First Orbit collaborated with the European Space Agency and the crew of Expedition 26/27 on the International Space Station to create this new film of what Yuri Gagarin witnessed fifty years ago today on humanity’s first space flight.
This real time minute recreation of Yuri Gagarin’s pioneering first orbit was shot entirely in space from on board the International Space Station. The film combines this new footage with Gagarin’s original mission audio and a new musical score by composer Philip Sheppard.
They matched the orbital path of the Space Station, as closely as possible, to that of Gagarin’s Vostok 1 spaceship and filmed the same vistas of the Earth through the new giant cupola window as Gagarin first saw it. Filming was conducted by astronaut Paolo Nespoli and edited by documentary film maker Christopher Riley and his staff.