Remembering Yuri Gagarin, the First Man in Space (space.com) 97
Sixty years ago today, Yuri Gagarin became the first human ever in space.
Space.com reports: Because no one was certain how weightlessness would affect a pilot, the spherical capsule had little in the way of onboard controls; the work was done either automatically or from the ground. If an emergency arose, Gagarin was supposed to receive an override code that would allow him to take manual control, but Sergei Korolev, chief designer of the Soviet space program, disregarded protocol and gave the code to the pilot prior to the flight.
Over the course of 108 minutes, Vostok 1 traveled around the Earth once, reaching a maximum height of 203 miles (327 kilometers). The spacecraft carried 10 days' worth of provisions in case the engines failed and Gagarin was required to wait for the orbit to naturally decay. But the supplies were unnecessary. Gagarin re-entered Earth's atmosphere, managing to maintain consciousness as he experienced forces up to eight times the pull of gravity during his descent.
The BBC remembers how on his return to earth, Gagarin parachuted into some farmland several hundred miles from Moscow — "much to the surprise of a five-year-old girl who was out in the fields planting potatoes."
60 years later, the BBC tracked down and interviewed Interviewed that woman — who still remembered Gagarin's kind voice and smile. (Thanks to Slashdot reader 4wdloop for sharing the article.)
The BBC also published a look at Gagarin's global fame in the years that followed — and Phys.org notes that even today, there are few people more universally admired in Russia than Yuri Gagarin: His smiling face adorns murals across the country. He stands, arms at his sides as if zooming into space, on a pedestal 42.5 metres (140 feet) above the traffic flowing on Moscow's Leninsky Avenue. He is even a favourite subject of tattoos... The anniversary of Gagarin's historic flight on April 12, 1961 — celebrated every year in Russia as Cosmonautics Day — sees Russians of all ages lay flowers at monuments to his accomplishment across the country...
Gagarin, says historian Alexander Zheleznyakov, was a figure who helped fuel the imagination. "He transformed us from a simple biological species to one that could imagine an entire universe beyond Earth."
Space.com reports: Because no one was certain how weightlessness would affect a pilot, the spherical capsule had little in the way of onboard controls; the work was done either automatically or from the ground. If an emergency arose, Gagarin was supposed to receive an override code that would allow him to take manual control, but Sergei Korolev, chief designer of the Soviet space program, disregarded protocol and gave the code to the pilot prior to the flight.
Over the course of 108 minutes, Vostok 1 traveled around the Earth once, reaching a maximum height of 203 miles (327 kilometers). The spacecraft carried 10 days' worth of provisions in case the engines failed and Gagarin was required to wait for the orbit to naturally decay. But the supplies were unnecessary. Gagarin re-entered Earth's atmosphere, managing to maintain consciousness as he experienced forces up to eight times the pull of gravity during his descent.
The BBC remembers how on his return to earth, Gagarin parachuted into some farmland several hundred miles from Moscow — "much to the surprise of a five-year-old girl who was out in the fields planting potatoes."
60 years later, the BBC tracked down and interviewed Interviewed that woman — who still remembered Gagarin's kind voice and smile. (Thanks to Slashdot reader 4wdloop for sharing the article.)
The BBC also published a look at Gagarin's global fame in the years that followed — and Phys.org notes that even today, there are few people more universally admired in Russia than Yuri Gagarin: His smiling face adorns murals across the country. He stands, arms at his sides as if zooming into space, on a pedestal 42.5 metres (140 feet) above the traffic flowing on Moscow's Leninsky Avenue. He is even a favourite subject of tattoos... The anniversary of Gagarin's historic flight on April 12, 1961 — celebrated every year in Russia as Cosmonautics Day — sees Russians of all ages lay flowers at monuments to his accomplishment across the country...
Gagarin, says historian Alexander Zheleznyakov, was a figure who helped fuel the imagination. "He transformed us from a simple biological species to one that could imagine an entire universe beyond Earth."
Into the unknown (Score:5, Insightful)
Must have been quite something to go where nobody had gone before, with no clear idea what the effect would be on the human body or if the return to Earth was survivable. The capsule was tiny and there wasn't much he could do if things went badly wrong.
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Modded overrated huh? So someone doesn't think that taking that incredible risk, being the first human to experience weightlessness even though at the time the effects on humans were unknown, is overrated?
Are we still fighting the cold war or something? Oh wait, we actually are in the midst of communist panic again so maybe that's it...
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How about we shoot you into space so you can experience weightlessness? Don't hurry back!
Shit yea, sign me up if you are paying. Though i will need to fly on something that doesn't pull 8-Gs like Gagarin did.
Re: Into the unknown (Score:2)
Shit yea, sign me up if you are paying.
We're sending you up old school. Just sit on that manhole cover over there.
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Modded overrated huh? So someone doesn't think that taking that incredible risk, being the first human to experience weightlessness even though at the time the effects on humans were unknown, is overrated?
More to the point, there is a bond between those who have faced the same risks even if they are on opposite political sides due to geography, political systems, etc. even during the cold war.
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This season of For All Mankind has more Soviet characters in it. They are portrayed in a very stereotypical way. Miserable, just doing their job like it's a coal mine or something with no interest in space or flight. Contrast with the Americans who are doing it for mankind, who were born to fly and explore.
They also portrayed the Buran as a knock-off of the Shuttle, when in fact it was quite different and the engineers were actually reluctant to have it look superficially so similar but in the end conceded
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The plan was to re-use existing technology. "Forced" isn't the right word, and it wasn't done for technical reasons but rather for cost reasons.
There is actually a plot point in For All Mankind (spoiler alert) where NASA tips the Russians off about problems with the o-rings in cold weather, because the Russian design is a carbon copy. In reality the Russians used a version of the Proton rocket, the most successful heavy lift rocket in the world with nearly 400 successful launches since it's introduction in
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"Forced" isn't the right word, and it wasn't done for technical reasons but rather for cost reasons.
That's a distinction without a difference. You have to incur extra costs to overcome technical reasons.
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Energia was a development of the Proton.
The RD-170 was developed because they needed a heavy lift vehicle anyway and had given up on the N1 prematurely. The idea for such an engine had been around for a while but the N1 design was selected, so it was abandoned until N1 was abandoned. Of course it's possible that they saw the success of US liquid fuel heavy lift engines.
The RD-170 was not part of Buran though, it was part of Energia. Where as the US used solid boosters the Russians kept using liquid fuelled
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Energia was a development of the Proton.
...are you serious? They're two completely different LVs designed by two independent design bureaus! They have literally nothing in common except for both being USSR products. That's like saying that Atlas V was a development of the Delta II (it wasn't!).
The RD-170 was not part of Buran though, it was part of Energia.
Another distinction without meaning; despite earlier plans, Energia was developed specifically for Buran.
As I said the Russian boosters were capable of independent operation, having their own guidance and telemetry systems, the idea being that they could be used for things other than Buran. The US design relied on the Shuttle for everything and the boosters were controlled by it.
Except that wasn't the original plan for the OS-120 orbiter. As I said, they were forced to change it later to the OK-92 and then to Buran.
And as to whe
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Energia had been in design since the 70s. I don't think they every had SRBs in mind for it.
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This was a virtual carbon copy of the US Space Shuttle, namely a delta-wing orbiter with three LOX/LH2 main engines in the back and strapped to the side of an external fuel tank. Sadovskiy's team even went as far as studying the use of large solid-fuel rockets.
The ultimate OS-120 concept ditched the large SRBs alternative but kept the rest of the US design (only later it evolved into the OK-92 which moved the engines to the core tank).
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This is a fascinating site. I like the alternate and variant designs. The one that looks like it is supposed to go on top of the stack ala Dyna-Soar looked interesting.
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And an improvement in some ways, and a step back in some ways.
Saying that it was a knock-off isn't an insult to what it ended up being.
But the fact is, the first orbiter they started making was rejected, and the next one was built using boatloads of data taken via espionage about the Shuttle program.
It's a CNN article [nbcnews.com], but it does closely follow the historical events.
The reason the engineers were loathe to make it look so similar, is because it was embarrassing to bui
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The article notes that the KGB did obtain some design information on the Shuttle, but then makes the leap that Buran is a copy. It's not.
Buran looks similar on the outside because wind tunnel testing showed that was the best shape for a vehicle of that type. Internally Buran was completely different to the Shuttle, and the launch system was entirely different too. I'm sure they learned from the US programme and saved some time not pursuing ideas that the Americans had already tested and rejected, but the re
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Superficially it's the same shape because that's the most efficient shape. But everything else - the engines, the avionics, the internal layout, the launch system, it's all different.
Buran has no main engines. Buran has a modular design where the number of boosters could be varied to suit the payload, or the boosters used for launching other stuff. The STS system needed the Shuttle, had only one configuration and the Shuttle computers did all guidance work, where as the Buran system had separate guidance sy
Re: Into the unknown (Score:2)
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Superficially it's the same shape because that's the most efficient shape. But everything else - the engines, the avionics, the internal layout, the launch system, it's all different.
Sigh. More nonsense. You sir, are attempting to prop up some ingrained opinion you have with zero regard for the evidence.
It's very rare for 2 people, trying to solve the same problem, to come up with 2 identical designs.
The Soviets had a history of stealing western technology. It was cheaper than developing it themselves. Who can blame them?
Nobody here claimed that the Buran was a carbon copy, but to call it an original work is laughable.
It is a derived work, at the very best. To the more cynical, who
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Concorde stole a lot of ideas from the Tu-144. The French actually caused one to crash while trying to get close up photographs of it in flight at the Paris airshow.
The Russians came up with a lot of the early ideas for space technology, like multi-stage rockets. In particular they had designs for a spaceplane in the mid 1960s, but it was not produced. Seems very likely that the CIA stole those designs and shared them with NASA. One plan for Buran was to revive that project, but as I recall the payload (spa
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Concorde stole a lot of ideas from the Tu-144. The French actually caused one to crash while trying to get close up photographs of it in flight at the Paris airshow.
Sorry, chuck.
The STAC program started long before the Soviets started the Tu-144 program.
Further, both the Concorde and the Tu-144 are obvious direct descendants of the Bristol 223 and the Sud Super-Caravelle that later merged into the Concorde, a culmination of a decade of work.
The Soviets managed to miraculously bust out a nearly identical craft the same year they started the design.
You are engaging in some laughable misinformation, here.
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The Russians came up with a lot of the early ideas for space technology, like multi-stage rockets.
And what the fuck is this?
Multi-stage rocketry was a natural deduction from the rocket equation, something that predated rockets by many decades.
"Russians" came up with it, in the same manner that Tsiolkovsky, a Russian, was the person who derived the rocket equation.
Not-Russians are the people who actually turned those into Rockets. Both the first liquid fueled rocket, and the first multi-stage rocket were American.
The only "stealing" that could have happened there was the "stealing" of the published r
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Superficially it's the same shape because that's the most efficient shape.
No, it's the same shape because this was demanded by the interested parties, as well as its parameters. Many other shapes were considered for designs that didn't make it.
Buran has no main engines.
Buran HAD had main engines until they took them off. [bashny.net]
Buran has a modular design where the number of boosters could be varied to suit the payload
Buran didn't have any modular design. Buran doesn't have any number of boosters, since it doesn't have any boosters. How could it have boosters when it doesn't even have main engines? You're literally contradicting yourself in the space of two sentences!
Buran used liquid fuel, not solid.
Where did Shuttle's orbiter use sol
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The heatsheild design was different and arguably better too
Press (X) to doubt: [quora.com]
One of their engineers mentioned to one of our engineers that the Buran had multiple burn-throughs across its structure, and their team was surprised it made it back in one piece. Like the Space Shuttle (note that Space Shuttle is a proper noun and should be capitalized), it had heat-resistant tiles to protect it from the extreme temperatures of reentry. During my NASA orientation program, all of us newbie engineers were taken to every major component area at KSC. At the tile facility, the guy heading it up took a blow torch to a tile until it turned bright red - he held the tile in his bare hand. But his hand was completely behind the tile, and he showed us that if he moved something around the side (paper), it would feel the heat. Now, the tiles are perfectly fitted to each other, but that doesn’t mean air tight - or heat tight. Without something to stop it, super-heated air would filter around the tiles and burn the underlying structure. To prevent this, the Shuttle used something called a gap filler - essentially a heat resistant fabric version of caulking.
To our surprise, evidently the technology the Buran incorporated for this purpose was not adequate, and the Russian engineer said portions of the Russian shuttle’s structure resembled a checkerboard of burned metal. He said that the cost of developing a new technology, combined with the cost of refit (unflown craft) and repair (the one that flew) was a significant contributor to the decision to cancel the program.
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No. It looks identical, because it was identical, and they determined the design they stole to be ideal, and kept it, even though it made what they had done obvious.
Saying that "internally, it was different..." is meaningless. Of course it was different. They had their own design requirements.
Saying that "it's launch system was entirely different..." is even more meaningless, because it needed to use Soviet rockets for liftoff.
So are you saying it is identical or not? You seem to be saying both.
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The later was referring to the internal design of the craft.
In case that was confusing, the context could be referenced in the highlighted portions.
No. It looks identical, because it was identical
Saying that "internally, it was different..." is meaningless.
So were you really looking for an answer to that question, or were you looking for an easy nit to pick?
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I just disagree with your premise that "looking" the same "is the same".
By this logic these cars are identical. [drivemag.com]
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That's more apparent if you look at the 3 models that preceded the final Buran, with the first being a literal carbon copy of the Shuttle.
By my logic, those cars in that article- are knock offs.
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The facts are what they are, and there are too many people chiming in now for you to bury it.
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This season of For All Mankind has more Soviet characters in it. They are portrayed in a very stereotypical way. Miserable, just doing their job like it's a coal mine or something with no interest in space or flight. Contrast with the Americans who are doing it for mankind, who were born to fly and explore.
Haven't seen season 2 but season 1 did a good job of showing the bonds, IMHO.
They also portrayed the Buran as a knock-off of the Shuttle, when in fact it was quite different and the engineers were actually reluctant to have it look superficially so similar but in the end conceded because that is the ideal shape given the payload requirements.
It seems like a lot of people believe the Russian space programme was actually like that.
Yea, the Soviets did some interesting things and took a different tack than the uS as far as going to the Moon. NASA SP-2000-4408 "Challenge to Apollo" is a good overview of the Soviet space program.
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Indeed, astronauts and cosmonauts are like submariners. They may technically be opponents, but the common bond makes them a peculiar family all their own. Those early astronauts were a pretty crazy bunch, strapping themselves to the top of massive engines that could best be described as tons of explosives that, if everything went right, would get them into orbit, or if things went wrong would either have them blow up on the launchpad or shortly after lift off... and then, you know, making it back alive.
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Indeed, astronauts and cosmonauts are like submariners. They may technically be opponents, but the common bond makes them a peculiar family all their own.
As a submariner, I agree with you and acknowledge we are a bit peculiar.
Those early astronauts were a pretty crazy bunch, strapping themselves to the top of massive engines that could best be described as tons of explosives that, if everything went right, would get them into orbit, or if things went wrong would either have them blow up on the launchpad or shortly after lift off... and then, you know, making it back alive.
All of which was built by the lowest bidder in the US case...
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Ditto. Which boat(s) were you on? Kamehameha here....
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Re:Into the unknown (Score:4, Interesting)
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They are a lot of people out there that have a problem with compartmentalization. They sometime talk about it as a bad thing, this isn't a problem of any one political spectrum but from all sides.
Sure Yuri Gagarin was Soviet and Communist supporter, and worked hard for the Soviet Unions Stated Interests. We as Citizens of Western Countries see that political system, as against are core values and extremely dangerous. However... Yes this guy was a Brave Hero, who risked everything because there really wasn
Re: Into the unknown (Score:2)
Paraphrasing BaldAndBankrupt: Such wonderful people, such horrible leaders.
I think Russians and Americans agree that their leadership is a cancer. I'm never gonna hate any people from any place I don't know again. I just wonder why assholes rule the world, there aswell as here in the west.
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Modded overrated huh? So someone doesn't think that taking that incredible risk, being the first human to experience weightlessness even though at the time the effects on humans were unknown, is overrated?
Are we still fighting the cold war or something? Oh wait, we actually are in the midst of communist panic again so maybe that's it...
Have no fear, you are at 5 Interesting now.
And it's your team that hates Russians these days, lol. You just can't forgive them for going un-communist, I guess ...
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What team? I dislike Putin, he helped destroy my country!
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Most of the people with mod points seem to be idiots all around. The system itself is to easy abused. Maybe there is something to this thumbs up and down thing.
I would suggest changing the system so that the same mod can't mod the same person more than once, per set of mod points.
Same mod can only use one mod point per story.
If the same mod mods one person several times in a row they lose all their mod privileges.
Re: Into the unknown (Score:2)
Oh wait, we actually are in the midst of communist panic again
No we're not. That ended once it was shown that, even if somebody had lived under socialism their entire life, all it took was an absence of coercion for them to abandon it.
Besides, it's plainly obvious that the moral panic of today is racism.
Re:Into the unknown (Score:5, Interesting)
Must have been quite something to go where nobody had gone before, with no clear idea what the effect would be on the human body or if the return to Earth was survivable.
Yup. There was even a fear that a human might go crazy in weightlessness. So Gagarin's capsule was designed to be controllable from the ground, and its controls were initially locked out. The ground control unlocked them when Gagarin established a radio connection (via Morse code!) and confirmed that he's OK.
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von Braun famously only begrudgingly conceded giving the oxygen breathing occupants of his rockets any kind of control.
This tells me it was less about fear of insanity, and more about scientists being skeptical that pilots could perform better than the systems they designed (erroneously or not)
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https://www.wsws.org/en/articl... [wsws.org]
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There was an emergency key to unlock the controls, but the main concern was that Gagarin would be incapacitated by the gravitational stress of liftoff or weightlessness while in orbit. Would his heart continue to pump blood? Would his eyes function properly, his internal organs, and his brain? Since no human being had ever travelled beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, there were very real fears of the impact of the Sun’s radiation, gamma rays, or other unforeseeable dangers, or even that he might go mad.
So that still tells me that it was more a decision made based upon the idea that ground control was just better suited, up to and including, the instance where "even that he might go mad.".
Re: Into the unknown (Score:3)
It's really sad that Gagarin survived the whole ordeal of first human space flight only to die aged 34 in a crash on a routine Mig-15 training flight. Some people refused to believe that this was just an accident. Most likely aliens took him out as a punishment and a warning for mankind for starting the age of spaceflight to early for our species.
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Sub orbital though... The extra height may have made the difference, nobody knew back then.
Re:What about Laika? (Score:4, Interesting)
You should read some books about the Soviet space programme, or watch some of the documentaries about it. The BBC did one called "The Red Stuff" some time ago.
While the government did want results, of course the people involved in actually delivering them did care very much about the lives of their comrades. For example, there was a secret code used to disable the spacecraft's automated systems and allow for manual control. The idea was not to tell Gagarin because if he became disoriented in space (nobody knew what the effects of zero-g would be) he might use it and destroy the ship. In the end at least two people told him the code anyway, trusting him to use it wisely if needed.
As for Laika, several of those involved have expressed regret at not being able to return her to Earth. Of course return was not guaranteed, both the USSR and the US lost a number of animals to failures, but they wished they had at least tried.
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While the government did want results, of course the people involved in actually delivering them did care very much about the lives of their comrades. For example, there was a secret code used to disable the spacecraft's automated systems and allow for manual control. The idea was not to tell Gagarin because if he became disoriented in space (nobody knew what the effects of zero-g would be) he might use it and destroy the ship. In the end at least two people told him the code anyway, trusting him to use it wisely if needed.
Not to tell him...what exactly? He *knew* about the code. He was *officially* given an envelope with the code before the launch. Yet again in this thread you prove that you live in a completely different universe than everyone else here. As for the risks of the flight, when the very LV you're flying on has ~35% reliability record, that is probably *not* the time for the first manned spaceflight. Although they did care quite a bit, they definitely didn't care *that* much.
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That he may die during the flight, so it was up to him to fly or not to fly. This topic disturbed Korolyov. That is why after Valentina Tereshkova's flight he did not allow other women into space as it was too dangerous.
Re: What about Laika? (Score:3)
Frankly, you don't have a clue.
If he had a *true* choice might be questioned, if one only sees dystopia and hate. But of course they gave a fuck. Imagine telling the state leaders that you let the country's propaganda hero die...
But of course, back in those days, people weren't complete pussies, and there were things were even the risk of one's own death was considered "worth it". In the Soviet Union aswell as in the United States of America. Gagarin most certainly knew he could die, but goddamn what better
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Testing with animals is a normal thing IMO. Especially at that time, when they really did not know whether it was even possible to survive in space (even with life support). So yeah, rather send a dog on a one-way trip to get information that would be needed to make sure a human returns safely. It's not like they sent the dog just for fun...
Re: What about Laika? (Score:2)
He did not say it was not normal.
He said it was not OK.
Re:What about Laika? (Score:5, Informative)
Unfortunately a lot of animals died in early spaceflight experiments. Albert, a rhesus monkey, died when his rocket failed on the way up. Albert II died when his parachute failed to open. Both were flying on German V2 rockets operated by the United States. In fact a lot of monkeys were sent up, with around a 2/3rds death rate.
Before Laika the USSR sent up another two dogs, Tsygan and Dezik, who were on sub-orbital flights and who both survived. Laika was then the first living thing to reach orbit, but at the time they didn't have the return system ready to test do there was no way to recover her. She wasn't the first or the last victim of the Space Race putting pressure on scientists and engineers to deliver firsts as quickly as possible.
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I understand Artemus is going to land the first Person of Color on the moon. We finally have a use for the moon.
First some idiot posts this, then some fool mods it up. I'm not sure which one is worse, the poster or the mod.
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Both probably have a peculiar obsession with pedophiles and pizzerias.
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I found it refreshingly hopeful, myself. Hopefully someone else mods it back up.
Burn in hell.
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Na- the mission plan was to euthanize her in space. Sadly, that failed, and she died of hyperthermia.
But it wasn't "not expected" that she wouldn't survive- it was a certainty.
There wasn't enough oxygen to survive until reentry, and the spacecraft wasn't designed to survive reentry.
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Barely Mentioned During the Cold War (Score:5, Interesting)
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I was more saying that, in the 80s at least, in Redmond, WA, even though the country was gripped in Reagan's war against the Evil Empire, I didn't pick up any attempt at... diminishing Soviet accomplishments. The first man in space was a big deal, I remember that much, and they didn't try to overshadow it with the Mercury program or something.
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I have an entertaining old kids book from the late 1950s--shortly after Sputnik and Explorer 1--which talks about the future of man in space. It talks about Dyna-Soar (though not with that name) and how we'll be constructing a space station (like in "2001: A Space Odyssey") and eventually go to the moon.
It's pretty amusingly wrong.
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You kidding? Gagarin's name was all over the place. It provoked a panic, and science education went crazy in America.
In the early 60s I'm sure it was when it was in the news. By the 70s though our teachers glossed over the Soviet stuff (after a brief mention of Sputnik and Laika) and gushed over the Apollo program, which was still a thing at the time.
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To be fair, after the initial brilliant successes of the Soviet space program, the US quickly outpaced them. The Saturn Vs were amazing pieces of machinery. And keep in mind the reason the Soviets and Americans did the whole "space race" thing was more to develop technology for surveillance satellites and ICBMs. There were great patriotic victories, and a lot of science done, but building everything from rockets with advanced guidance systems to todays rovers is as much about technology that's going to go i
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For example, Sputnik was started after America had started our Explorer 1. But the Soviets found out that they were unable to design/build a decent one, so, they come up with a cheap idea that was designed, built, and tested in just a few month, all to launch several months ahead of USA
Laika was first animal i
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The Cold War was real and pervasive. People don't appreciate it if they didn't experience it. I grew up in the same era. I don't think we were taught about Gagarin in elementary school, but they didn't straight up lie. They just gushed over "first American" this, that, etc. In high school where it's a bit more rigorous they might have explained the context; but recent history wasn't really covered anyway. History always ended with WW2 victory, maybe Korea gets covered a bit. The space program was too
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When I was in elementary school I was taught Alan Shepard was the first man in space. It was a few years later that I learned of Yuri Gagarin. That was when I figured a lot of what was taught in public schools in the United States was bullshit, and that I had to be responsible for my own education.
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It transcends politics for some, not for others. It's reasonable in the seventies that the moon landings were a bigger event than the first man in space. They were, In the sixties it would have been stranger if you didn't know about Gagarin.
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Murals... Soviet ... murals... (Score:2)
*BaldAndBankrupt has entered the chat*
Original transcript of Gagarin's flight (Score:5, Informative)
I found this transcript from the famous flight but it is in Russian so I had to pull it through google translate:
http://www.x-libri.ru/elib/inn... [x-libri.ru]
to
https://translate.google.com/t... [google.com]
There are some funny bits in there, like when he wants to know whether there are sausages to accompany the booze. Lift-off is on page 7.
Overall it is a short trip.
Remembering... (Score:2)
Remembering a warm body that got sent into space. What was his contribution? Not dying while he was up there?
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What's interesting to me is that both the Soviet and the American space programs really didn't want to give astronauts/cosmonauts any real control over the craft itself, controlling everything from the ground, and yet these guys were pilots, so didn't simply want to be a "warm body". They saw, likely, the anticlimactic notion of simply being the first humans in space, but actually wanted, if things went south, some ability to at least try to control the craft (not that it would not have done them that much
Override code (Score:3)
Why was there an override code that wasnâ(TM)t intended to be available to the pilot without the ok from the ground? Seems to me the last thing you want on an emergency is a secret code locking the pilot out of the manual controls.
(Unless there was concern that Gagarin would take manual control and land in the US)
Re: (Score:2)
Why was there an override code that wasnâ(TM)t intended to be available to the pilot without the ok from the ground? Seems to me the last thing you want on an emergency is a secret code locking the pilot out of the manual controls.
(Unless there was concern that Gagarin would take manual control and land in the US)
It was because they weren't sure what being in space would do to an astronaut's mind. Remember, until then they'd only sent animals to space, so they didn't have any data on the mental effects on a human being. So they wanted to be able to deny him control in case he started acted crazy.
Can someone explain... (Score:2)
he experienced forces up to eight times the pull of gravity during his descent
If he was in free-fall, wouldn't the only force acting on him be 1x the pull of gravity? Where does the other 7x come from?
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Atmospheric drag slowing his capsule down.