You can read the first chapters in this previous post.
Chapter 3: The battle for "First man in space"
It quickly became clear that this was an extremely complex task and would take several years to accomplish, if in fact it could be done at all. It may seem hard to believe today that it really could have been so difficult, but at the time anything that had to do with space and human beings in space was new and uncharted territory. Could human beings even survive in a state of weightlessness? Many leading physicians thought not! And one can hardly blame them. Human beings have evolved over the course of millions of years in a fairly heavy gravitational field – how could we suddenly withstand long periods of weightlessness? All sorts of disorders were predicted from nausea to dizziness to cardiovascular failure and sudden death.
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| Space frenzy were at it's height in the 1950's and visionary space professionals like Werner Von Braun were only too happy to feed the imagination of the people. However, in reality, it was still an open question whether man could even survive traveling in space. |
Was it even possible to build a rocket that was powerful and reliable enough to send a manned vehicle into space? American rocket science technology had been primarily developed by the military under Air Force control. The entire focus so far had been on sending nuclear bombs quickly and efficiently against the Eastern Bloc, and no one had given any serious thought to the notion that a rocket might be used to transport human beings.
All this now changed radically. The entire program was transferred from the military to the new civilian organization, NASA. The military had to relinquish financial resources, political prestige, equipment, locations, and not least their top technical experts, including the corps of German rocket scientists from the Second World War. These were German engineers who, fearing heavy handed treatment of prisoners of war at the hands of the Russians, had fled from Eastern Germany at the end of the war and surrendered to the Americans. The German rocket corps was under the firm and unquestioned leadership of the notoriously brilliant Wernher von Braun.
At the start of 1958 the Americans had succeeded in replicating Sputnik by sending the satellite Explorer 1 into orbit with one of von Braun’s Juno rockets. The project was still military, but in future all work would be transferred to civilian control.
The first task Wernher von Braun and his team were given by NASA, their new employer, was to construct a rocket that could send a small metal container, about the size of a refrigerator equipped with a small window, into space, the space capsule. A human being, “the human cannonball”, would then be crammed into this claustrophobic container. He would be tightly strapped into a personally molded seat in a totally powerless position, essentially unable to move. Furthermore the rocket had to be constructed in such a way that this daredevil, who if all went well would have the honor of being the first human being in space, should return to Earth - alive and in one piece.
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| The Mercury Astronaut were to be crammed inside a small metal container, tightly strapped into a personally molded seat in a totally powerless position. The launch rockets supposed to carry them into space were blowing up on a very regular basis. The Astronaut trait was clearly not for the faint of heart. |
The scene was set for Project Mercury, the first American space program. The aim of the program was clear: put a man in space and get him back safely, preferably before the Russians got there first.
The beginning was rocky. Especially at first there were problems developing the rockets. They were unreliable, flimsy and difficult to operate with any degree of precision. One test launch after another ended in spectacular failure when gigantic tanks containing high explosive fuel transformed the majestic rockets into huge red fireballs in the sky, if in fact they got that high before exploding.
The numerous explosions, which, unlike the equivalent Soviet disasters took place under the watchful eye of the world press, only increased the humiliation and political pressure on the American president. Scathing, satirical headlines such as U.S. Sputnik Blows Up On The Ground! , Oh, What a Flopnik, or U.S. Calls It Kaputnik, richly illustrated with images of huge fireballs, filled the front pages of newspapers all over the world, emphasizing America’s current status as the inept little brother in the Space Race.
Of the seventeen attempted American space missions in 1958 only four could be considered successful. Of the five attempted Russian space missions only one succeeded. But whereas the thirteen American fiascos were plastered over front pages of newspapers around the world, the Russians’ unsuccessful missions were kept secret until after the Cold War. The impression of the balance of power that this created was consequently somewhat misleading in favor of the Communists. Nevertheless, the Russians had unquestionably been the first to get off the ground, and they did have a genuine head start in the Space Race.
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| Of the seventeen attempted American space missions in 1958 only four could be considered successful. Of the five attempted Russian space missions only one succeeded. But whereas the thirteen American fiascos were plastered over front pages of newspapers around the world, the Russians’ unsuccessful missions were kept secret until after the Cold War. The impression of the balance of power that this created was consequently somewhat misleading in favor of the Communists. |
In 1959 NASA presented the first team of seven test pilots who were going to crew the spaceflights of the Mercury program. This was the first time the term “astronaut” was used, referring to these fearless space candidates.
The seven astronauts, the Mercury Seven, became instant heroes. The astronauts were the Free World’s answer to the Russian cosmonauts and overnight they went from being totally unknown test pilots in the American armed forces to admired celebrities everyone wanted to read about or be seen with, and that every red blooded boy wanted to emulate.
Chapter 4: The Mercury Seven - The right stuff
The Mercury astronauts were "the right stuff", wrote popular author, Tom Wolfe, in his book about the start of the Space Race and the first astronauts[1]. Popular mythology acclaimed them as heroes of the Free World, and the mere fact of their selection gave the population a sense of security and confidence. People began to feel the Space Race was open and there was still hope.
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| The "Mercury seven" became celebrated American heroes overnight. The archetype All American hero John Glenn lead the group in inspiring hope to the people of the free world. |
American hope had been give seven fine,
fearless faces.
When John Glenn, the most popular of the
seven astronauts, publicly “... spoke of God and country and the flag and the
bravery of his fellow astronauts, and he actually meant what he said."[2],
it gave hope to people in
the Free World. With God’s help, the American spirit of freedom, and seven men
of the right stuff, how could they lose?
But plenty of hard work lay ahead. The path was
long and narrow, and major technological challenges needed to be resolved
before the first hero could be strapped into the nose cone of a dangerous,
unpredictable rocket and launched into space.The NASA leadership was troubled at the idea of sending astronauts to their deaths, partly owing to genuine qualms of conscience and partly to political considerations. It was bad enough that rockets costing millions of dollars disappeared in clouds of red flame, but that could be justified as a necessary learning expense. But if they started killing off the people’s beloved heroes, it could jeopardize the entire space program. It was entirely likely that the American political leadership would conclude that it was technically impossible for the US to send men to space. This would spell disaster for NASA itself and would be a political fiasco for the US in the Cold War propaganda race. A great deal was at stake and there were many considerations to take into account. How cautious should they be? How bold did they dare to be?
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| John Glenn, the All American hero inspired hope and faith. Gene Kranz wrote: "He spoke of God and country and the flag and the bravery of his fellow astronauts, and he actually meant what he said."[2] |
The future
astronauts brought their parents, wives and children to one of the test launches
that went up in flames. This was hardly reassuring for their anxious families.
Much to the
astronauts’ regret, the decision landed on the side of caution, and the first
American in space was not Alan Shepard, the selected astronaut, but Ham, the chimp.
In December 1960 an empty space capsule had been successfully launched and Alan
Shepard was preparing for the next Mercury space capsule launch scheduled for
January 1961. If Alan Shepard had been given the green light, the Americans
might well have won the race to put the first human being in space and a great
many things would undoubtedly have looked very different over the following
years. Who knows? Maybe human beings wouldn’t even have walked on the Moon yet!
Be that as it
may, it was Ham, the astrochimp, who had the honor of being the first American
in space on 31 January 1961. The Russians had already launched the dog, Laika,
into space in November 1957 and once again it was emphasized that the Americans
were in second place.
Ham survived the
journey in fine form and went on to lead a celebrated and by all accounts
contented life in the Washington D.C. zoo until he died of natural causes in
1983. Laika died after a few hours in orbit
due to a technical systems failure. On this occasion, as on so many others
before and since, the Soviet government demonstrated that it had no qualms
about telling an outright lie if this would help the Communist cause. It was
widely reported at the time that the cause of death was controlled euthanasia
by lethal injection after 6 days of successful space travel. The true cause of
death was not made public until 2002.
Things
were about to get much worse. While NASA’s leadership, engineers and medical
staff were poring over the test results, analyzing Ham, the astrochimp’s, state
of health, and demanding no fewer than five additional unmanned test flights,
the Americans were once again caught completely off guard.
Chapter 5: Yuri Gagarin - First man in space
On 12 April 1961 the Russian cosmonaut, Yuri
Gagarin, became the first human being in space. Not only was Gagarin the first
man in space, he was also the first man to complete an orbit around Earth, in
his Vostok 1 space capsule. Orbiting Earth was a far greater and more difficult
technical achievement than the simple space “visit” based on the cannonball
principle that the Americans were planning. And the Russians did it first.
On the 12th of April, 1961 the "Reds" did it again and beat the Americans in the race to put a man in space. Yuri Gagarin was the name of the Soviet "Cosmonaut".
Sending an object into orbit around a body requires that the object can be brought up to the right speed so the curve of the object’s fall matches the curve of the body. Instead of quickly falling back to the surface like a projectile fired from a cannon, the object’s fall continues indefinitely, round and round, with no further energy consumption. The rocket engines necessary to send a man into orbit around Earth need to be so powerful and efficient that they can send a spacecraft weighing a couple of tons to a speed of 5 miles per second. The Russians could do it in 1961; the Americans had a lot of catching up to do.
"Newton's cannonball". Sir Isaac Newton predicted how a projectile fired from a hypothetical super-cannon could enter into orbit around Earth or another planetary body. Slower projectiles (A,B) fall to the surface of Earth. faster projectiles (C) disappear into space (or into orbit around the Moon if the direction is right!). At certain speeds (D,E) the projectile continues in an elliptical or circular orbit around Earth.
The new Russian triumph was a political disaster for the Americans. The constantly smiling and completely charming Gagarin was the Soviet propaganda machine’s strongest card and they played it for all it was worth to affirm the narrative that Communism was on its way to a bright, new future. The narrative stood in sharp contrast to the reality and the drab, everyday life of the brutal Communist regimes of the Eastern Bloc, but was nevertheless backed up by tangible technological triumphs and the hero’s winning smile. Gagarin was sent all over the world, especially to youth conferences, where he delighted Western youth with his smile and friendly, optimistic talks.
Yuri Gagarin, Helsinki 1961. Gagarin was sent all over the world, especially to youth conferences, where he delighted Western youth with his smile and friendly, optimistic talks.
The grim story of Gagarin’s retrorockets is illustrative.
The Russian government had so little faith in the loyalty of their own citizens that they felt they had to lock them in behind walls and barbed wire fences. The ordinary citizen was not allowed to leave the Eastern Bloc, and people were basically confined to what amounted to a large prison. Many people tried to escape and many were killed or jailed for attempting to gain their freedom. The Communist regime had a paranoid fear that their citizens would “defect”, which is what they called the attempt to reach the Free World. The atmosphere of suspicion and distrust particularly targeted those who were actually allowed to leave the country, e.g. diplomats, scientists, athletes – and cosmonauts.
In order to bring a spacecraft in orbit back to Earth, the spacecraft must decelerate, which is done by a set of so-called retrorockets. The retrorockets in Vostok 1 could be activated by the cosmonaut in an emergency situation. But for fear that Gagarin might defect, the activation mechanism was protected by a code that was kept secret from Gagarin. The code needed to be entered before the retrorockets could be activated manually. This would significantly complicate an emergency situation or, worst case scenario, make it impossible if the spacecraft was outside radio contact, but the authorities placed a greater priority on ensuring Gagarin’s continued imprisonment than on his safety. It should be noted, however, that several trusted engineers independently of each other, secretly and at great personal risk, whispered the code to Gagarin shortly before liftoff. Human emotions lived on in the shadows behind the iron curtain.
And then there’s the alleged Gagarin quotation, still circulating in atheistic mythology and on the internet. According to Communist propaganda Gagarin was supposed to have said, “I see no God up here”. Atheism was an integral part of Communist ideology and the Russian dictator Krushchev himself was at the head of an anti-religious campaign to quell what was left of religion in the populations of the Eastern Bloc. The story of Gagarin’s statement was apparently another lie put out by Communist propaganda. Gagarin was openly Christian and a member of the Russian Orthodox Church. According to Gagarin’s personal friend, General Valentin Petrov, it would never have occurred to Gagarin to make such a statement. On the contrary, said Petrov, he always proclaimed his faith when challenged, no matter where he was.[3][4]
The alleged Gagarin quotation, of him not seeing God in space, is still circulating in atheistic mythology and on the internet. The story of Gagarin’s statement was most likely just another lie put out by Communist propaganda. Gagarin was Christian. He had his daughter Yelena baptized shortly before his space flight. [3]
Such professions of Christian faith were dangerous for Gagarin’s career as well as for his personal safety and that of his family. He possessed a courage that can scarcely be overestimated and which may help explain his elite status as a cosmonaut.
A few weeks before Gagarin’s voyage Gagarin’s daughter Yelena was baptized in church. This was unusual in the Russia of that time and, like Gagarin’s outspokenness, normally connected with personal risk. But Gagarin was the best and the most charismatic cosmonaut the Russians had and the Soviet leadership understood better than anyone that the end justifies the means. For this reason it was decided to keep him on as a figurehead rather than send him to a Siberian labor camp where millions of innocent people were killed or had their lives destroyed.
As stated above, Gagarin’s flight was a fresh political disaster for the U.S. The newly elected president, John F. Kennedy, came under intense and persistent pressure from the American press and the public. Why was nothing being done? Why were we content to play the role of inept little brother? Bombarded with questions Kennedy, on the defensive, answered the journalists evasively. They all boiled down to this: How and when will we catch up with the Russians?
The flight of Gagarin put the newly elected President John F. Kennedy under heavy pressure to act. "What are we going to do to catch up with the Soviets?" (To be continued!)
The new Russian triumph was a political disaster for the Americans. The constantly smiling and completely charming Gagarin was the Soviet propaganda machine’s strongest card and they played it for all it was worth to affirm the narrative that Communism was on its way to a bright, new future. The narrative stood in sharp contrast to the reality and the drab, everyday life of the brutal Communist regimes of the Eastern Bloc, but was nevertheless backed up by tangible technological triumphs and the hero’s winning smile. Gagarin was sent all over the world, especially to youth conferences, where he delighted Western youth with his smile and friendly, optimistic talks.
The grim story of Gagarin’s retrorockets is illustrative.
The Russian government had so little faith in the loyalty of their own citizens that they felt they had to lock them in behind walls and barbed wire fences. The ordinary citizen was not allowed to leave the Eastern Bloc, and people were basically confined to what amounted to a large prison. Many people tried to escape and many were killed or jailed for attempting to gain their freedom. The Communist regime had a paranoid fear that their citizens would “defect”, which is what they called the attempt to reach the Free World. The atmosphere of suspicion and distrust particularly targeted those who were actually allowed to leave the country, e.g. diplomats, scientists, athletes – and cosmonauts.
In order to bring a spacecraft in orbit back to Earth, the spacecraft must decelerate, which is done by a set of so-called retrorockets. The retrorockets in Vostok 1 could be activated by the cosmonaut in an emergency situation. But for fear that Gagarin might defect, the activation mechanism was protected by a code that was kept secret from Gagarin. The code needed to be entered before the retrorockets could be activated manually. This would significantly complicate an emergency situation or, worst case scenario, make it impossible if the spacecraft was outside radio contact, but the authorities placed a greater priority on ensuring Gagarin’s continued imprisonment than on his safety. It should be noted, however, that several trusted engineers independently of each other, secretly and at great personal risk, whispered the code to Gagarin shortly before liftoff. Human emotions lived on in the shadows behind the iron curtain.
And then there’s the alleged Gagarin quotation, still circulating in atheistic mythology and on the internet. According to Communist propaganda Gagarin was supposed to have said, “I see no God up here”. Atheism was an integral part of Communist ideology and the Russian dictator Krushchev himself was at the head of an anti-religious campaign to quell what was left of religion in the populations of the Eastern Bloc. The story of Gagarin’s statement was apparently another lie put out by Communist propaganda. Gagarin was openly Christian and a member of the Russian Orthodox Church. According to Gagarin’s personal friend, General Valentin Petrov, it would never have occurred to Gagarin to make such a statement. On the contrary, said Petrov, he always proclaimed his faith when challenged, no matter where he was.[3][4]
Such professions of Christian faith were dangerous for Gagarin’s career as well as for his personal safety and that of his family. He possessed a courage that can scarcely be overestimated and which may help explain his elite status as a cosmonaut.
A few weeks before Gagarin’s voyage Gagarin’s daughter Yelena was baptized in church. This was unusual in the Russia of that time and, like Gagarin’s outspokenness, normally connected with personal risk. But Gagarin was the best and the most charismatic cosmonaut the Russians had and the Soviet leadership understood better than anyone that the end justifies the means. For this reason it was decided to keep him on as a figurehead rather than send him to a Siberian labor camp where millions of innocent people were killed or had their lives destroyed.
As stated above, Gagarin’s flight was a fresh political disaster for the U.S. The newly elected president, John F. Kennedy, came under intense and persistent pressure from the American press and the public. Why was nothing being done? Why were we content to play the role of inept little brother? Bombarded with questions Kennedy, on the defensive, answered the journalists evasively. They all boiled down to this: How and when will we catch up with the Russians?
---- Thank you for reading so far - you will find chapters 6 and 7 in this post ----
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[1] Tom Wolfe, 1979, The Right Stuff, ISBN:9780099479376
[2] Gene Kranz, Failure is not an Option, ISBN:0743200799
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin
[4] www.beliefnet.com
