Space Race finale
Oct. 5th, 2005 11:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
major_clangerAs I expected, the final episode was very rushed, trying to get everything in from the aftermath of the first manned spaceflights all the way up to Apollo 11. As a result, it skimmed over a lot of incidents that would have added to the story, such as:
- Kruschev's pressure on Korolev to stage propaganda stunts, such as Tereshkova's flight on Vostok 6 (after which the USSR didn't bother flying any women for another twenty years) or the three-man Voskhod 1 (a rush job with no launch escape system).
- Korolev's more methodical plans for space exploration (shunted aside in favour of the above).
- Von Braun's development of the Saturn I, the first really large US rocket, and the stepping stone to the Saturn V.
- The full story of Korolev's death. There are persistent rumours that owing to his importance, he was operated on by a surgeon whose party seniority outweighed his expertise; complications ensued, and by the time a more experienced surgeon was called in, Korolev was beyond saving.
There was also a lot of compression of events again, and in particular one might get the impression that there was only one N-1 flight. In fact there were four, although all failed, and it was the second that blew up on takeoff. (The other three at least got clear of the pad). For that matter, it was the second Saturn V flight that had the serious engine problems. A viewer might also wonder why the cosmonauts were so keen to fly a moon mission if the N-1 was nowhere near ready to fly. In fact, that flight would have been via a stripped-down Soyuz flown on the medium-sized Proton booster (powered by Glushko's controversial engines).
But all in all a good depiction of broadly how the USSR ended up losing the race to the moon, whilst at the same time setting itself on the road to long-term space exploration. In particular, it was nice to see the final note on how the R-7 is still in service, 48 years after it first flew - indeed, one launched the latest crew to the International Space Station only last Friday, on the 94th manned Soyuz mission since 1967.
- Kruschev's pressure on Korolev to stage propaganda stunts, such as Tereshkova's flight on Vostok 6 (after which the USSR didn't bother flying any women for another twenty years) or the three-man Voskhod 1 (a rush job with no launch escape system).
- Korolev's more methodical plans for space exploration (shunted aside in favour of the above).
- Von Braun's development of the Saturn I, the first really large US rocket, and the stepping stone to the Saturn V.
- The full story of Korolev's death. There are persistent rumours that owing to his importance, he was operated on by a surgeon whose party seniority outweighed his expertise; complications ensued, and by the time a more experienced surgeon was called in, Korolev was beyond saving.
There was also a lot of compression of events again, and in particular one might get the impression that there was only one N-1 flight. In fact there were four, although all failed, and it was the second that blew up on takeoff. (The other three at least got clear of the pad). For that matter, it was the second Saturn V flight that had the serious engine problems. A viewer might also wonder why the cosmonauts were so keen to fly a moon mission if the N-1 was nowhere near ready to fly. In fact, that flight would have been via a stripped-down Soyuz flown on the medium-sized Proton booster (powered by Glushko's controversial engines).
But all in all a good depiction of broadly how the USSR ended up losing the race to the moon, whilst at the same time setting itself on the road to long-term space exploration. In particular, it was nice to see the final note on how the R-7 is still in service, 48 years after it first flew - indeed, one launched the latest crew to the International Space Station only last Friday, on the 94th manned Soyuz mission since 1967.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-05 11:22 pm (UTC)"Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?
That's not my department," says Wernher von Braun.