Click2Flicks - Space Cowboys - Chapter 8

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>SPACE COWBOYS</p></b></font> <p><font size="4">CHAPTER 8 - THE SPACE RACE:<br> FIRST LAP TO THE RUSSIANS</b></font></p> <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">America had a long way to go to catch up to the Soviet Union. The Russians had taken the United States - and the rest of the world - by surprise when it launched the satellite <a href="http://www.nasm.edu/galleries/gal100/sputnikclsup.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Sputnik</b></a> in October 1957. (Follow the link to see a photograph of Sputnik itself.) Using the world's <a href="http://www.nasm.edu/galleries/gal114/SpaceRace/sec200/251l2p2.jpg" target="_blank"><b>first ICBM</b></a> (intercontinental ballistic missile) - the R-7 - the USSR had achieved a major coup. Americans began to worry the Soviets could launch nuclear warheads aimed at their country.</p> <p>Meanwhile, the United States endured rocket launch failures. Two months after Sputnik, the U.S. first tried to launch a satellite. The Vanguard rocket  <a href="http://www.nasm.edu/galleries/gal114/SpaceRace/sec200/252l2p2.jpg" target="_blank"><b>failed to launch</b></a> successfully on December 6, 1957. Wernher von Braun's new designs for American rockets were not yet ready. Until they were, the Russians would continue to score more "firsts" in the space race.</p> <p>Russia launched Sputnik 2, a larger and heavier satellite than its predecessor, in November of 1957. The American press and public were upset and demanded to know why the United States was so far behind the USSR. Partly in response to such public reaction, Congress created NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) to develop an effective space program.</p> <p>On January 31, 1958 the United States successfully launched its first satellite: <a href="http://www.nasm.edu/galleries/gal100/EXPLOR.GIF" target="_blank"><b>Explorer</b></a>. The rocket that launched it was the <a href="http://www.nasm.edu/galleries/gal114/SpaceRace/sec200/252l6p6.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Jupiter C</b></a>, a von Braun-team design. Now both countries could spy on each other from space. (The <a href="http://www.nasm.edu/galleries/gal114/SpaceRace/sec400/420l6p6.jpg" target="_blank"><b>first U.S. spy photo</b></a> taken from an American satellite was transmitted on August 18, 1960. It is of a Soviet military site in Siberia.)</p> <p>Everyone was anxious for people (not just satellites) to fly in space. Russia and the U.S. first sent up several monkeys (this link takes you to a photo of <a href="http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/images/pao/MERUNMAN/10073411.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Sam</b></a>), however, so experts could determine the effects of <a href="http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/images/pao/MERUNMAN/10073412.jpg" target="_blank"><b>space travel</b></a> on mammals. What, for example, was it like to be <a href="http://www.nasm.edu/galleries/gal109/NEWHTF/HTF611A.HTM" target="_blank"><b>weightless</b></a>? Some of the monkeys lived; others did not. (<a href="http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/images/pao/MERUNMAN/10073410.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Sam did</b></a>.) </p> <p><a target="_blank" href="http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/Images/StarChild/space_level2/gagarin_big.gif"><b>Yuri Gagarin</b></a>, a Russian, was the first person to fly in space. Although his flight on April 12, 1961 was only one orbit around the earth, it was a huge accomplishment for his country. Gagarin flew in <a href="http://www.nasm.edu/galleries/gal114/SpaceRace/sec300/330l3p3.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Vostok</b></a> and followed specific <a href="http://www.nasm.edu/galleries/gal114/SpaceRace/sec300/350l2p2a.jpg" target="_blank"><b>written procedures</b></a> for launch, orbit and descent. (Follow the link to view a copy of the original flight plan.) During training exercises for his flight, Gagarin wore a <a href="http://www.nasm.edu/galleries/gal114/SpaceRace/sec300/350l1s1.jpg" target="_blank"><b>pressure suit</b></a>. (Follow this link to see it.) A hero of the Soviet Union, Gagarin received the ultimate honor when he died: He was buried <a href="http://www.aha.ru/~mausoleu/images/h27.jpg" target="_blank"><b>inside the Kremlin Wall</b></a> in Red Square.</p> <p>The Russians also sent the first woman into space (<a href="http://www.nasm.edu/galleries/gal114/SpaceRace/sec300/330l4p4.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Valentina Tereshkova</b></a>) and the first person outside an orbiting space capsule (<a href="http://www.nasm.edu/galleries/gal114/SpaceRace/sec300/330l8p8.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Aleksei Leonov</b></a>). Tethered to an airlock, Leonov walked <a href="http://www.nasm.edu/galleries/gal114/SpaceRace/sec300/330l9s9.jpg" target="_blank"><b>outside</b></a> his orbiting spacecraft on March 18, 1965. He almost died while doing it. His space suit inflated more than expected and Leonov became too large to re-enter the airlock. He had to vent some of the pressure in the suit in order to get back in. </p> <p>With such an impressive string of firsts achieved by the Soviet team, it appeared they would, indeed, be first to reach the moon. But a race is never decided after the first lap. The United States was getting positioned to catch up with, and then pass, Russia.</p> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="space_cowboys_ch7.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>     <a href="space_cowboys_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER  </a>   <a href="space_cowboys_ch9.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table> </body>