Cosmonauts: How Russia Won the Space Race - BBC 4
DeanDS
Posts: 1,605 Forum Member
✭✭✭
Anyone else watch this? Thought it was great, loads of great footage and even Russian music!
0
DeanDS
Posts: 1,605 DeanDS
Posts: 1,605 DeanDS
Posts: 1,605
Comments
Compared to the risk-averse society we live in now the Russuan Space Programme could never be accused of "Health and Safety gone mad"!
I can fully understand Sergei Korolev's daughter's bitterness as well. If it wasn't for Khrushchev he would have, rightly, been awarded two Nobel Prizes. One for Sputnik and the other for the R-7 rocket which was used to launch Yuri Gagarin in to orbit.
Same. I now only have 15 hours free on my box. I need to start watching or deleting things.
The title I suppose was giving the Russians the credit for the whole space station idea and how, for now, the Americans rely on their rockets for sending astronauts. Assuming some race is at an end depends on knowing what the finish line is of course. Personally I like the idea of co-operation over nationalistic goals, but I suppose it's unrealistic to think humans will abandon narrow political concerns anytime soon. I'm not sure space exploration has been powered by much more than that anyway.
I learned loads, also amazed that they're still using the R7 rocket even these days : bit like a Porsche 911 eh?
Interesting program, also learnt a fair few things I didn't know before.
NASA and the space pen is a Myth, also mentioned in that article are some reasons why you don't want pencils out in space.
The only reason they make themselves look cool to people with views like yourself (no offence intended!) is because they didn't and don't give a sh1t about the lives of their people. When you have that kind of outlook it is very easy to keep costs down and build rockets, devices and equipment for a tenth of the price.
Risk averse society, well if you're a fighter pilot or Astronaut you're in a very risky business, comes with the territory, was then, still is now.
As an ordinary punter I don't want bits of scaffolding to come sailing off buildings possibly injuring my, being a random punter isn't supposed to be a risky business.
Of course they may well have got away with more catastrophes because they could cover things up, though they also obviously had very good expertise to use as well. The problem with them and the US is that because they saw it as a race they rushed things when it would have been more sensible to proceed cautiously. Of course with the fall of the Soviet Russia it enabled a more open view of the past for the program. An example of a country that could cover stuff up in trying to catch up is China, according to Wikipedia..
"On February 15, 1996, during the flight of the first Long March 3B heavy carrier rocket carrying Intelsat 708, the rocket veered off course immediately after clearing the launch platform, crashing 22 seconds later. It crashed 1.85 km (1.15 mi) away from the launch pad into a nearby mountain village. According to the official count, it destroyed 80 houses. More than 500 civilians died as a result, according to unofficial Chinese sources."
It would be interesting to have programs on other countries efforts in space, such as China, France, Japan. Getting information from somewhere like China is likely to be difficult though.
They weren't going transport 3 men 250 000 miles and land on the moon with that old crap.
NASA still have to use russian engines for a lot of their rockets as they are simply better. (until they were embargoed over the Ukraine crisis). The russians also invented closed cycle turbos (in engines) that the americans could never get to work.
The reason the ISS is in such a strange orbit is that (apart to honk-off the americans and make it difficult for the scuttle to reach) was because the russians were the only ones with a heavy-lift rocket that could get it into orbit.
The difference in approach is also interesting. While the americans tend to design a vehicle for one purpose and then design another, almost from scratch, for a different job - the russians have developed and adapted. That's why their Soyuz and recent R7s are so similar to the original models.
And yet they are still the only game in town when it comes to getting to the ISS, having outlived the space shuttle, which was not the best design health and safety wise.
If the U.S. had spent a lot more money on the shuttle design ironically they would have spent less in the end without the huge cost of retrofitting and damage to its reputation.
Russian rockets were way more Sci-Fi than the US ones. Still look retro-cool today.
BBC shoulda repeated "Space Race", their excellent dramatisation of the the early days of the US/Russian space programme.
Well done to BBC4 for this prog. Justifying the licence fee yet again.
Looking forward to the Afghan Astronaut and the one about Armstrong though i think i might have seen that before. I know the guy became a virtual recluse or something odd.
Neat link from an American source.......naturally! Or as a well known quote goes.....'they would say that wouldn't they'.;-)
However the detail of the finances involved in developing a pen that would work is rather vague other than "reportedly invested $1 million". Nice of the Yanks to offer the pens at the same discounted rate to the Soviets though. Very generous and friendly and all this time here we were thinking they were enemies.
The Cold War must have been a myth all along.