FIRST ORBIT / 12 APRIL 2011

One orbit.
A shared perspective.

A global film premiere marked fifty years since Yuri Gagarin became the first person to travel into space. KiwiSpace helped New Zealand audiences take part.

Full HD first, with lower-resolution fallbacks.

First Orbit / Directed by Christopher Riley / Music by Philip Sheppard. Full HD, with lower-resolution options.

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Introduction3 passages
A message before launch4 passages
Lift-off and first calls1 passages
Lift-off and first calls4 passages
Ascent and views of Earth2 passages
Ascent and views of Earth6 passages
Ascent and views of Earth17 passages
Ascent and views of Earth8 passages
Ascent and views of Earth4 passages
Ascent and views of Earth6 passages
Ascent and views of Earth15 passages
Ascent and views of Earth16 passages
Sunlight and the black sky4 passages
Weightlessness and rotation4 passages
Cabin checks and de-orbit thruster pressure12 passages
Tracking stations and radio contact12 passages
Tracking stations and radio contact18 passages
Tracking stations and radio contact1 passages
A halo over Earth2 passages
A halo over Earth1 passages
Radio Moscow updates2 passages
Radio Moscow updates2 passages
Radio Moscow updates6 passages
Stars in Earth’s shadow2 passages
Stars in Earth’s shadow2 passages
Sunrise and orientation3 passages
Flying over the sea4 passages
BBC news and a final status call9 passages
Re-entry and parachute descent3 passages
Back aboard the ISS1 passages
Closing Radio Moscow announcement1 passages
About the transcript

The English timing source is a community subtitle file credited to the Ha Noi Amateur Astronomy Society (HAS), available via Subtitle Cat ↗. Obvious spelling errors have been corrected. Chapter headings and exchange groups are editorial guides rather than spoken dialogue.

On-screen narrative cards are labelled separately from speech. The original Russian audio remains in the film; no unverified Russian back-translation has been added.

Download English WebVTT captions ↗

A new view
of a historic flight.

First Orbit combines footage from the International Space Station with the original mission audio to evoke Gagarin’s 1961 journey around Earth.

The independent film premiered worldwide on 12 April 2011. KiwiSpace contributed access and outreach, sharing the premiere and hosting local download mirrors for New Zealand viewers.

Watching the Earth pass below offered a simple invitation: share the view, and consider how much had changed in fifty years of human spaceflight.

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