WEBVTT
00:00:00.947 --> 00:00:04.418
For the Best Aerospace Era this is the mansplaining podcast.
00:00:04.708 --> 00:00:06.168
Here is your host Anthony L.
00:00:06.168 --> 00:00:06.618
Sealey
00:00:11.570 --> 00:00:13.199
Welcome aerospace enthusiasts.
00:00:14.050 --> 00:00:19.559
My original plan for this episode was to profile some of the earliest missions of the Space Race.
00:00:20.469 --> 00:00:25.309
However, some historically contentious questions kind of took over the episode.
00:00:26.579 --> 00:00:29.890
This happens sometimes while making Mansplaneing Podcast episodes.
00:00:30.829 --> 00:00:36.240
Sometimes controversial subjects develop into making a more interesting talk about aerospace history.
00:00:37.500 --> 00:00:39.530
I will get to those questions later on.
00:00:40.579 --> 00:00:45.000
First, let's talk about one of my favorite periods, the dawn of the space age.
00:01:23.228 --> 00:01:39.061
Now most will agree, the space age began in October 1957, and it was not launched by us, America, or NASA, as I was shocked to find out as a kid while sitting at my desk in grade school back in the 1900s.
00:01:40.221 --> 00:01:41.662
It was Soviet Russia.
00:01:43.281 --> 00:01:47.712
Sputnik 1 was launched on October 4th, 1957.
00:01:48.941 --> 00:01:58.621
The satellite was launched from a complex near Baikonur, Kazakhstan, using the intercontinental ballistic missile, the Semyorka, also known as the R-7.
00:02:00.272 --> 00:02:06.522
This intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, was pushed heavily by Soviet officials.
00:02:08.201 --> 00:02:10.972
This was their answer to our superior Air Force.
00:02:12.542 --> 00:02:15.861
Keep in mind, this is during the nuclear arms race during the Cold War.
00:02:17.902 --> 00:02:25.712
During this time, the US intercontinental ballistic missile development was behind the Soviets in this sector for two main reasons.
00:02:27.152 --> 00:02:35.462
For one, because Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, the secret chief designer himself, who I have profiled in episodes Chief Designer Part One and Two.
00:02:37.483 --> 00:02:45.193
In a way, Korolev disguised his motivations for making an ICBM and instead made the first space launch vehicle.
00:02:46.823 --> 00:02:57.831
But here in the United States, we had an arsenal of b-58 Hustlers, B-52 Stratofortresses, and B-36 Peacemaker bombers at our disposal.
00:02:59.592 --> 00:03:07.703
These awesome aircraft had a devastating first strike capabilities and ICBMs were just not that much of a priority for us.
00:03:09.979 --> 00:03:14.319
Now, the Soviets did not have this level of Air Force, as much as they'd like to pretend they did.
00:03:17.049 --> 00:03:24.899
The Soviet Semyorka posed an ominous nuclear weapon of retaliation at the disposal of Moscow in the event of World War III.
00:03:26.538 --> 00:03:35.618
Fortunately, that never happened, which is why I'm here and able to talk about the Cold War and the Space Race on Mansplaneing, and you're able to be here listening.
00:03:37.522 --> 00:03:46.522
With the launch of Sputnik 1, the Soviets proved their aerospace capability and the space race was on whether we liked it or not.
00:03:48.155 --> 00:03:51.784
The US government actually I don't think ever really admitted they were in the race.
00:03:53.139 --> 00:03:54.969
But nonetheless, we did respond.
00:03:56.469 --> 00:04:03.594
The US gave the US Navy the go-ahead to launch our first satellite This was the Project Vanguard.
00:04:04.474 --> 00:04:08.134
But unfortunately, that effort literally blew up on the launchpad.
00:04:10.145 --> 00:04:21.545
Reluctantly, under the pressure of the world and national stage, the project was given to the Germans at the ABMA, the Army Ballistic Missile Agency out of Huntsville, Alabama.
00:04:23.175 --> 00:04:33.035
This was a wing of the US Army that employed Wernher von Braun and the other German rocket scientists and engineers that surrendered to us, the Allied Forces.
00:04:33.904 --> 00:04:37.274
The alternative was to fall into the Soviets' hands at the end of World War II.
00:04:39.067 --> 00:04:44.521
This was achieved during Project Paperclip, a topic I should really revisit here in the near future.
00:04:46.444 --> 00:04:52.403
ABMA modified one of their medium range Redstone rockets and renamed it the Jupiter C.
00:04:54.113 --> 00:05:00.134
It launched the first US satellite Explorer 1 on February 1st, 1958.
00:05:01.793 --> 00:05:06.283
The rocket and the satellite itself was much smaller than what the Soviets had launched.
00:05:07.064 --> 00:05:12.874
But for those in the US Army, y'all will forever have the bragging rights to have the first US satellite.
00:05:14.632 --> 00:05:24.213
I believe von Braun exclaimed that his team at ABMA could have launched a US satellite first in orbit had they been given the green light earlier in 1957.
00:05:25.773 --> 00:05:49.728
Political infighting among government agencies and branches of the military prevented ABMA from attempting prior to 1958 I believe von Braun believes if he'd been given the go-ahead and the resources, he could have launched a satellite, I don't know, maybe around 1950 In any event, on April second, nineteen fifty-eight, Dwight D.
00:05:49.728 --> 00:05:56.237
Eisenhower sent a message to Congress proposing with their support to establishing a space agency.
00:05:57.778 --> 00:06:17.029
In the message, he emphasized it should be under civilian control rather than under the military This is a somewhat surprising decision as President Eisenhower was a highly decorated five-star general in the US Army and the architect of the invasion in Normandy during World War II.
00:06:18.680 --> 00:06:19.889
This was his message.
00:06:21.029 --> 00:06:32.279
A civilian setting for the administration of the space function would emphasize the concern of our nation that outer space be devoted to peaceful and scientific purposes.
00:06:33.800 --> 00:06:42.769
Now, a federal agency that I have mentioned here before that was formed all the way back in 1915 was the center for this new administration.
00:06:43.639 --> 00:06:48.250
The NACA, or the National Advisory Committee of Aeronautics.
00:06:49.899 --> 00:07:01.728
Now in July 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration became official and began incorporating other space efforts from military and civilian sectors.
00:07:03.178 --> 00:07:14.887
One of which was the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, ABMA So now the US had a government administration to respond to Korolev and the Soviet's unprecedented space program.
00:07:16.057 --> 00:07:21.916
Although NASA's official public stance was that they were not in competition with the Soviet space program.
00:07:23.367 --> 00:07:24.557
Let's see about that.
00:07:26.416 --> 00:07:35.057
Before NASA even had a capable space launch vehicle available in the 1950s, NASA announced to the public the Mercury Seven.
00:07:36.096 --> 00:07:44.846
They were formally introduced on April 9th, 1959, to great fanfare You know their names.
00:07:44.846 --> 00:07:54.536
Deke Slayton, Gus Grissom, Alan Shepard, Wally Schirra, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, and Gordon Cooper.
00:07:56.064 --> 00:07:58.884
I talked about them in more detail in the episode.
00:07:59.154 --> 00:08:00.875
We are putting together a team.
00:08:02.449 --> 00:08:07.218
At their press conference to the world, they were asked who would be the first man in space.
00:08:08.329 --> 00:08:09.738
They all raised their hands.
00:08:11.278 --> 00:08:13.168
John Glenn raised both of his hands.
00:08:15.158 --> 00:08:20.869
They all had the right stuff, and each believed they would be first, but they were all wrong.
00:09:00.136 --> 00:09:00.966
I see the Earth.
00:09:01.486 --> 00:09:03.476
The G loads are increasing somewhat.
00:09:03.797 --> 00:09:04.777
I feel excellent.
00:09:05.356 --> 00:09:07.606
I see the clouds, that landing site.
00:09:07.826 --> 00:09:14.188
It's beautiful." These were the first words spoken by a human being on his way into space.
00:09:15.038 --> 00:09:18.298
But they were not spoken in English, but in Russian.
00:09:20.043 --> 00:09:28.903
While NASA presented the Mercury Seven to the world, The Soviets interviewed and selected 20 candidates to become the first cosmonaut in space.
00:09:30.893 --> 00:09:37.613
Among the 20 were Alexei Leonov, Gherman Titov, and Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin.
00:09:39.471 --> 00:09:42.652
There were no press conferences or fanfare here for them.
00:09:43.802 --> 00:09:53.121
Although I do believe the Soviet state-run press did downplay the Mercury Seven and reported that their secretive space program had twenty spacemen.
00:09:54.966 --> 00:09:59.057
Now of course, these words were spoken by Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin.
00:10:00.830 --> 00:10:09.840
Vostok 1 was launched at 0906 hours and 59.7 seconds on April 12th, 1961.
00:10:10.990 --> 00:10:12.289
The Soviets had done it.
00:10:13.570 --> 00:10:22.149
From outside the Iron Curtain, The Soviet Space Program appeared to be the premier center of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM.
00:10:24.116 --> 00:10:30.116
How could the United States government let the Reds get to space first, the ultimate high ground?
00:10:31.822 --> 00:10:39.293
Honestly, everyone from those in NASA, the military, the ordinary citizens, including kids, were pissed.
00:10:40.232 --> 00:10:44.082
But no one was more pissed off than Alan Shepard and the others at NASA.
00:10:45.543 --> 00:10:47.212
This is how Shepard got the news.
00:10:54.104 --> 00:10:54.453
"What?
00:10:54.964 --> 00:10:55.514
Heard what?
00:10:56.514 --> 00:10:58.114
The Russians put a man in orbit?
00:10:59.364 --> 00:11:09.624
I could've been up there three weeks ago." Reporters were calling and waking up everyone they could in the first AM hours that morning just to get a statement.
00:11:11.591 --> 00:11:28.649
Colonel John Powers, a public affairs officer known as the voice of the Mercury 7, answered the phone with this response,"if you want anything from us, you jerk, the answer is we're all asleep." He rolled over and went back to sleep.
00:11:30.113 --> 00:11:40.445
Later that morning, Americans had this headline on their newspaper as they had their morning coffee: Soviets send man into space.
00:11:41.024 --> 00:11:43.174
Spokesman says US asleep.
00:11:45.075 --> 00:11:54.894
I'm sure Korolev, Nikita Khrushchev, party members in Moscow, and the Soviet military brass loved seeing this headline as they toasted shots of vodka.
00:11:56.609 --> 00:12:03.548
Shepard did get to throw his hat in the ring, if you will, less than a month later on May 5th, 1961.
00:12:17.982 --> 00:12:27.663
During the countdown for launch and right before ignition, Shepard said this to himself as he sat there alone, strapped in on the top of the Mercury-Redstone.
00:12:29.182 --> 00:12:38.712
He said to himself,"Don't screw this up, Shepard." It's good to know aerospace legends also talk to themselves right before they make history.
00:12:40.224 --> 00:12:43.153
Shepard described the zenith of his first space flight here.
00:12:44.244 --> 00:12:58.956
He said, Being weightless was wonderful, marvelous, incredible, a miracle in comfort" He also shared he laughed as a washer floated by his helmet inside the claustrophobic Freedom 7 Mercury capsule.
00:13:00.346 --> 00:13:03.135
Somehow that washer wasn't used to fasten down a bolt.
00:13:05.464 --> 00:13:17.136
I got this information from his book Moonshot There is much more to get to with accounts from Alan Shepard about the launch of Freedom Seven, but I will save that for a future episode.
00:13:18.669 --> 00:13:26.950
This launch was on another modified Redstone rocket, Which I've heard some describe as a much larger V2 rocket from World War II.
00:13:28.639 --> 00:13:32.220
This makes sense as it was developed mostly by the same German rocket team.
00:13:34.844 --> 00:13:41.283
The Redstone could only loft an astronaut inside a very small Mercury capsule up and over the Karman Line.
00:13:42.203 --> 00:13:45.033
The internationally recognized boundary of space.
00:13:46.095 --> 00:13:54.585
The intermediate range Redstone rockets could only launch a Mercury capsule up and over the Karman line for about fifteen minutes.
00:13:55.687 --> 00:13:56.407
That's it.
00:13:58.407 --> 00:14:03.736
Gagarin inside the Vostok basically circled the entire globe in just under two hours.
00:14:05.626 --> 00:14:09.197
Our loft into space just doesn't seem to measure up here, does it?
00:14:11.067 --> 00:14:19.057
If NASA was indeed not in a space race with the Soviets, why not wait for a real capable space launch vehicle?
00:14:19.907 --> 00:14:21.297
We had some in development.
00:14:23.272 --> 00:14:37.402
Some options that we had that were in development was a modified Atlas or a Titan ICBM, which were engineered and intended for a payload of warheads, not astronauts, but they would work, and they later did.
00:14:39.291 --> 00:14:52.971
If you really think about it though, the first top-down development space rocket intended for a human payload was a Saturn 1B, which didn't launch astronauts into space until years later in 1967.
00:14:54.962 --> 00:15:08.469
Now, as I have said before, my original plan for this episode was to profile some of the earliest space missions of the Space Race, particularly Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom's Mercury-Redstone flights.
00:15:09.759 --> 00:15:15.089
However, two historically contentious questions kind of took over the episode towards the end.
00:15:16.308 --> 00:15:19.769
This happens sometimes while making Mansplaneing podcast episodes.
00:15:21.019 --> 00:15:22.778
Now let's hit those questions here.
00:15:23.798 --> 00:15:26.469
What really makes a successful space mission count?
00:15:27.158 --> 00:15:29.328
And who really was the first man in space?
00:15:30.759 --> 00:15:32.889
Does Gagarin's space mission really count?
00:15:35.018 --> 00:15:46.927
As I have mentioned in other Mansplaining Podcast episode, Gagarin ejected out of his Vostok spacecraft at 22,965 feet and then parachutes down back to Earth.
00:15:48.355 --> 00:15:56.924
This aspect of this unprecedented space flight was not disseminated publicly within the Soviet Union or internationally until many years later.
00:15:58.695 --> 00:16:15.985
This is one reason why Korolev and the Soviet officials selected Valentina Tereshkova to be the first female cosmonaut in space on Vostok Six, despite the fact that she was not a pilot or a member of the military, but she was a talented amateur skydiver at the time she was selected.
00:16:17.351 --> 00:16:24.580
The Vostok was designed and the cosmonauts were trained for this operation because that was the plan all along during the Vostok program.
00:16:25.950 --> 00:16:36.460
The Soviets were not willing to deploy their smaller in size and number of Navy ships out to collect the Vostok over the ocean like we did with the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions.
00:16:38.397 --> 00:16:42.326
We do the same thing today with Artemis and SpaceX.
00:16:43.817 --> 00:16:59.591
Almost like we're returning to what we did back in the best aerospace era The risk of their secretive space-age technology falling into the waters of another nation's territory and then captured by another nation's navy was too great.
00:17:00.691 --> 00:17:06.060
But the Soviet Union's domain of land was massive, so coming down over land made sense.
00:17:07.480 --> 00:17:16.010
However, they had not yet developed a way to slow down the Vostok or any other spacecraft during reentry to a relatively survivable level.
00:17:17.601 --> 00:17:31.201
Now later on, Soviet/Russian spacecrafts like the modified Vostok known as Voskhod and the Soyuz spacecraft were designed to come down over land safely using small braking rockets along with parachutes.
00:17:32.699 --> 00:17:48.304
Now, there are reputable aerospace organizations and individuals who say, in fact, that Alan Shepard was the first man in space because he remained inside the Mercury spacecraft, all the way from launch up and over the Karman Line and back down to the ocean on Earth.
00:17:49.395 --> 00:17:50.346
So what do you think?
00:17:50.645 --> 00:17:52.096
Shepard versus Gagarin?
00:17:53.385 --> 00:17:55.605
Well, honestly, I am conflicted.
00:17:57.573 --> 00:18:05.423
As an American, on one hand, I think, yes, you have to stick the landing, just as an Olympic gymnast like McKayla Maroney does on the vault.
00:18:06.462 --> 00:18:07.792
She was awesome at that event.
00:18:09.363 --> 00:18:14.682
I believe even the Russian judges' jaws dropped when she stuck the landing at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
00:18:16.343 --> 00:18:21.613
And I bet you didn't expect to hear a McKayla Maroney reference in this episode, but here we are.
00:18:23.503 --> 00:18:27.394
As an American, I want to say,"Aha, it was Alan Shepard.
00:18:28.394 --> 00:18:38.493
It really was an American in space first." But on the other hand, the Vostok was designed for its cosmonaut to eject and parachute down from the beginning.
00:18:39.824 --> 00:18:46.284
It wasn't like something catastrophic happened on Gagarin's Vostok where he had to eject to make it back down to Earth.
00:18:47.993 --> 00:18:53.263
In the event the ejection hatch malfunctioned, Gagarin would have been forced to ride it all the way down.
00:18:54.554 --> 00:18:59.173
The Vostok had parachutes of its own and they were deployed on Gagarin's flight.
00:19:00.243 --> 00:19:03.624
Whether he could have survived the landing is an unknown.
00:19:04.931 --> 00:19:13.060
Also, if his trajectory was off and Gagarin did come down in the ocean, the Vostok was equipped with an emergency inflatable life raft.
00:19:14.701 --> 00:19:21.790
Once again, it is unknown if Gagarin could have survived an ocean impact either, or if he could have gotten out before the Vostok began to sink.
00:19:23.321 --> 00:19:25.791
Similar situation to what happened with Gus Grissom.
00:19:27.451 --> 00:19:31.221
We are dealing with 1961 Soviet aerospace engineering here.
00:19:32.071 --> 00:19:39.442
Ejecting was the safest way to ensure a cosmonaut survived reentry under the circumstances of 1961 Space Age technology.
00:19:40.531 --> 00:19:42.741
Also, the political climate with the Cold War.
00:19:44.432 --> 00:19:58.221
Another aspect to reference here is that the Soviets returned cosmonauts to solid ground for the first time on Voskhod 1 in October 1964, an utterly suicidal mission for too many reasons to mention here.
00:19:59.317 --> 00:20:05.417
But NASA did not return astronauts to solid ground until the first space shuttle mission with Columbia in 1981.
00:20:07.778 --> 00:20:08.778
So what do you think?
00:20:10.458 --> 00:20:14.498
Did Ga- did Gagarin's flight not count, and was Shepard actually the first man in space?
00:20:15.978 --> 00:20:20.678
Well, as I said before, I am conflicted, and there is something else to consider here.
00:20:59.153 --> 00:21:02.324
Now, I said something earlier that was not entirely accurate.
00:21:03.503 --> 00:21:12.874
The US did have another aerospace program that did achieve manned space flight, and it did land on solid ground before the space shuttle did back in the 1980s.
00:21:14.874 --> 00:21:25.913
If you are a regular listener here on the Mansplaneing Podcast or you are a keen aerospace enthusiast yourself, then you know that we sent men into space in more ways than one during the 1960s.
00:21:27.554 --> 00:21:41.711
Yes, let's talk about the X-15 program This rocket plane, or rather space plane, can and did make it above the Karman Line, the internationally recognizable barrier of space, with an American pilot at the controls.
00:21:43.188 --> 00:21:51.317
According to nasa.gov, one X-15 pilot named Joe Walker reached an altitude of over 67 miles above the Earth.
00:21:52.897 --> 00:21:56.178
That's 354,200 feet in the air.
00:21:57.038 --> 00:21:58.008
That is up there.
00:21:59.317 --> 00:22:05.478
Decades after the program ended, X-15 pilots were officially recognized as astronauts because of this.
00:22:07.401 --> 00:22:10.411
So that officially counts, but should it?
00:22:11.800 --> 00:22:20.760
As awesome as a craft as the X-15 is, it doesn't take off from a runway, rather a mothership in this case, a modified B-52.
00:22:22.903 --> 00:22:31.873
Once the B-52 reached an altitude around 45,000 feet, the X-15 would be dropped from a wing like a bomb before igniting its rocket engines.
00:22:33.423 --> 00:22:47.393
So should a pilot of an X-15 that doesn't leave the Earth under his own power but does reach space be accepted as legitimate, but a cosmonaut in a Vostok that bails out and parachutes down after orbiting the Earth not accepted?
00:22:49.838 --> 00:22:59.229
By the way, the ever-vigilant Soviet propaganda machine had a press release ready to discount Alan Shepard's loft into space in the event that NASA did launch first.
00:23:00.660 --> 00:23:08.690
The headline from their media would proclaim that Shepard's flight up and over the Karman Line does not count because he did not achieve orbit.
00:23:10.365 --> 00:23:16.395
By the way, I haven't talked about what the Karman Line is before on the podcast, so let's talk about it here.
00:23:17.155 --> 00:23:18.236
Here are the basics.
00:23:19.286 --> 00:23:23.165
Not everyone agreed where the atmosphere ended and space began.
00:23:24.215 --> 00:23:29.546
A line needed to be drawn in the sand, if you will, on this matter during the best aerospace era.
00:23:31.046 --> 00:23:39.766
The Kármán line itself was named from theories by Theodore von Kármán, a genius Hungarian American physicist and engineer.
00:23:40.875 --> 00:23:46.036
His theory centered around an altitude where an aircraft could no longer produce lift in flight.
00:23:48.056 --> 00:23:58.476
Based on his theories, a line around 100 kilometers in the air, or in American math 62 miles high, was adopted by most academic authorities.
00:24:00.353 --> 00:24:05.482
I could probably make an episode just on this subject, but let's get back to this episode for now.
00:24:07.042 --> 00:24:13.073
The question is, are we getting lost in technicalities here, or is this just Cold War rivalry propaganda?
00:24:14.573 --> 00:24:17.053
So here's a debate about orbit versus suborbital.
00:24:18.282 --> 00:24:20.353
Are we getting lost in the technicalities here?
00:24:21.450 --> 00:24:25.829
As we get lost in the technicalities, I think I have a solution that solves everything here.
00:24:27.599 --> 00:24:30.539
Let's disregard all the above because of technicalities.
00:24:31.660 --> 00:24:34.289
Then the first man in space is still an American.
00:24:35.680 --> 00:24:41.599
And his name is John Glenn with Friendship 7 on February twentieth nineteen sixty two.
00:24:43.269 --> 00:24:44.809
This one covers all the bases.
00:24:45.490 --> 00:25:05.760
It was launched from solid ground under its own power on a Mercury Atlas rocket, and Glenn orbited Earth with a flight time of four hours and fifty-five minutes, according to NASA.gov At the end of this flight, Glenn rode inside his Mercury capsule all the way to splashdown in the ocean.
00:25:07.540 --> 00:25:08.490
So there you have it.
00:25:09.386 --> 00:25:11.477
The first man in space is John Glenn.
00:25:49.480 --> 00:25:50.411
What do you think?
00:25:51.161 --> 00:25:57.510
Does it matter whether an astronaut or cosmonaut achieves orbit in a craft that leaves the ground under its own power?
00:25:58.901 --> 00:26:05.010
Does it matter whether an astronaut or cosmonaut achieved orbit in a craft that leaves the ground under its own power?
00:26:06.560 --> 00:26:11.422
And does it matter if they ride their spacecraft all the way down or parachute down separately?
00:26:13.382 --> 00:26:16.172
Does it matter if a spacecraft makes it over the Karman Line.
00:26:16.622 --> 00:26:18.771
Or does it have to achieve orbit for it to count?
00:26:20.592 --> 00:26:23.951
Also, does it matter if it lands in the water versus solid ground?
00:26:25.255 --> 00:26:29.775
Or do you think space doesn't exist at all and there's a filament dome above the flat Earth?
00:26:30.795 --> 00:26:32.005
Let me know what you think.
00:26:33.095 --> 00:26:36.664
Thank you so much for listening, and there's always a light at the end of the runway.
00:26:38.367 --> 00:26:42.278
Follow the mansplaining podcast for more stories from the Best Aerospace Era.
00:26:42.788 --> 00:26:46.948
Or go to Best Aerospace Era.com or find us on social media.
00:00:00.947 --> 00:00:04.418
For the Best Aerospace Era this is the mansplaining podcast.
00:00:04.708 --> 00:00:06.168
Here is your host Anthony L.
00:00:06.168 --> 00:00:06.618
Sealey
00:00:11.570 --> 00:00:13.199
Welcome aerospace enthusiasts.
00:00:14.050 --> 00:00:19.559
My original plan for this episode was to profile some of the earliest missions of the Space Race.
00:00:20.469 --> 00:00:25.309
However, some historically contentious questions kind of took over the episode.
00:00:26.579 --> 00:00:29.890
This happens sometimes while making Mansplaneing Podcast episodes.
00:00:30.829 --> 00:00:36.240
Sometimes controversial subjects develop into making a more interesting talk about aerospace history.
00:00:37.500 --> 00:00:39.530
I will get to those questions later on.
00:00:40.579 --> 00:00:45.000
First, let's talk about one of my favorite periods, the dawn of the space age.
00:01:23.228 --> 00:01:39.061
Now most will agree, the space age began in October 1957, and it was not launched by us, America, or NASA, as I was shocked to find out as a kid while sitting at my desk in grade school back in the 1900s.
00:01:40.221 --> 00:01:41.662
It was Soviet Russia.
00:01:43.281 --> 00:01:47.712
Sputnik 1 was launched on October 4th, 1957.
00:01:48.941 --> 00:01:58.621
The satellite was launched from a complex near Baikonur, Kazakhstan, using the intercontinental ballistic missile, the Semyorka, also known as the R-7.
00:02:00.272 --> 00:02:06.522
This intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, was pushed heavily by Soviet officials.
00:02:08.201 --> 00:02:10.972
This was their answer to our superior Air Force.
00:02:12.542 --> 00:02:15.861
Keep in mind, this is during the nuclear arms race during the Cold War.
00:02:17.902 --> 00:02:25.712
During this time, the US intercontinental ballistic missile development was behind the Soviets in this sector for two main reasons.
00:02:27.152 --> 00:02:35.462
For one, because Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, the secret chief designer himself, who I have profiled in episodes Chief Designer Part One and Two.
00:02:37.483 --> 00:02:45.193
In a way, Korolev disguised his motivations for making an ICBM and instead made the first space launch vehicle.
00:02:46.823 --> 00:02:57.831
But here in the United States, we had an arsenal of b-58 Hustlers, B-52 Stratofortresses, and B-36 Peacemaker bombers at our disposal.
00:02:59.592 --> 00:03:07.703
These awesome aircraft had a devastating first strike capabilities and ICBMs were just not that much of a priority for us.
00:03:09.979 --> 00:03:14.319
Now, the Soviets did not have this level of Air Force, as much as they'd like to pretend they did.
00:03:17.049 --> 00:03:24.899
The Soviet Semyorka posed an ominous nuclear weapon of retaliation at the disposal of Moscow in the event of World War III.
00:03:26.538 --> 00:03:35.618
Fortunately, that never happened, which is why I'm here and able to talk about the Cold War and the Space Race on Mansplaneing, and you're able to be here listening.
00:03:37.522 --> 00:03:46.522
With the launch of Sputnik 1, the Soviets proved their aerospace capability and the space race was on whether we liked it or not.
00:03:48.155 --> 00:03:51.784
The US government actually I don't think ever really admitted they were in the race.
00:03:53.139 --> 00:03:54.969
But nonetheless, we did respond.
00:03:56.469 --> 00:04:03.594
The US gave the US Navy the go-ahead to launch our first satellite This was the Project Vanguard.
00:04:04.474 --> 00:04:08.134
But unfortunately, that effort literally blew up on the launchpad.
00:04:10.145 --> 00:04:21.545
Reluctantly, under the pressure of the world and national stage, the project was given to the Germans at the ABMA, the Army Ballistic Missile Agency out of Huntsville, Alabama.
00:04:23.175 --> 00:04:33.035
This was a wing of the US Army that employed Wernher von Braun and the other German rocket scientists and engineers that surrendered to us, the Allied Forces.
00:04:33.904 --> 00:04:37.274
The alternative was to fall into the Soviets' hands at the end of World War II.
00:04:39.067 --> 00:04:44.521
This was achieved during Project Paperclip, a topic I should really revisit here in the near future.
00:04:46.444 --> 00:04:52.403
ABMA modified one of their medium range Redstone rockets and renamed it the Jupiter C.
00:04:54.113 --> 00:05:00.134
It launched the first US satellite Explorer 1 on February 1st, 1958.
00:05:01.793 --> 00:05:06.283
The rocket and the satellite itself was much smaller than what the Soviets had launched.
00:05:07.064 --> 00:05:12.874
But for those in the US Army, y'all will forever have the bragging rights to have the first US satellite.
00:05:14.632 --> 00:05:24.213
I believe von Braun exclaimed that his team at ABMA could have launched a US satellite first in orbit had they been given the green light earlier in 1957.
00:05:25.773 --> 00:05:49.728
Political infighting among government agencies and branches of the military prevented ABMA from attempting prior to 1958 I believe von Braun believes if he'd been given the go-ahead and the resources, he could have launched a satellite, I don't know, maybe around 1950 In any event, on April second, nineteen fifty-eight, Dwight D.
00:05:49.728 --> 00:05:56.237
Eisenhower sent a message to Congress proposing with their support to establishing a space agency.
00:05:57.778 --> 00:06:17.029
In the message, he emphasized it should be under civilian control rather than under the military This is a somewhat surprising decision as President Eisenhower was a highly decorated five-star general in the US Army and the architect of the invasion in Normandy during World War II.
00:06:18.680 --> 00:06:19.889
This was his message.
00:06:21.029 --> 00:06:32.279
A civilian setting for the administration of the space function would emphasize the concern of our nation that outer space be devoted to peaceful and scientific purposes.
00:06:33.800 --> 00:06:42.769
Now, a federal agency that I have mentioned here before that was formed all the way back in 1915 was the center for this new administration.
00:06:43.639 --> 00:06:48.250
The NACA, or the National Advisory Committee of Aeronautics.
00:06:49.899 --> 00:07:01.728
Now in July 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration became official and began incorporating other space efforts from military and civilian sectors.
00:07:03.178 --> 00:07:14.887
One of which was the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, ABMA So now the US had a government administration to respond to Korolev and the Soviet's unprecedented space program.
00:07:16.057 --> 00:07:21.916
Although NASA's official public stance was that they were not in competition with the Soviet space program.
00:07:23.367 --> 00:07:24.557
Let's see about that.
00:07:26.416 --> 00:07:35.057
Before NASA even had a capable space launch vehicle available in the 1950s, NASA announced to the public the Mercury Seven.
00:07:36.096 --> 00:07:44.846
They were formally introduced on April 9th, 1959, to great fanfare You know their names.
00:07:44.846 --> 00:07:54.536
Deke Slayton, Gus Grissom, Alan Shepard, Wally Schirra, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, and Gordon Cooper.
00:07:56.064 --> 00:07:58.884
I talked about them in more detail in the episode.
00:07:59.154 --> 00:08:00.875
We are putting together a team.
00:08:02.449 --> 00:08:07.218
At their press conference to the world, they were asked who would be the first man in space.
00:08:08.329 --> 00:08:09.738
They all raised their hands.
00:08:11.278 --> 00:08:13.168
John Glenn raised both of his hands.
00:08:15.158 --> 00:08:20.869
They all had the right stuff, and each believed they would be first, but they were all wrong.
00:09:00.136 --> 00:09:00.966
I see the Earth.
00:09:01.486 --> 00:09:03.476
The G loads are increasing somewhat.
00:09:03.797 --> 00:09:04.777
I feel excellent.
00:09:05.356 --> 00:09:07.606
I see the clouds, that landing site.
00:09:07.826 --> 00:09:14.188
It's beautiful." These were the first words spoken by a human being on his way into space.
00:09:15.038 --> 00:09:18.298
But they were not spoken in English, but in Russian.
00:09:20.043 --> 00:09:28.903
While NASA presented the Mercury Seven to the world, The Soviets interviewed and selected 20 candidates to become the first cosmonaut in space.
00:09:30.893 --> 00:09:37.613
Among the 20 were Alexei Leonov, Gherman Titov, and Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin.
00:09:39.471 --> 00:09:42.652
There were no press conferences or fanfare here for them.
00:09:43.802 --> 00:09:53.121
Although I do believe the Soviet state-run press did downplay the Mercury Seven and reported that their secretive space program had twenty spacemen.
00:09:54.966 --> 00:09:59.057
Now of course, these words were spoken by Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin.
00:10:00.830 --> 00:10:09.840
Vostok 1 was launched at 0906 hours and 59.7 seconds on April 12th, 1961.
00:10:10.990 --> 00:10:12.289
The Soviets had done it.
00:10:13.570 --> 00:10:22.149
From outside the Iron Curtain, The Soviet Space Program appeared to be the premier center of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM.
00:10:24.116 --> 00:10:30.116
How could the United States government let the Reds get to space first, the ultimate high ground?
00:10:31.822 --> 00:10:39.293
Honestly, everyone from those in NASA, the military, the ordinary citizens, including kids, were pissed.
00:10:40.232 --> 00:10:44.082
But no one was more pissed off than Alan Shepard and the others at NASA.
00:10:45.543 --> 00:10:47.212
This is how Shepard got the news.
00:10:54.104 --> 00:10:54.453
"What?
00:10:54.964 --> 00:10:55.514
Heard what?
00:10:56.514 --> 00:10:58.114
The Russians put a man in orbit?
00:10:59.364 --> 00:11:09.624
I could've been up there three weeks ago." Reporters were calling and waking up everyone they could in the first AM hours that morning just to get a statement.
00:11:11.591 --> 00:11:28.649
Colonel John Powers, a public affairs officer known as the voice of the Mercury 7, answered the phone with this response,"if you want anything from us, you jerk, the answer is we're all asleep." He rolled over and went back to sleep.
00:11:30.113 --> 00:11:40.445
Later that morning, Americans had this headline on their newspaper as they had their morning coffee: Soviets send man into space.
00:11:41.024 --> 00:11:43.174
Spokesman says US asleep.
00:11:45.075 --> 00:11:54.894
I'm sure Korolev, Nikita Khrushchev, party members in Moscow, and the Soviet military brass loved seeing this headline as they toasted shots of vodka.
00:11:56.609 --> 00:12:03.548
Shepard did get to throw his hat in the ring, if you will, less than a month later on May 5th, 1961.
00:12:17.982 --> 00:12:27.663
During the countdown for launch and right before ignition, Shepard said this to himself as he sat there alone, strapped in on the top of the Mercury-Redstone.
00:12:29.182 --> 00:12:38.712
He said to himself,"Don't screw this up, Shepard." It's good to know aerospace legends also talk to themselves right before they make history.
00:12:40.224 --> 00:12:43.153
Shepard described the zenith of his first space flight here.
00:12:44.244 --> 00:12:58.956
He said, Being weightless was wonderful, marvelous, incredible, a miracle in comfort" He also shared he laughed as a washer floated by his helmet inside the claustrophobic Freedom 7 Mercury capsule.
00:13:00.346 --> 00:13:03.135
Somehow that washer wasn't used to fasten down a bolt.
00:13:05.464 --> 00:13:17.136
I got this information from his book Moonshot There is much more to get to with accounts from Alan Shepard about the launch of Freedom Seven, but I will save that for a future episode.
00:13:18.669 --> 00:13:26.950
This launch was on another modified Redstone rocket, Which I've heard some describe as a much larger V2 rocket from World War II.
00:13:28.639 --> 00:13:32.220
This makes sense as it was developed mostly by the same German rocket team.
00:13:34.844 --> 00:13:41.283
The Redstone could only loft an astronaut inside a very small Mercury capsule up and over the Karman Line.
00:13:42.203 --> 00:13:45.033
The internationally recognized boundary of space.
00:13:46.095 --> 00:13:54.585
The intermediate range Redstone rockets could only launch a Mercury capsule up and over the Karman line for about fifteen minutes.
00:13:55.687 --> 00:13:56.407
That's it.
00:13:58.407 --> 00:14:03.736
Gagarin inside the Vostok basically circled the entire globe in just under two hours.
00:14:05.626 --> 00:14:09.197
Our loft into space just doesn't seem to measure up here, does it?
00:14:11.067 --> 00:14:19.057
If NASA was indeed not in a space race with the Soviets, why not wait for a real capable space launch vehicle?
00:14:19.907 --> 00:14:21.297
We had some in development.
00:14:23.272 --> 00:14:37.402
Some options that we had that were in development was a modified Atlas or a Titan ICBM, which were engineered and intended for a payload of warheads, not astronauts, but they would work, and they later did.
00:14:39.291 --> 00:14:52.971
If you really think about it though, the first top-down development space rocket intended for a human payload was a Saturn 1B, which didn't launch astronauts into space until years later in 1967.
00:14:54.962 --> 00:15:08.469
Now, as I have said before, my original plan for this episode was to profile some of the earliest space missions of the Space Race, particularly Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom's Mercury-Redstone flights.
00:15:09.759 --> 00:15:15.089
However, two historically contentious questions kind of took over the episode towards the end.
00:15:16.308 --> 00:15:19.769
This happens sometimes while making Mansplaneing podcast episodes.
00:15:21.019 --> 00:15:22.778
Now let's hit those questions here.
00:15:23.798 --> 00:15:26.469
What really makes a successful space mission count?
00:15:27.158 --> 00:15:29.328
And who really was the first man in space?
00:15:30.759 --> 00:15:32.889
Does Gagarin's space mission really count?
00:15:35.018 --> 00:15:46.927
As I have mentioned in other Mansplaining Podcast episode, Gagarin ejected out of his Vostok spacecraft at 22,965 feet and then parachutes down back to Earth.
00:15:48.355 --> 00:15:56.924
This aspect of this unprecedented space flight was not disseminated publicly within the Soviet Union or internationally until many years later.
00:15:58.695 --> 00:16:15.985
This is one reason why Korolev and the Soviet officials selected Valentina Tereshkova to be the first female cosmonaut in space on Vostok Six, despite the fact that she was not a pilot or a member of the military, but she was a talented amateur skydiver at the time she was selected.
00:16:17.351 --> 00:16:24.580
The Vostok was designed and the cosmonauts were trained for this operation because that was the plan all along during the Vostok program.
00:16:25.950 --> 00:16:36.460
The Soviets were not willing to deploy their smaller in size and number of Navy ships out to collect the Vostok over the ocean like we did with the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions.
00:16:38.397 --> 00:16:42.326
We do the same thing today with Artemis and SpaceX.
00:16:43.817 --> 00:16:59.591
Almost like we're returning to what we did back in the best aerospace era The risk of their secretive space-age technology falling into the waters of another nation's territory and then captured by another nation's navy was too great.
00:17:00.691 --> 00:17:06.060
But the Soviet Union's domain of land was massive, so coming down over land made sense.
00:17:07.480 --> 00:17:16.010
However, they had not yet developed a way to slow down the Vostok or any other spacecraft during reentry to a relatively survivable level.
00:17:17.601 --> 00:17:31.201
Now later on, Soviet/Russian spacecrafts like the modified Vostok known as Voskhod and the Soyuz spacecraft were designed to come down over land safely using small braking rockets along with parachutes.
00:17:32.699 --> 00:17:48.304
Now, there are reputable aerospace organizations and individuals who say, in fact, that Alan Shepard was the first man in space because he remained inside the Mercury spacecraft, all the way from launch up and over the Karman Line and back down to the ocean on Earth.
00:17:49.395 --> 00:17:50.346
So what do you think?
00:17:50.645 --> 00:17:52.096
Shepard versus Gagarin?
00:17:53.385 --> 00:17:55.605
Well, honestly, I am conflicted.
00:17:57.573 --> 00:18:05.423
As an American, on one hand, I think, yes, you have to stick the landing, just as an Olympic gymnast like McKayla Maroney does on the vault.
00:18:06.462 --> 00:18:07.792
She was awesome at that event.
00:18:09.363 --> 00:18:14.682
I believe even the Russian judges' jaws dropped when she stuck the landing at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
00:18:16.343 --> 00:18:21.613
And I bet you didn't expect to hear a McKayla Maroney reference in this episode, but here we are.
00:18:23.503 --> 00:18:27.394
As an American, I want to say,"Aha, it was Alan Shepard.
00:18:28.394 --> 00:18:38.493
It really was an American in space first." But on the other hand, the Vostok was designed for its cosmonaut to eject and parachute down from the beginning.
00:18:39.824 --> 00:18:46.284
It wasn't like something catastrophic happened on Gagarin's Vostok where he had to eject to make it back down to Earth.
00:18:47.993 --> 00:18:53.263
In the event the ejection hatch malfunctioned, Gagarin would have been forced to ride it all the way down.
00:18:54.554 --> 00:18:59.173
The Vostok had parachutes of its own and they were deployed on Gagarin's flight.
00:19:00.243 --> 00:19:03.624
Whether he could have survived the landing is an unknown.
00:19:04.931 --> 00:19:13.060
Also, if his trajectory was off and Gagarin did come down in the ocean, the Vostok was equipped with an emergency inflatable life raft.
00:19:14.701 --> 00:19:21.790
Once again, it is unknown if Gagarin could have survived an ocean impact either, or if he could have gotten out before the Vostok began to sink.
00:19:23.321 --> 00:19:25.791
Similar situation to what happened with Gus Grissom.
00:19:27.451 --> 00:19:31.221
We are dealing with 1961 Soviet aerospace engineering here.
00:19:32.071 --> 00:19:39.442
Ejecting was the safest way to ensure a cosmonaut survived reentry under the circumstances of 1961 Space Age technology.
00:19:40.531 --> 00:19:42.741
Also, the political climate with the Cold War.
00:19:44.432 --> 00:19:58.221
Another aspect to reference here is that the Soviets returned cosmonauts to solid ground for the first time on Voskhod 1 in October 1964, an utterly suicidal mission for too many reasons to mention here.
00:19:59.317 --> 00:20:05.417
But NASA did not return astronauts to solid ground until the first space shuttle mission with Columbia in 1981.
00:20:07.778 --> 00:20:08.778
So what do you think?
00:20:10.458 --> 00:20:14.498
Did Ga- did Gagarin's flight not count, and was Shepard actually the first man in space?
00:20:15.978 --> 00:20:20.678
Well, as I said before, I am conflicted, and there is something else to consider here.
00:20:59.153 --> 00:21:02.324
Now, I said something earlier that was not entirely accurate.
00:21:03.503 --> 00:21:12.874
The US did have another aerospace program that did achieve manned space flight, and it did land on solid ground before the space shuttle did back in the 1980s.
00:21:14.874 --> 00:21:25.913
If you are a regular listener here on the Mansplaneing Podcast or you are a keen aerospace enthusiast yourself, then you know that we sent men into space in more ways than one during the 1960s.
00:21:27.554 --> 00:21:41.711
Yes, let's talk about the X-15 program This rocket plane, or rather space plane, can and did make it above the Karman Line, the internationally recognizable barrier of space, with an American pilot at the controls.
00:21:43.188 --> 00:21:51.317
According to nasa.gov, one X-15 pilot named Joe Walker reached an altitude of over 67 miles above the Earth.
00:21:52.897 --> 00:21:56.178
That's 354,200 feet in the air.
00:21:57.038 --> 00:21:58.008
That is up there.
00:21:59.317 --> 00:22:05.478
Decades after the program ended, X-15 pilots were officially recognized as astronauts because of this.
00:22:07.401 --> 00:22:10.411
So that officially counts, but should it?
00:22:11.800 --> 00:22:20.760
As awesome as a craft as the X-15 is, it doesn't take off from a runway, rather a mothership in this case, a modified B-52.
00:22:22.903 --> 00:22:31.873
Once the B-52 reached an altitude around 45,000 feet, the X-15 would be dropped from a wing like a bomb before igniting its rocket engines.
00:22:33.423 --> 00:22:47.393
So should a pilot of an X-15 that doesn't leave the Earth under his own power but does reach space be accepted as legitimate, but a cosmonaut in a Vostok that bails out and parachutes down after orbiting the Earth not accepted?
00:22:49.838 --> 00:22:59.229
By the way, the ever-vigilant Soviet propaganda machine had a press release ready to discount Alan Shepard's loft into space in the event that NASA did launch first.
00:23:00.660 --> 00:23:08.690
The headline from their media would proclaim that Shepard's flight up and over the Karman Line does not count because he did not achieve orbit.
00:23:10.365 --> 00:23:16.395
By the way, I haven't talked about what the Karman Line is before on the podcast, so let's talk about it here.
00:23:17.155 --> 00:23:18.236
Here are the basics.
00:23:19.286 --> 00:23:23.165
Not everyone agreed where the atmosphere ended and space began.
00:23:24.215 --> 00:23:29.546
A line needed to be drawn in the sand, if you will, on this matter during the best aerospace era.
00:23:31.046 --> 00:23:39.766
The Kármán line itself was named from theories by Theodore von Kármán, a genius Hungarian American physicist and engineer.
00:23:40.875 --> 00:23:46.036
His theory centered around an altitude where an aircraft could no longer produce lift in flight.
00:23:48.056 --> 00:23:58.476
Based on his theories, a line around 100 kilometers in the air, or in American math 62 miles high, was adopted by most academic authorities.
00:24:00.353 --> 00:24:05.482
I could probably make an episode just on this subject, but let's get back to this episode for now.
00:24:07.042 --> 00:24:13.073
The question is, are we getting lost in technicalities here, or is this just Cold War rivalry propaganda?
00:24:14.573 --> 00:24:17.053
So here's a debate about orbit versus suborbital.
00:24:18.282 --> 00:24:20.353
Are we getting lost in the technicalities here?
00:24:21.450 --> 00:24:25.829
As we get lost in the technicalities, I think I have a solution that solves everything here.
00:24:27.599 --> 00:24:30.539
Let's disregard all the above because of technicalities.
00:24:31.660 --> 00:24:34.289
Then the first man in space is still an American.
00:24:35.680 --> 00:24:41.599
And his name is John Glenn with Friendship 7 on February twentieth nineteen sixty two.
00:24:43.269 --> 00:24:44.809
This one covers all the bases.
00:24:45.490 --> 00:25:05.760
It was launched from solid ground under its own power on a Mercury Atlas rocket, and Glenn orbited Earth with a flight time of four hours and fifty-five minutes, according to NASA.gov At the end of this flight, Glenn rode inside his Mercury capsule all the way to splashdown in the ocean.
00:25:07.540 --> 00:25:08.490
So there you have it.
00:25:09.386 --> 00:25:11.477
The first man in space is John Glenn.
00:25:49.480 --> 00:25:50.411
What do you think?
00:25:51.161 --> 00:25:57.510
Does it matter whether an astronaut or cosmonaut achieves orbit in a craft that leaves the ground under its own power?
00:25:58.901 --> 00:26:05.010
Does it matter whether an astronaut or cosmonaut achieved orbit in a craft that leaves the ground under its own power?
00:26:06.560 --> 00:26:11.422
And does it matter if they ride their spacecraft all the way down or parachute down separately?
00:26:13.382 --> 00:26:16.172
Does it matter if a spacecraft makes it over the Karman Line.
00:26:16.622 --> 00:26:18.771
Or does it have to achieve orbit for it to count?
00:26:20.592 --> 00:26:23.951
Also, does it matter if it lands in the water versus solid ground?
00:26:25.255 --> 00:26:29.775
Or do you think space doesn't exist at all and there's a filament dome above the flat Earth?
00:26:30.795 --> 00:26:32.005
Let me know what you think.
00:26:33.095 --> 00:26:36.664
Thank you so much for listening, and there's always a light at the end of the runway.
00:26:38.367 --> 00:26:42.278
Follow the mansplaining podcast for more stories from the Best Aerospace Era.
00:26:42.788 --> 00:26:46.948
Or go to Best Aerospace Era.com or find us on social media.
