Transcript File
CICERO
History Beyond The Textbook
Space Program
U.S.A. vs. U.S.S.R.
CICERO © 2008
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CICERO
History Beyond The Textbook
Table of Contents
First U.S. V-2 Launch
First German V-2 Launch
Viking Rocket Launches
First Soviet ICBM
Sputnik
Sputnik 2
Vanguard Failure
First U.S. ICBM
Explorer 1
NASA Is Established
Luna 3
Scout Developed
Corona Spy Satellite
Ivan Ivanovich
Yuri Gagarin
Shepard’s Suborbital Flight
Kennedy’s Goal
Full Day in Orbit
Glenn into Orbit
Minutemen Deployed
Long-Duration Orbit
First Woman in Space
Saturn V Moon Rocket
Moon Orbital
Apollo 7 Tests
Apollo 8 Manned Moon Orbit
N-1 Moon Rocket Test
First Man on the Moon
First Space Station
Skylab
Apollo-Soyuz
Space Shuttle Columbia
Mir
Buran Shuttle
Shuttle-Mir
International Space Station
The Space Program Now
End
First Spacewalk First U.S. Spacewalk
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Soyuz
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History Beyond The Textbook
First U.S. V-2
Launch
January 1946
Wernher von Braun, technical director of
Germany’s long-range missile program,
surrendered to the U.S. Army and revealed
the capabilities of the German rockets.
Concentration camp workers, forced by
the Nazis to help produce the V-2s, were
questioned by the Allies and asked to aid
in identifying the necessary parts for its
construction.
Captured missiles were taken to the White
Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico,
where von Braun oversaw their
reassembly and testing. The first V-2s
fired were German-built. Two months
later, the United States tested its first
American-made copy.
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First V-2
Launch
1947
The German V-2 was also the basis
for the Soviet Union’s missile
program. A year after launching a
missile built from German parts in
1947, the Soviet Union launched
its own Russian-built model of the
V-2 called the R-1. The Soviets
continued to gradually build larger
missiles capable of flying longer
distances. The R-5, the last missile
based on the V-2, had a range of
750 miles.
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History Beyond The Textbook
Viking Rocket
Launches
1949–1957
The U.S. Navy built and launched
fourteen Viking rockets designed
to study the region of the upper
atmosphere that affects long
range-radio communications. This
“sounding rocket” design
improved the V-2’s in control and
propulsion. The Viking was also
tested as a potential ballistic
missile.
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First Soviet ICBM
August 1957
The successful testing of the
world’s first intercontinental
ballistic missile (ICBM)
proved that the Soviets
could target the United
States with a nuclear
warhead or catapult a
spacecraft high enough to
orbit the Earth. Two months
later, the R-7 hurled Sputnik
into space.
End
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The R-7 Semyorka rocket
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History Beyond The Textbook
Sputnik
October 1957
Sputnik 1 model
The world’s first artificial
satellite was launched,
demonstrating the technical
abilities of the Soviet Union.
This shiny basketball-sized
sphere took Americans by
surprise. Fearing attack
from afar and distraught
over being beaten by its
Cold War rival, the United
States jumped headfirst into
the space race.
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Sputnik 2
November 1957
Sputnik 2 was the second
spacecraft launched into Earth
orbit, on November 3, 1957, and
the first to carry a living animal, a
dog named Laika. It was a fourmeter tall cone-shaped capsule
with a base diameter of two
meters. It contained several
counterparts for radio
transmitters, a telemetry system, a
programming unit, a regeneration
and temperature control system
for the cabin, and scientific
instruments. A separate sealed
cabin contained Laika.
Sputnik 2
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Vanguard Failure
December 6, 1957
The Army’s attempt to launch America’s
first satellite into orbit failed in a launchpad explosion. Two months after the
Soviet Union’s successful launch of
Sputnik, this failure further emphasized
America’s lag behind the Soviet Union in
the space race.
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First U.S. ICBM
December 17, 1957
The SM-65 Atlas was a missile
built by the Convair Division of
General Dynamics. Originally
designed as an ICBM in the late
1950s, Atlas was the foundation
for a family of successful space
launch vehicles now built by
United Launch Alliance. The
Atlas rocket family today is used
as a launch platform for
commercial and military satellites,
and other space vehicles.
SM-65 Atlas
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Explorer 1 into Space
January 1958
Designed by former V-2 German
rocket engineer von Braun’s team,
the Jupiter-C propelled America’s
first satellite, Explorer 1, into space.
The nose cone of the Jupiter-C
became the first man-made object to
survive a round trip into space and
back. Unlike Sputnik, this object did
not go into orbit. However, its blunt
shape and protective coating proved
that Americans had solved the reentry problem and paved the way for
sending humans into space.
End
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NASA Is Established
October 1958
The National Aeronautics
and Space Administration
(NASA) is an agency of the
United States government,
responsible for the nation’s
public space program. The
pressure to beat that Soviets
in the space race resulted in
the creation of America’s
space agency.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Luna 3
Around the Moon
1959
The Soviet space probe Luna 3 was the
third spacecraft sent successfully to the
moon and was an early triumph in the
human exploration of outer space.
Though it returned rather poor pictures
by later standards, the historic, neverbefore-seen views of the moon’s far
side caused excitement and interest
when they were published around the
world, and a tentative Atlas of the Far
Side of the Moon was created after
image processing improved the
pictures.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Scout Developed
July 1960
The Scout family of rockets were launch
vehicles designed to place small
satellites into orbit around the Earth.
The original Scout, which stood for
Solid Controlled Orbital Test system)
was designed in 1957 at the NASA
Langley Center. Scouts were used from
1961 until 1994. Unlike other satellite
launchers, all Scout stages were solid
fueled. To enhance reliability the
development team opted to use “off the
shelf” hardware, originally produced for
military programs.
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History Beyond The Textbook
Corona
Spy Satellite
Fearing a surprise nuclear attack
from the Soviet Union, President
Eisenhower authorized a top-secret
spy satellite called “Corona.” To
disguise its purpose, it was given the
name “Discover” and was said to be
a scientific research satellite. After
several attempts, Discover 14
successfully carried a camera into
orbit and returned with pictures taken
more than one hundred miles above
Soviet territory.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Ivan Ivanovich
Mannequin Test Flight
Ivan Ivanovich — the Russian
equivalent of John Doe — was the
name given a mannequin
launched in a Vostock spacecraft
wearing a SK-1 pressure suit.
After re-entering the atmosphere,
Ivan was ejected from the capsule
and parachuted to the ground near
the Ural Mountains city of Izevsk.
This sort of ejection-andparachute system was used later
by Vostok cosmonauts
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Yuri Gagarin
The First Man In Space
A month before U.S. astronaut,
Alan Shephard’s suborbital flight,
Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin
orbited the Earth once in his Vostok
spacecraft and returned safely to
the ground. On April 12, 1961,
Gagarin became the first human to
travel into space in Vostok 3KA-2
and return. His call sign in this
flight was Kedr (Cedar).
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Shepard’s Suborbital Flight
May 5, 1961
The first American was sent
briefly into space aboard
Freedom 7. Soaring to an
altitude of one hundred and
sixteen miles, Alan Shepard
spend fifteen minutes in
suborbital space but did not
orbit the Earth. The flight
demonstrated that a man
could control a craft during
weightlessness and high
G-force stress.
Alan Shepard aboard Freedom 7
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History Beyond The Textbook
Kennedy’s Goal
May 25, 1961
President Kennedy
Shortly after the Soviets sent the first
man into space, President John F.
Kennedy wanted to know how the
United States could better the Soviets.
Vice President Lyndon Johnson spoke
with top NASA officials, plus U.S.
military and industrial leaders, about
the nation’s chances of beating the
Soviets to the moon. At that time,
neither country had a rocket powerful
enough for such a mission.
In a bold declaration on May 25,
1961, Kennedy stated, “I believe that
this nation should commit itself to
achieving the goal, before this decade
is out, of landing a man on the moon
and returning him safely to Earth.”
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History Beyond The Textbook
Full Day in Orbit
August 1961
After graduating as an air force
pilot, Gherman Titov was selected
for cosmonaut training in 1960.
From there, he was chosen to fly
the Vostok 2 mission launched in
August 6 the following year. The
mission lasted for 25.3 hours and
accomplished seventeen Earth
orbits. His call sign in this flight
was Eagle. He was 26 years old at
the time of the mission, which
made him the youngest person in
space, a title he holds to this day.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Glenn into Orbit
February 1962
John Glenn piloted the first
American-manned orbital mission
aboard Friendship 7 on February 20,
1962, the “Mercury Atlas 6” mission.
It lasted four hours, fifty-five
minutes, and twenty-three seconds.
During the mission there was
concern that his heat shield had
failed and that his craft would burn
up on re-entry, but he made his
splash down safely. Glenn was
celebrated as a national hero, and
received a ticker-tape parade
reminiscent of aviator Charles
Lindbergh after he flew solo across
the Atlantic Ocean in 1927.
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History Beyond The Textbook
Minutemen Deployed
1962
The United States deployed this
silo-based ICBM in fields
throughout the Western and
Midwestern United States. Each
missile carried a single nuclear
warhead and was capable of
instant response. Improved
versions of the Minutemen later
replaced the original.
Both the United States and the
Soviet Union found the space
program a politically popular way
to develop missiles that could also
be used to carry nuclear weapons.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Long-Duration Orbit
June 1963
Cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky was
originally intended to stay in orbit for
eight days, but the Vostok 5 mission
details changed many times because
of elevated levels of solar flare
activity at the time. Eventually, he
was ordered back after five days.
This remains the record time for a
solo manned flight in Earth orbit.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
First Woman in Space
June 1963
On June 16, 1963, Valentina
Tereshkova became the first woman in
space. Originally it was intended that
Tereshkova would launch in Vostok 5
while Valentina Ponomaryova would
orbit the Earth in the Vostok 6. The
Vostok 5 flight switched to a male
cosmonaut, and Tereshkova took over
the Vostok 6. She had a flawless takeoff, but suffered from bouts with
nausea. She orbited around the Earth
forty-eight times, and spent almost
three days in space.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
First Spacewalk
March 1965
Secured by an umbilical cord attached
to Voskhod 2’s life support system,
Alexei Leonov became the first person
to leave a spacecraft in orbit. After
spending twenty minutes in the
vacuum of space, he nearly did not
make it back inside the craft. His
spacesuit had expanded more than
predicted. To re-enter the spacecraft,
Leonov was forced to release some of
the air from inside his suit.
Alexei Leonov performing
the first-ever spacewalk.
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History Beyond The Textbook
First U.S. Spacewalk
June 1965
As a pilot of the Gemini 4 space
craft, Edward White became the
first American to make a
spacewalk. During the mission he
lost a glove which is now a piece
of space debris.
Edward White walking in
space outside of Gemini 4.
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History Beyond The Textbook
Soyuz
April 1967
The first Soyuz (Union)
spacecraft carried a man into
space, setting a precedent for
scores of subsequent Soyuz
flights. Several modifications
were made to the original Soyuz
design to refine its use as a
transport vehicle, upgrade its
electronic and navigation systems,
and later adjust it for docking with
the Mir space station. Since 1967,
Soyuz spacecraft have flown more
than one hundred cosmonauts on
various missions to space.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Saturn V
Moon Rocket
November 1967
A key component in the race to the
moon for both sides was the
construction of a rocket powerful
enough to reach the lunar surface. The
Soviets built the N-1 rocket, while the
American answer was the Saturn V. The
first launch of the rocket in November
1967 led to successful testing of the
compatibility between the launch
vehicle and the spacecraft. It was tested
twice before carrying a manned module.
The Saturn V rocket saw a total of
thirty-two launches — not one failed.
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History Beyond The Textbook
Moon Orbital
September 1968
Though never announcing the
intent of sending a cosmonaut to
the moon, the Soviet Union sent
many unmanned spacecraft to
orbit, land on and explore the
lunar surface. Zond 5 became the
first craft successfully to orbit the
moon and return to Earth.
Multiple Zond missions through
1970 were used to test the
logistics for a manned mission to
the moon.
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History Beyond The Textbook
Apollo 7 Tests
Manned test flights of the Apollo
command and a service module in
Earth’s orbit were conducted. This
was the first manned Apollo flight
and the first U.S. manned
spaceflight in nearly two years,
following a January 1967 launch
pad fire in the Apollo 1 spacecraft
that killed astronauts Virgil “Gus”
Grissom, Edward White, and
Roger Chaffee. A Saturn IV
rocket sent Apollo 7 into orbit.
Apollo 7 mission patch
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History Beyond The Textbook
Apollo 8
Manned Moon Orbit
December 1968
The first manned Saturn V sent
Apollo 8 astronauts into orbit
around the moon and set the stage
for the first manned lunar landing.
The crew carried along a camera,
and for the first time, images of
the Earth, were broadcast from
space.
Apollo 8 Mission patch
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N-1 Moon Rocket Test
and Failure
February 1969–July 1969
A key component in the race to the moon was
the construction of a rocket powerful enough
to send a manned spacecraft to the lunar
surface. Americans built the Saturn V rocket;
the Soviet answer was the N-1. The N-1’s
first two launches ended in failure. An engine
fire caused the first rocket to shut down and
crash a minute after liftoff. During the second
test, just after liftoff the rocket fell on the
launch pad and exploded. Three weeks later,
Americans landed the crew of the Apollo 11
on the moon. Failure of the N-1 rocket ended
the Soviet Union’s chances of beating the
United States to the moon.
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History Beyond The Textbook
First Man on the Moon
July 20, 1969
The race to the moon ended when
America successfully landed men on the
moon and returned them safely to Earth.
The Apollo 11 lunar module set astronauts
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin onto the
lunar surface, where they collected 467
pounds of soil experiments.
Approximately two and a quarter hours
later, the astronauts began returning to the
Lander, where they rested before
ascending back to the Apollo command
module the next day.
Six more missions to the lunar surface
followed; all of them were successful
except Apollo 13, which was aborted en
route to the moon following an on-board
fire.
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History Beyond The Textbook
First Space Station
April 1971
Salyut, the world’s first space station,
was launched aboard the Soviet Proton
launch vehicle. During the next decade,
six more Salyuts were launched. The
goal of these missions was to perform
scientific experiments and test equipment
that would make space more habitable
for the long-term. Of the twenty-one
missions to the Salyuts, the longest stay
was two hundred thirty-seven days
aboard Salyut 7.
Salyut 1 Space Station
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History Beyond The Textbook
Skylab
May 1973
After conquering the moon, Americans
set their sights on creating a permanent
human presence in space and building
reusable space shuttles that could supply
and support such existence. Designed as
a temporary living space, Skylab housed
three astronauts during each of three
missions. Its purpose was to perform
scientific experiments, including the
study of weightlessness and its effects
on humans over time, observation of the
sun to study high-energy solar activity,
and execution of experiments designed
by students for a “Classroom in Space”
program. The longest Skylab mission
lasted nearly three months. Most of
Skylab burned upon re-entry in the
Earth’s atmosphere in 1979, five years
after it was abandoned.
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History Beyond The Textbook
Apollo–Soyuz
July 1975
As part of a joint agreement between the
United States and Soviet Union to
participate in space, two manned
spacecraft were launched to rendezvous in
orbit: one from Kazakhstan, the other from
Florida. Engineers from both countries
cooperated in the development and
production of the module that linked the
two crafts together. For two days, crew
members visited each other, ate meals
together and assembled a plaque from the
halves, one brought by each crew. The
mission represented a brief thaw in the
Cold War and was a preview of later joint
operations in space.
Crew Photo of the ApolloSoyuz Mission
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History Beyond The Textbook
Space Shuttle Columbia
April 12–14, 1981
The space shuttle Columbia was the world’s first
reflyable spacecraft to deliver and retrieve satellites
and perform scientific research. Several space
shuttle designs were proposed and rejected before
NASA settled on the partially reusable shuttle in
existence today. The manned orbiter and two solidpropellant booster rockets are reusable, while the
large fuel tank is expendable. The craft launches
like a rocket, maneuvers in space, then returns like
an aircraft gliding onto a runway.
Three shuttle orbiters are in service: Discovery,
Atlantis, and Endeavor. Two others were lost.
Challenger was destroyed and it seven crew
members killed in an explosion minutes after
takeoff in 1986.
In 2003, Columbia was destroyed re-entering the
atmosphere about fifteen minutes before it was
scheduled to land. One of its wings heated up and
caught fire due to damage to insulation tiles that
occurred during the takeoff. There were no
survivors. It had flown twenty-eight missions.
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History Beyond The Textbook
Mir
February 1986
With name that means “peace,” this
modular station was designed with a “base
block” of living quarters and six docking
ports for supply ships and additional
modules. The station could be expanded,
rearranged and upgraded without affecting
the core base block. The base block was
launched in 1986. Five more modules for
scientific experiments and work space
were launched in 1986. Five more
modules for scientific experiments and
work space were launched during the next
decade. The record for longest-duration
space flight was set by Valeri Polyakov,
who spent four hundred thirty-nine days
aboard Mir.
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History Beyond The Textbook
Buran Shuttle
November 1988
During the early days of U.S. space
shuttle launches, the Soviets were
testing their own reusable shuttle,
Buran. The first and only orbital
mission was unmanned and launched
by the largest Soviet launch vehicle,
Energia, in November 1988. The Buran
program had its detractors. Many
scientists and engineers felt that money
and energy expended to build and
maintain Buran shuttles could be better
used within the existing space program.
Shortly after the first launch, the
program was canceled.
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Shuttle – Mir
History Beyond The Textbook
June 1995
Following the collapse of the Soviet
Union, NASA and Russian Space
Agency officials signed agreements in
1993 and 1994 to plan and develop an
international space station. As a step
in that direction, a series of joint
missions involving Mir and U.S.
space shuttles were undertaken. U.S.
shuttles docked with Mir from 1995
through 1998. Astronauts and
cosmonauts worked together on
experiments, and a number of U.S.
astronauts spent many months living
on Mir.
Shuttle – Mir Mission Patch
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
International Space
Station
1998 to Present
International Space
Station Mission
Patch
A joint venture among 13 nations,
this space station is being
designed with larger living and
working quarters, more electrical
power and greater cooperation
among nations than any of its
predecessors. The parts of the
station were carried into orbit by
space shuttles, and finished in
2000. Six people are able to
occupy the station at one time,
and both the space shuttle and
Soyuz are able to dock with the
station.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
The Space Program Now
Early on, much of the space program was primarily centered around the
United States and its ongoing conflict with the Soviet Union (Cold War).
The relationship between the United States’ space program compared with
the Soviet Union’s space program was a series of races. For example, who
would be the first to launch a man into orbit, or who would be the first to
land on the moon. More recently, much of space exploration has become a
collaborative effort between nations. With the establishment of the
International Space Station, there are a number of countries that are
currently involved in space exploration.
End
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