s intentions.

In normal circumstances Cowell would’ve slaughtered her there and then, like he had done so many times to other people in the past, but this time a softer side of him was revealed.

She sang one of the worst ever versions of ‘My Way’ and caused Cowell to try very hard not to laugh.

She said: “I like you very much Simon, I came here just to meet you, you are very big in Tokyo.”

Cowell then gave her a hug and 2 kisses.

He didn’t let her go thru to the next round, but if he heard such singing from any other person, he would not tell them what he told her: “That was a very quiet audition but very sweet voice and you’re very cute, I may have to take you home”.

The episode was first shown on British television on 1st September 2007.

Click here to see the video

The far side of the moon is its hemisphere that is permanently turned away from the Earth. It was first photographed by the Soviet Luna 3 probe at 03:30 UTC on 7th October 1959 at a distance of 63,500 km.

The probe took a total of 29 photos, covering 70% of the far side.

One of them looked like this:

The photographs were of low resolution, still many features of this lunar view can be recognized.

Dark patch at upper right: Mare Moscoviense

Dark areas at below and left of center: Mare Marginus & Mare Smythii.

Small dark circle at lower right: Tsiolkovskiy crater.

Its first first seen via human eyes when the Apollo 8 mission orbited the Moon in 1968.

A more recent picture:

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We all know Neil Armstrong’s first words as he stepped on the moon.

But what about the first words of the first human in space as he entered orbit and definitely the first human to look down on the big blue marble from orbit, Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968)?

I think Yuri deserved all those medals. He is surely one of the bravest people, if not the bravest, who ever lived.

His capsule looked like this:

On 12th April 1961, Gagarin, 27, got on a Vostok 1 rocket and lifted off at 06:07 UTC at Baikonur.

10 minutes later, at 06:17 UTC, the rocket’s final stage shut down. 10 seconds later the spacecraft separates and Vostok 1 reached orbit.

At this point Gagarin reports:

The craft is operating normally. I can see Earth in the view port of the Vzor. Everything is proceeding as planned.

Not as dramatic as Armstrong’s first words?

One orbit, and 1 hour and 48 minutes after lift-off, he landed at 07:55 UTC.

Unfortunately, Gagarin died in 1968 when, during training as a fighter pilot, he and his instructor died in a MiG crash.

From the wikipedia article:

A 1986 inquest suggests that the turbulence from a Su-11 ‘Fishpot-C’ interceptor using its afterburners may have caused Gagarin’s plane to go out of control. Weather conditions were also poor, which may have contributed to the inability of Gagarin and the instructor to correct before they crashed.

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There’s been an amazing array of living things, including animals that have been carried up to space and returned safely to earth.

Probably the first animal ever put on a rocket and fired to space is the fruit fly. These things were launched on a V2 rocket in New Mexico in July 1946. Not quite to orbit, but still “to the edge of space.” The rocket reached an altitude of about 100 miles.

Next up, 2 monkeys creatively named Albert 1 and Albert 2. They are the very first primates ever fired to near space altitudes, in 1949. They did not survive the flight.

Other animals include:

Cats
Mice

Spiders [above: Arabella the garden spider aboard Skylab-3]
Frogs
Fish
Snails
Worms
Bees
Ants

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There had been other animals that were put on rockets and fired skyward, but it was only during the era of the famed Russian dogs that attempts to put animals to orbit were carried out.

Before Belka and Strelka became the first creatures to make it to orbit and back unharmed, 3 dogs went up on rockets and died.

The first one we all know during history / science lessons in secondary school - Laika. This is her in her space capsule:

After the cover is closed, it looks like this:

This is a mock-up of her space capsule:

Laika aka Zhuchka aka Limonchik aka Muttnik is the first living Earth-born creature, other than microbes of course, that was successfully blasted into orbit, and possibly the first living passenger to go into space. She was aboard Sputnik II. The momentous date: 3rd November 1957.

Laika died 5 to 7 hours into her flight from stress and overheating. Her cause of death was not immediately known and decades of speculation followed, until October 2002, when the Russian scientist in charge of the project told all; he also expressed regret for allowing Laika to die.

Laika stamps:

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Dogs Belka and Strelka spent 1 day in space aboard Sputnik 5 on 19th August 1960 before safely returning to Earth. This is about 8 months earlier than the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin who went up in April 1961.

The dogs had other companions too: a grey rabbit, 42 mice, 2 rats, flies and a number of plants and fungi.

The following are pictures of what it was like inside their capsule. The first picture is apparently of Laika, the first earth-born creature in space. Unfortunately s/he did not survive the flight:

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Vanguard I, the 4th artificial satellite, is the oldest one still orbiting the Earth, although it is no longer able to communicate: the last signal was received in May 1964. So it is now considered junk - the oldest piece of space junk still in orbit: has been junk for more than 40 years.

It is rather small: 1.47 kg aluminum sphere, 6 inches in diameter with six short aerials.

It was launched on 17th March 1958. At first it was estimated to be able to stay in orbit for 2,000 years but later this was reduced to only 240 years.

Its battery powered transmitter ran out 3 months after launch, and its solar powered transmitter stopped working 6 years later.

Since it can no longer communicate, it is now optically tracked.

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Dr Sheikh Muszaphar is the 458th human to go to space, and Malaysia is the 38th country to have the honour of having at least one of its citizens up in space, in whatever designation: astronaut, cosmonaut, taikonaut, spationaut, space tourist, spaceflight participant et cetera.

We’re using the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI)’s guidelines, who defines “gone into space” as any flight that reaches an altitude of higher than 100 kilometres (62 miles) above the surface of the Earth.

According to this guideline, as of 10th October 2007, there have been 458 human beings from 38 countries who have gone into space. Of this, 454 people have reached Earth orbit or beyond, meaning 4 breached the 100km mark, but did not reach orbit.

Of this total, 47 are women.

14 died during their mission.

A more exclusive club is those who have completely left Earth’s orbit, like those who went on lunar missions: 24 persons. Hence those who merely went to the International Space Station are “still in orbit.”

It is only appropriate that the first humans in space are from the Soviet Union and the US. The first human in space is of course Yuri Gagarin on 12th April 1961 onboard Vostok 1. He must be the bravest human who ever lived. Less than a month later, the US sent its first man into space: Alan Shepard on 5th May 1961 onboard MR-3.

It would be 17 years before a citizen of another country other than the USSR or the USA went to space. That honour goes to Vladimir Remek of Czechoslovakia, who went up on 2nd March 1978 onboard Soyuz 28.

Malaysian is the 13th Asian country (apart from the USSR / Russia) who sent one of its people to space. The first is of course Pham Tuan of Vietnam who went up on 23rd July 1980 aboard another Soyuz.

If you’re surprised to learn that a country considered less developed than Malaysia has sent its man to space earlier than us, take this: Mongolian Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa is the 2nd Asian into space on 22nd March 1981.

As of 10th October 2007, there have been 260 manned spaceflights that breached the 100km mark. The first was Vostok 1 in 1961. Of this total, 8 did NOT reach orbit successfully.

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By “experienced astronaut” I am referring to the number of blastoffs and reentries experienced, not the total time spent in space. Robert “Hoot” Gibson, 61 who spent time in Malaysia in conjunction with the country’s first man in space has been in space 5 times: that’s a lot, but Franklin Ramon Chang-Diaz has been to space even more: 7 times on space shuttle missions. He is tied with Jerry Lynn Ross as the most experienced astronaut ever. In contrast, the most experienced Russian cosmonaut has been to space 6 times.

Chang-Díaz, DSc was born in 1950 and is a Costa Rican-American physicist and former NASA astronaut.

His father is of Chinese-Spanish descent and mother of Spanish descent. Hence he is quarter Chinese.

He was selected as an astronaut in 1980, went to space for the first time in 1986 and last in 2002. He even did 3 spacewalks in his last mission and helped with construction of the International Space Station. He retired from NASA in 2005.

He is one of the first American citizens of Latin American descent to go into space.

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The seal dribble is performed by quickly, with the feet of course “flicking the ball up onto one’s head, whereby the player then proceeds to glide past opponents, whilst bouncing the ball on top of his forehead.” It is conceivable that one can do this to score goals, and that this tactic makes it difficult for the other team to stop legitimately.

It has been made famous by Kerlon, 19 of Brazil. He was first seen using the move at the U17 South American Youth Championship. He could do this very quickly and change directions while running with the ball on his head as well.

He said, “It’s just a skill I have, though it’s not meant to be a mark of disrespect for my opponents. The trick is beautiful and efficient. Sooner or later, defenders will find a way to stop me without conceding a free-kick. But until then, I can keep using the play to my advantage. Opponents say they will snap me. But this doesn’t scare me it just motivates me even more.”

Click here to see a video of the seal dribble performed by Kerlon