Sputnik

[blobrana]

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This day, 48 years ago the Russians launched the first artificial satellite from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan which demonstrated the technological superiority of Communism…

The launch of Sputnik in 1957 marked the start of the space age.

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[PMC]

The rocket technology of the Soviet Union was most certainly superior to anyone else at the time.  However, Sputnik I's scientific worth pales into insignificance next to NASA's Explorer I, launched (IIRC) in January 1958.  Explorer I led to the discovery by James Van Allen of the radiation belts around the Earth later named after it's discoverer.  Sputnik I carried a simple radio transmitter and very little else.

[blobrana]

Yes you may be right there comrade,

But we all know it wasn’t about science.

The cold war mentality was a dangerous game of point scoring.



(Even today…the latest news on the street is that the Russians are refusing to bring back the American astronaut aboard the ISS unless the Americans pay for the flight)

[PMC]

blobrana wrote:
Yes you may be right there comrade,

But we all know it wasn’t about science.

That's very true.  Rumours abound to this very day about missing cosmonauts, airbrushed from early publicity photos.  

The new Voskhod 1 was the first craft to fly with more than two cremmembers on board and as trumpeted by the Soviet press with the headline "Sorry Apollo".  The reality was that the craft was a stripped out Vostok, with no launch escape system and three of the most diminutive cosmonauts on the programme were picked to crew it.

There was much political craziness on both sides - NASA developed the vastly different Mercury, Gemini and Apollo craft simultaneously with the Redstone, Titan and Saturn boosters during a very short period of time.  The Russians won the early PR, even marrying off Valentina Tereshkovna to a fellow Cosmonaut within a few months of her mission.  

The Politburo had tired of the circus surrounding Krushchev's ambitions in space and when he was eventually ousted the moon race was effectively over, as was Tereshkovna's marriage.

[NoFastMem]

blobrana wrote:
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Hmph. It doesn't fit!

[X-ray]

"...Hmph. It doesn't fit!..."
-----------------------------

Maybe Star Trek The Original Series then?
 :-P

[Cymric]

The only fitting tunes are "Also Sprach Zarathustra" and "An der schönen blauen Donau".

[X-ray]

My choice would be the track 'Alpha' by Vangelis.

[Cymric]

Don't know that one, or perhaps I do, but don't recognise the name of the song. Is it recent?

[X-ray]

It is quite old...it was one of the tracks on the original soundtrack for the Carl Sagan TV series 'Cosmos.' That whole compilation is excellent.

Edit: there are at least 2 versions, the one I am referring to is this one.

[Dandy]

PMC wrote:
The rocket technology of the Soviet Union was most certainly superior to anyone else at the time.  
...

Please keep in mind mind that it came from the same source as the "American" rocket technology:
Germany.

They abducted one part of the German rocket scientists team and the Americans abducted the other part.

So I would say both stole our technologie.

[PMC]

Dandy wrote:

PMC wrote:
The rocket technology of the Soviet Union was most certainly superior to anyone else at the time.  
...

Please keep in mind mind that it came from the same source as the "American" rocket technology:
Germany.

Well yes this is true up to a point, although Dr Robert Goddard and Sergei Korolev were well established rocket scientists prior to 1939.  Certainly, Goddard's research in the field of liquid fuelled rocketry gave German scientists a starting point.  

[X-ray]

@ Blobzie

Okay, I give up...what does your avatar represent?

[Cyberus]

Well, when I was at university studying physics, it became obvious that in the earlier part of the 1900s, Germany was THE centre of science.

Max Born, Einstein, Gerlach, Geiger, Heisenberg, Hertz, Max von Laue, Lenard, Planck. Oh and not forgetting Roentgen....there must be loads more that I forget.

Quantum Mechanics was basically born in Germany

[Cymric]

X-ray wrote:
Edit: there are at least 2 versions, the one I am referring to is this one.

Ah, I know that one, of course ;-). (I have a terrible memory for names of songs, but usually I can say with pinpoint accuracy on which CD it is, and at what index  :crazy: ) However, I still say that 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' is better suited for the launch of Sputnik.