Space History for Dec 1 - Plans, Treaties, and Spaceflights

[CalliArcale]

On December 1, 1957, initial proposals came in for the shape of the Mercury capsule. Maxime Faget proposed the familiar ballistic shape that would ultimately be flown, while others proposed glider configurations presaging the later Dyna-Soar concept and even the Space Shuttle.<br /><br />Two years later to the day, in 1959, a historic treaty was signed by Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This was the Antarctic Treaty, which declared the continent of Antarctica an apolitical preserve for the pure pursuit of science, free from military or large-scale commercial exploitation. To this day, no human lives permanently on the continent, although permanent human outposts are maintained for scientific research and occasionally visited by tourists and adventurers. This formed the precedent for later treaties pertaining to outer space.<br /><br />On December 1, 1960, the Soviet Union launched the spacecraft <i>Korabl-Sputnik 3</i> from a Vostok rocket. (Vostoks are in the R-7 series and are thus similar in appearance to the Soyuz, although somewhat smaller.) On board were two dogs, Pcheka and Mushka, along with a number of other biological specimens. Sadly, they did not survive their flight. The vehicle's retrorocket did not shut off on schedule and burned until it ran out of fuel; consequently, their reentry was much too steep and the entire spacecraft, with its living payload, was consumed during reentry.<br /><br />Five years later, in 1965, the Saturn IVB Orbital Workshop program was officially launched, with plans to develop two proposals for "wet" and "dry" versions of the lab. This would culminate in the launch of Skylab as a "dry" Orbital Workshop built out of an unused S-IVB.<br /><br />On December 1, 1989, the Soviet Union launched the Granat orbital observatory aboard a Proton rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome. This was a an x-ray and soft gamma-ray ob <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[gawin]

keep up thies great posts<br />i realy enjoy reading them

 

[jmilsom]

Yes that is very interesting - 'This Day in Space' - Excellent. Hope you can post more like this. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[lampblack]

<font color="yellow">Five years later, in 1965, the Saturn IVB Orbital Workshop program was officially launched, with plans to develop two proposals for "wet" and "dry" versions of the lab. This would culminate in the launch of Skylab as a "dry" Orbital Workshop built out of an unused S-IVB.</font><br /><br />Could somebody please explain the distinction between "wet" and "dry" labs? I've seen this several times in these parts, but don't have a clue as to what it means.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#0000ff"><strong>Just tell the truth and let the chips fall...</strong></font> </div>

 

[najab]

><i>Could somebody please explain the distinction between "wet" and "dry" labs?</i><p>Basically, a wet lab is a rocket stage converted on-orbit into a lab and a dry lab is purpose built as a lab on the ground and launched as payload. The advantage of a dry lab is that there is little or no work required in zero G, the advantage of a wet lab is that it helps put itself into orbit, rather that just being payload, so you get more lab for your launcher.</p>