Space Rocket History Archive

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Space Rocket History #44 – Voskhod-1with Kamarov, Yegorov, and Feoktistov – Part 1 Feb 06, 2018

Show notes

Premiere Khrushchev was not willing to wait until Soyuz for another space first. Khrushchev believed, There could be no final victories in the race for space propaganda. He knew the US was working on project Gemini which would carry two astronauts in 1965. So, as a means to upstage the US, Khrushchev ordered Chief Designer Korolev to fit three cosmonauts into the Voskhod spacecraft that was designed for two…

Space Rocket History #43 – Ranger-7, Nimbus-1, European Space Organizations, and Christmas From the Moon Jan 13, 2018

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You may recall from episode 32 Ranger- 4 was the first U.S. spacecraft to reach another celestial body. However, Ranger-4 failed it primary mission of returning pictures from the moon…

Space Rocket History #42 – Satellite Killer – Polyot-1 Jan 13, 2018

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The Space Age had barely begun when Soviet engineers started planning ways to destroy enemy satellites. Some Western analysts have speculated that a design for an anti-satellite weapon system was started at Korolev’s OKB-1 bureau as early as 1956…

Space Rocket History #41 – The First Woman in Space, Vostok 5 & 6 with Bykovsky and Tereshkova – Part 3 Jan 12, 2018

Show notes

During re-entry plasma enveloped Vostok-6. Tereshkova saw pieces of burning material fly past her window and she also smelled smoke entering the cabin…

Space Rocket History #40 – The First Woman in Space, Vostok 5 & 6 with Bykovsky and Tereshkova – Part 2 Jan 12, 2018

Show notes

Vostok 5’s orbit turned out to be lower than the expected 181 by 235 km. The actual orbit was 175 by 222 km. Initial calculations indicated the orbit of Vostok 5 would not decay for 10 or 11 days, however more conservative estimates, taking into account the increased solar activity and the resulting expanding of the upper atmosphere showed that the orbit could decay after only 8 days. With no way of predicting where Vostok 5 might land, the planned eight-day mission was now in question…

Space Rocket History #39 – The First Woman in Space, Vostok 5 & 6 with Bykovsky and Tereshkova – Part 1 Jan 12, 2018

Show notes

In June of 1963, the Soviet Union performed an encore of the Vostok 3 and 4 missions with two manned spaceships orbiting the Earth simultaneously. However, Vostok 5 and 6 was more than a simple repetition. Vostok 5’s objective was to beat the flight-duration record. But Vostok-6 would carrying the first woman into space. The 26 year old Valentina Tereshkova….

Space Rocket History #38 – Syncom 1,2,3, and TIROS 8 Jan 05, 2018

Show notes

Geosynchronous satellites have the advantage of remaining permanently in the same area of the sky, as viewed from a particular location on Earth. Geostationary satellites have the special property of remaining permanently fixed in the exact same position in the sky at all times, meaning that ground-based antennas do not need to track them but can remain fixed in one direction…

Space Rocket History #37 – Flight of Faith 7, Mercury-Atlas 9 with Gordon Cooper Jan 05, 2018

Show notes

Mercury-Atlas 9 was the fourth and final manned orbital flight of the Mercury program. The flight objectives were to:
(1) evaluate the effects on the astronaut of approximately one day in orbital flight;
(2) verify that man can function for an extended period in space as a primary operating system of the spacecraft; and,
(3) evaluate in a manned one-day mission the combined performance of the astronaut and a Mercury spacecraft specifically modified for the mission…

Space Rocket History #36 – Mariner 2 and Relay 1 Jan 05, 2018

Show notes

During the summer of 1962 final preparations were underway for the first U.S. attempt to reach another planet. The planet was Venus, Earth’s closest planetary neighbor. This first flight would be accomplished by the JPL built Mariner 2 spacecraft…

Space Rocket History #35 – Textbook Spaceflight – Mercury-Atlas 8, Sigmac 7 with Wally Schirra Dec 14, 2017

Show notes

After Scott Carpenter’s science heavy Mercury-Atlas 7 flight, Nasa’s next mission would concentrate on the technical and engineering aspects of space travel. Mercury Atlas 8 became the third manned orbital flight of the Mercury program. The pilot selected was Walter M. Schirra, Jr., but most people called him Wally…

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