Post by Ginnie on Feb 3, 2008 17:02:55 GMT -4
Were the Americans that far behind in the 'Space Race'?
In the publics mind, yes.
In the late fifties and early sixties, the Americans always seemed to be in second place, always trying to catch up to the Russians space 'firsts' and lacking the technical expertise that Russia had - at least up until the later Gemini missions.
In many areas the United States space effort appears to me to be equal to the Russians. But the U.S. was more careful, played it safer and took less risks.
In August of 1957 von Braun launched a Jupiter C to an altitude of 597 miles. History would be much different if it had been equipped with an upper stage - it could have placed the first satellite in orbit!
The Russians succeeded in doing this one month later when Sputnik 1 was launched into orbit. Sputnik was equipped with two radio transmitters whose signals were received by radio receivers around the world. Those 'bleep, bleep' sounds started the Space Race.
The U.S. missed out on this opportunity by the narrowest of margins!
Sputnik 2 went up in November, with a passenger - Laika, who was doomed to die because she only had enough air to last a week.
The U.S. attempt with a Vanguard rocket failed. You've probably seen many times of how it lifted a few feet off the ground and exploded.
So Eisenhower asked von Braun -finally!- to launch an Explorer satellite on the Jupiter C booster. It launched on January 31, 1958. It made the first great space discovery, the Van Allen radiation belts.
The first U.S. satellites were much smaller than Russian ones, but boy, they packed a lot of useful stuff in them. For instance Explore 1 was only thirty pounds but was equipped with Geiger tubes to detect cosmic rays, external and internal temperature guages, micrometeorite detectors and an ultrasound microphone.
The first satellite to have solar cells instead of regular batteries was Vanguard 1. It transmitted for six years and is still in orbit today.
When in 1959 Luna 2 landed on the moon and Luna 3 photographed the far side it seemed the Russians were way ahead of the States. But also consider...
Vanguard 2 (Feb, '59) was the first satellite with meteorological devices on board.
Explorer 6 in August 1959 took the first satellite pictures of the Earth.
Courier 1B (Oct. '60) was the first communications satellite.
Discover 13 was the first satellite to be recovered from space (splashdown).
Then in April 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first person to be put in space and the first to orbit the Earth. He did not pilot the capsule. He was only a passenger, and many years later it was revealed that he ejected from the spacecraft and parachuted to the ground.
The American astronauts were pilots, not just passengers. They could maneuver their capsule - critical during re-entry.
The Russians had the advantage in that NASA's space program was public. If Russian could keep up on a technical level, it could launch before the Americans could. When the Russians became aware of the Gemini project it decided to do one better - put three cosmonauts in space, not two. So what did they do? They reconfigured a Vostok to accept three people. They removed much of its interior, the crewman had no ejection seats and they flew in tracksuits! Since the cosmonauts were unable to move, they didn't do much in space.
The Russians achieved one more big first - the spacewalk. Alexei Leonov aboard the Voskhod 2. It was very risky - his spacesuit ballooned and the pressure had to be reduced so that he could get back inside the spacecraft.
The American space program was geared to landing a man on the moon from 1961 on wards I believe. Their effort was methodical, planned to the last detail, and unnecessary risks were avoided. Project Gemini pushed them ahead of the Russians.
I guess the point of this post is the the Americans didn't just twiddle their thumbs while the Russians were achieving their famous 'firsts'. A lot of those early satellites the U.S. launched (many more that Russia BTW) had practical purposes and used the most advanced technologies of their day - indeed created those technologies that we still use today.
So hats off to the 'Yanks' for their amazing early achievements in the Space Race, not as famous as the Russian ones, but missions that lay the groundwork for the future.
So if anyone can add to to the American acheivements prior to Gemini, feel free to add them here!
EDIT: Just thought of one more thing I'd like to put in here, is mentioning Sergei Korlev, the genius behind the Russian space program. He died in 1966 basically unknown, after which point the Russians fell 'behind' in the Space Race.
In the publics mind, yes.
In the late fifties and early sixties, the Americans always seemed to be in second place, always trying to catch up to the Russians space 'firsts' and lacking the technical expertise that Russia had - at least up until the later Gemini missions.
In many areas the United States space effort appears to me to be equal to the Russians. But the U.S. was more careful, played it safer and took less risks.
In August of 1957 von Braun launched a Jupiter C to an altitude of 597 miles. History would be much different if it had been equipped with an upper stage - it could have placed the first satellite in orbit!
The Russians succeeded in doing this one month later when Sputnik 1 was launched into orbit. Sputnik was equipped with two radio transmitters whose signals were received by radio receivers around the world. Those 'bleep, bleep' sounds started the Space Race.
The U.S. missed out on this opportunity by the narrowest of margins!
Sputnik 2 went up in November, with a passenger - Laika, who was doomed to die because she only had enough air to last a week.
The U.S. attempt with a Vanguard rocket failed. You've probably seen many times of how it lifted a few feet off the ground and exploded.
So Eisenhower asked von Braun -finally!- to launch an Explorer satellite on the Jupiter C booster. It launched on January 31, 1958. It made the first great space discovery, the Van Allen radiation belts.
The first U.S. satellites were much smaller than Russian ones, but boy, they packed a lot of useful stuff in them. For instance Explore 1 was only thirty pounds but was equipped with Geiger tubes to detect cosmic rays, external and internal temperature guages, micrometeorite detectors and an ultrasound microphone.
The first satellite to have solar cells instead of regular batteries was Vanguard 1. It transmitted for six years and is still in orbit today.
When in 1959 Luna 2 landed on the moon and Luna 3 photographed the far side it seemed the Russians were way ahead of the States. But also consider...
Vanguard 2 (Feb, '59) was the first satellite with meteorological devices on board.
Explorer 6 in August 1959 took the first satellite pictures of the Earth.
Courier 1B (Oct. '60) was the first communications satellite.
Discover 13 was the first satellite to be recovered from space (splashdown).
Then in April 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first person to be put in space and the first to orbit the Earth. He did not pilot the capsule. He was only a passenger, and many years later it was revealed that he ejected from the spacecraft and parachuted to the ground.
The American astronauts were pilots, not just passengers. They could maneuver their capsule - critical during re-entry.
The Russians had the advantage in that NASA's space program was public. If Russian could keep up on a technical level, it could launch before the Americans could. When the Russians became aware of the Gemini project it decided to do one better - put three cosmonauts in space, not two. So what did they do? They reconfigured a Vostok to accept three people. They removed much of its interior, the crewman had no ejection seats and they flew in tracksuits! Since the cosmonauts were unable to move, they didn't do much in space.
The Russians achieved one more big first - the spacewalk. Alexei Leonov aboard the Voskhod 2. It was very risky - his spacesuit ballooned and the pressure had to be reduced so that he could get back inside the spacecraft.
The American space program was geared to landing a man on the moon from 1961 on wards I believe. Their effort was methodical, planned to the last detail, and unnecessary risks were avoided. Project Gemini pushed them ahead of the Russians.
I guess the point of this post is the the Americans didn't just twiddle their thumbs while the Russians were achieving their famous 'firsts'. A lot of those early satellites the U.S. launched (many more that Russia BTW) had practical purposes and used the most advanced technologies of their day - indeed created those technologies that we still use today.
So hats off to the 'Yanks' for their amazing early achievements in the Space Race, not as famous as the Russian ones, but missions that lay the groundwork for the future.
So if anyone can add to to the American acheivements prior to Gemini, feel free to add them here!
EDIT: Just thought of one more thing I'd like to put in here, is mentioning Sergei Korlev, the genius behind the Russian space program. He died in 1966 basically unknown, after which point the Russians fell 'behind' in the Space Race.