Chapter 3 Part 2

1. Chapter 3Part 2 The History of Space Travel

2. Post War • During World War II the birth of four distinct technologies led directly to the advent of the Space Age: • Development of the V-2 rocket in Germany: This weapon of war could fly to the edge of space. After the war, this missile was the basis for the design of all other missiles. The Americans used this technology directly from the German engineer and the Russians used the German technologies in combination with their own theorists' and engineers' ideas.

3. Post War • Development of the atomic bomb: Stalin wanted the Soviet Union to develop a rocket to deliver this huge atomic weapon to America if the need arose. • Development of radar technology: Radars were needed for developing the tracking and telemetry capability needed to launch and track a rocket. • Development of the computer

4. Post War United States • Even though the United States had Wernher von Braun and his large team of German scientists as well as numerous V-2 rockets, the United States still did not consider development of rocketry very important. President Truman himself killed a number of attempts to start an American space program because he believed there was no need for it and there wasn’t enough money for it in the budget. Regardless Von Braun and his team continued to refine the V-2 rocket and in 1949 they began the Space Age.

5. Bumper Project • In October 1946, army ordnance initiated the Bumper Project to develop a two stage rocket test vehicle under the direction of Von Braun in White Sands Proving Grounds, NM. • Von Braun combined a V-2 rocket with an American WAC Corporal rocket to serve as the upper stage. On February 24 1949, this rocket became the first to reach man-made object to reach space reaching a height of about 250 miles.

6. Soviet Union Post War • After the war, the Soviet Union realizing that it had fallen behind technologically made a huge effort to catch up and eventually pass the rest of the world. Within a decade, Soviet scientists gained enormous status and became some of the richest people in the country. • Stalin led this effort with an iron grip. However, after his death in 1953, Soviet scientists gained a little bit of freedom to think about scientific applications.

7. Soviet Union Post War • By 1955, Soviet scientists under the leadership of Sergei Korolev had developed all the necessary technology and had an ICBM ready for testing. • After 2 failed tests, on August 1957 the first ICBM flew successfully on an R-7 rocket. Korolev set his sights on space.

8. “Fellow Traveler” • On October 4, 1957 at 10:28 P.M. Moscow time the world's first artificial satellite was launched from Tyuratam, Kazakhstan on an R-7 rocket. After the satellite separated from its rocket carrier, the small craft began to transmit its message over its two designated frequencies. The message was nothing more than a simple “beep...beep...beep.” • The small satellite had a diameter of 23 inches and a mass of 184 pounds. The Soviets named their little craft Sputnik which basically means “fellow traveler”.

9. “Fellow Traveler” • Astronomers and observers around the world estimated that the satellite entered a very elliptical orbit around Earth. Its inclination was 65.1º with a perigee of 142 miles, an apogee of 588 miles, and a period of 96 minutes and 10.2 seconds. • The little craft was to stay in orbit until January 4, 1958 when it burned into the Earth's atmosphere and into the history books.

10. Sputnik 2 • On November 3, 1957 Korolev's design bureau launched a second spacecraft into orbit. This was, however, about 6 times the size of Sputnik (1118 lb) and carried the world's first biological traveler, a female Siberian dog named Laika. • No reentry technique had been devised to return the animal back to Earth safely after orbit. For that reason, Laika was put to sleep after a week in orbit. • On April 14, 1958 Sputnik 2 with Laika's remains on board burned into the Earth's atmosphere after a flight of 162 days.

11. United States Reaction • Sputnik 1 and 2 sent the United States into a panic. • In December 1957, in a hurried attempt by the administration and in front of a national audience, a Vanguard rocket raised four feet off the pad and then fell back to its starting point. The nose cone separated from the rest of the missile which immediately exploded into a brilliant ball of orange flame hovering over the gantries for a few moments and then quickly transforming into a large cloud of black smoke.

12. United States Reaction • The Vanguard team satellite had worked perfectly but the rocket had been the problem. Von Braun was called. Within 60 days, he was ready to launch. • On January 31, 1958, the United States launched Explorer I into space in a Jupiter class four-stage rocket.

13. NASA • After the Explorer launch, there was a drive to establish a national space program. Everyone in the government agreed this should be done, but no one could agree on which agency would head such a national space program. The agency most thought to head such a program was the Department of Defense with all of their space assets. Because the Atomic Energy Commission was already involved in nuclear weapons and nuclear propulsion, many congressmen thought that this would be the ideal agency to run the space tasks.

14. NASA • The Eisenhower administration preferred a civilian organization to lead the effort though. He set his eyes on a very small government organization involved in aeronautics since 1915 had been doing missile research throughout the 1950s; this close knit organization of engineers and scientists was called the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics or NACA. • In July 1958, Eisenhower got his way and signed it into law.

15. NASA • The law called for the establishment of a civilian space program, dedicated to peaceful exploration and the development of new technology. This new government agency was given the mandate under a broad charter to provide information concerning the American Space Program directly to the public. Recognizing the importance of outer space for national security, the same act assigned to the Department of Defense those space programs related to the U.S. military. Finally, the act required NASA and the military space programs to share technology for the advantage of both parties. As the lead government agency, NACA spent the summer of 1958 quickly transforming itself into NASA.

16. Marshall Space Center • Two years later NASA opened the new Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama and transferred Von Braun and his development team to NASA. Von Braun was the center's first Director, from July 1960 to February 1970. • The Marshall Center's first major program was development of the Saturn rockets, capable of carrying astronauts to the moon.

17. Soviet Response • In January 1959, Korolev sent the first object, Luna-1, that escaped Earth’s gravitational field. Thirty-four hours after launch, Luna-1 flew by the Moon at a distance of 6000 Km, the first spacecraft to do this. It then went into a Heliocentric (Sun-centered orbit) where it remains to this day. • Ten months later, Luna-3 took the first pictures of the back side of the moon.

18. Yuri A. Gagarin • At 9:07 on April 12, 1961, an SL-3 ignited with the first human to go to space, Yuri A. Gagarin. Korolev wished Gagarin a safe flight and nervously awaited word that the cosmonaut was in space. "I see Earth. It's so beautiful!" were the first words spoken from a man in space. At 9:26 Gagarin reported that the flight was going as planned and he wrote in his log about the mountain ranges and coastlines. At 10:25 the retrorockets fired and Gagarin began his descent to Earth.

19. Yuri A. Gagarin • At 10:55 the capsule landed 18 miles southwest of Engels near the village of Smelovka. A grandmother, her granddaughter, and a cow were the first beings to see Yuri Gagarin after he parachuted to Earth from his capsule. By 10:59 the recovery team had arrived and Gagarin became a major figure in world history.

20. Project Mercury • One of the first projects of the brand new organization, NASA, was to immediately establish Project Mercury with the mission of placing a human into orbit and return him to Earth basically to see what the effects of space would be on the human body. • 508 military pilots initially met NASA's criteria to be ordinary supermen. After discussions with commanders and instructors this list was culled to 69.

21. Project Mercury • From there, NASA submitted the pilots to grueling tests. They were immersed in water to measure their body fat. Their hearts were tested with electrocardiograms and their brains with electroencephalograms. They were given 17 different eye tests and several times they walked on tread mills until their pulses reached 180, then rested, they started again. Doctors baked them in chambers at 135º F and dunked their feet in ice water to watch the shock reaction. They made several altitude runs in chambers to 65,000 feet and spent several hours in total silence in soundproof rooms.

22. Project Mercury • Finally, NASA introduced M. Scott Carpenter, L. Gordon Cooper, Jr., John H. Glenn, Jr., Virgil I. Grissom, Walter M. Schirra, Jr., Alan B. Shepard, Jr., and Donald K. Slayton as the seven Mercury astronauts.