Space History for May 15: Soviet triumphs, Soviet disappointments, Culbertson's birthday

[CalliArcale]

<strong>1958: Sputnik 3</strong><br /><br />The International Geophysical Year was a big deal -- so big, that the USSR was bound and determined to beat the Americans into orbit.&nbsp; ISZ (Artificial Earth Satellite) was designed by Tikhonravov, an engineer working at Korolev's design bureau.&nbsp; It was 1.4 metric tons and was going to carry out an impressive number of physics experiments -- genuinely a pure science spacecraft.&nbsp; However, ISZ wasn't ready in time.&nbsp; The Americans were having problems of their own, but Korolev's R-7 missile (the predecessor of today's Soyuz rocket) was ready, and the longer they waited, the more risk there was of an American success.&nbsp; So he proposed a spaceship-satellite, which would carry a live dog into orbit.&nbsp; Work began designing the habitable spacecraft which would ultimately carry Laika into orbit.&nbsp; But this too was taking too long, so Korolev got a crack team of engineers together to hack together a quick-and-dirty spacecraft.&nbsp; Without drawings or engineering reviews, they built Sputnik 1 and soared into history.&nbsp; Laika flew next, and then, when ISZ was ready, it flew as well.&nbsp; However, it had already lost its opportunity to discover the Earth's Van Allen Belts, as the Americans had already done so.&nbsp; Still, ISZ was easily the largest spacecraft of its day, and a very ambitious project -- the start of much higher Soviet space ambitions.<br /><br /><strong>1960: Korabl-Sputnik 1</strong><br /><br />Western newspapers called it Sputnik IV, but this was really the first test flight of the Vostok spacecraft.&nbsp; It was largely successful, apart from some problems with the guidance system.&nbsp; The climate control system worked correctly.&nbsp; The vehicle did not have a heat shield; this would be added on later test flights.<br /><br /><strong>1963: Mercury-Atlas 9 (Faith 7)</strong><br /><br />Gordon Cooper became the sixth American in space, rocketing into orbit aboard the final Mercury.&nbsp; He stayed in Faith 7 for a day and a half, completing 22.5 orbits of the Earth.&nbsp; Mercury was then retired.&nbsp; America would return to space in March, 1965 with the first manned Gemini launch.<br /><br /><strong>1987: Polyus</strong><br /><br />The Soviet Union launched its first Energia rocket, carrying the side-mounted Polyus space battle station.&nbsp; Energia was the USSR's first successful super-heavy-lift rocket.&nbsp; (The ambitious N-1 had been cancelled in the early 70s after four failed launches.)&nbsp; Energia performed well, but Polyus' guidance system failed and it was unable to insert itself into orbit correctly.&nbsp; Polyus wound up in the ocean.&nbsp; Polyus was part of the Buran program, and was to have been a manned space station serviced by Buran, serving as the core of the planned Mir-2 station, equipped with a self-defense cannon and nuclear space mines.&nbsp; It also carried a number of other experiments, and may have had a stealthy radar-absorptive shroud.&nbsp; It would have provided defense against ASAT systems, and would have tested methods for defending against beam weapons.&nbsp; In many ways, it was the answer to Reagan's Star Wars proposal.&nbsp; It is difficult to guess what the impact would have been to the end of the Cold War; following the launch, Gorbachev firmly squelched any further development of space weapons.&nbsp; It is said that immediately before the Polyus launch, Gorbachev visited Baikonur Cosmodrome in person to forbid on-orbit testing of Polyus' weapons systems, but this was moot.&nbsp; Polyus was placed into its parking orbit by Energia, then, when it was to rotate 180 degrees to perform its orbital insertion burn, it instead rotated 360 degrees and promptly deorbited itself.&nbsp; This was due to a faulty inertial guidance sensor.&nbsp; The program was scrapped.&nbsp; Buran flew unmanned aboard the second Energia a year later, and was then mothballed.&nbsp; Periodic attempts to revive Energia were finally squelched permanently when the roof of the high bay at Building 112 at Baiknour, housing the remaining working components, collapsed, crushing Buran and the last working Energia.<br /><strong><br />1997: STS-84</strong><br /><br />Atlantis flew to the space station Mir, retrieving Jerry Linenger and delivering Michael Foale.&nbsp; Also aboard was Yelena Kondakova, the third Russian woman in space, making her second and (so-far) final spaceflight.&nbsp; During Foale's increment, he would see a nasty fire and the Progress collision with the Spektr module.<br /><br />And a happy birthday to Frank Culbertson!&nbsp; Culbertson has flown into space three times, serving as pilot on STS-38 and commander on STS 51, and then serving as commander of ISS Expedition 3.&nbsp; Culbertson had the unique experience of being the American farthest from home during the 9/11 attacks -- he was aboard the ISS at the time.&nbsp; Born in 1949, Culbertson is a retired captain in the US Navy with a BS in aerospace engineering from the US Naval Academy.&nbsp; As of his 1997 official biography from NASA, he had 5,000 hours flying time and 350 carrier landings.&nbsp; He has a total spaceflight time of 143.62 days, with 1 EVA under his belt. <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>

 

[earth_bound_misfit]

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