How the Soviets Won the Early Space Race - COLD WAR DOCUMENTARY
earth is the cradle of humanity but one cannot live in a cradle forever these are the words of constantine silkowski one of the pioneers of rocket science whose research and ideas profoundly impacted and guided that emerging technology in the 20th century although humanity has always been fascinated by the celestial heavens it was 20th century technological breakthroughs that led to more formal space research programs including investigations on how to escape the cradle of earth and reach for the stars i'm your host david and today we're going to start looking at the state-funded space programs of the two cold war superpowers in what is arguably the biggest and highest profile propaganda campaign in history today we start looking at the space race this is the cold war today's episode is all about 20th century space exploration but if you've ever wanted to explore space in the 23rd century then you need to boldly go download star trek fleet command the sponsor of today's video star trek fleet command is free to play on ios and android and lets you explore the star trek universe the story driven mission system lets you send away teams form alliances build bases and even research new technology to customize your own starship form your very own bridge crew including such star trek legends as captain kirk and my favorite spock and then explore the neutral zone any way you want there's even a faction system that lets you grow in renown with the romulans the klingons the federation and even rogues and augments we love the regular updates that keep the game fresh and engaging star trek fleet command is free to play on ios and android use my link in the description below to download thanks to star trek fleet command for sponsoring this video so to start with i think it's important to note that the space race as a whole is a complicated subject in cold war terms simply because it doesn't fit into a simple category after all a race implies that those competing are trying to achieve the same goal the soviets and the americans started with similar goals but diverged as time went on now the race wasn't a military program specifically but was certainly intrinsically linked to the militaries of the superpowers it was a technology race but was fundamentally a propaganda tool but ultimately in the long run the space race was a demonstrated and realized opportunity for international cooperation and detont but to explain all of this we need to go back to the beginning and talk about the evolution of rocketry okay so as you might expect the development of rocketry didn't just happen in one single place or time but was being studied around the world in the united states robert goddard is often considered to be the pioneer of american space rocket science he had come up with the ideas for both liquid-fueled rockets and multi-stage rockets as early as 1914 and even conducted successful tests of liquid fuel models by 1926 but the us government was skeptical of the potential of rockets and refused to provide financial backing to goddard's research he had a reputation as a private and insular man which actually was a benefit to the united states as he refused to share any of his research with others including scientists working on the german rocket program in the 1930s and with that seamless segue we can talk about rocketry in germany the limitations imposed on the country by the versailles treaty included the prohibition of an air force as well as long-range cannon what it did not prevent however was the development of rocketry as a result the germans went in large on the emerging technology prominent among the scientists was a man i'm positive you're all at least passingly familiar with verner von braun remember that name because he becomes super important later on the german rocket program was successful by 1942 launching its first rocket into the reaches of outer space well sort of it reached an altitude of 80 kilometers which while it didn't cross the threshold of the karman line at 100 kilometers it's often considered to be close enough oh yeah i should mention that the rocket type the germans launched was an a4 the a4 measured 14 meters tall weighed 12 500 kilos was powered by liquid oxygen and had a ballistic range of 322 kilometers most of us are actually familiar with one of the variants of the a4 the v2 one of hitler's so-called vengeance weapons now if we shift our attention further east we come to the russian scientist constantine tsilkovsky and those of you paying attention will notice i said russian and not soviet that's because zielkowski's research began as early as 1883 and he developed a considerable amount of theoretical work by the early 1900s notably his 1903 work exploration of outer space by means of rocket devices in which he calculated the forces and means needed to put a rocket into earth's orbit he continued to work on and develop new ideas and maths regarding rocketry and space travel but he never went beyond the theoretical phase he never actually built a rocket but moscow had clearly recognized the potential benefits that rocketry could provide and in 1931 the group for the study of reactive motion or gerd was established headed by sergey korolov the future head of the soviet space program gerd was the first professional institute dedicated to the study of rocket science by 1933 the soviet program had successfully tested several liquid-fueled rockets including the geared x and the gear 9 rockets and progress looked set to continue a pace but and here's the but stalin's purges interfered and slowed garen's progress included in this was the 1938 arrests of notable scientists like ivan clemenov georgie langemark valentin glushko and sergey korolov korolov was even sentenced to death but managed to have his sentence reduced to merely time in prison after yezov was ousted and replaced by beria korolov spent time in the gulag at kolima before being transferred back to moscow to serve his sentence working in a sharashka a research facility staffed by educated prisoners i'm telling you this because it's something to consider that korolov despite his treatment by the authorities continued to serve them and guide the soviet union to a series of successive firsts in the space race that was to develop but back to the soviet rocket program with the outbreak of global war by 1941 all soviet scientists and engineers were recruited to work towards military production creating the stage for what was to unfold in the post-war years by 1945 the german rocket program had pretty much wrapped up its work largely on account of their unconditional surrender to the allies but the knowledge from that program was a valuable commodity and sought after by both sides in the emerging cold war i feel it might be redundant to point out but i will anyway both the americans and the soviets wanted access to german technology so it could be applied to military programs to help gain an edge over the other side the exploration of space however was not at the forefront of anybody's mind when the americans launched operation paperclip over 1600 german scientists were recruited to come to the us and work on various programs the americans who had ignored formal study of rocket science from much of the 1930s understood quickly by war's end how far behind they were in what was clearly becoming a major facet of military technology and saw recruitment of german knowledge as a way to very quickly leap forward in their own capabilities importantly for today's topic was the recruitment of men like werner von braun and others who had been involved in the development and production of the german ballistic rocket programs including the v2 now the soviets also keenly aware of the technology gap that existed were not going to be left behind in any of this in response to paper clip the soviets launched operation of soviet him but soviet him had the same intent to scoop up german scientists and engineers and put them to work but unlike paperclip which was conducted over the course of years and required the consent of the person being recruited a soviet him was conducted on a single day the 22nd of october 1946 moreover the 2 000 men recruited weren't asked if they wanted to participate they were simply seized by soviet troops along with their families and transferred to the soviet union to begin working on various projects including soviet rocket programs stalin mindful of the potential for open war with his former allies in the west saw rocketry as a means to help offset the strategic disadvantage the soviet union was in keep in mind that in 1946 the aircraft was the primary means of strategic weapons delivery and when it came to long-range aircraft the united states was very much king of the castle moreover the united states had access to bases surrounding the soviet union giving them the ability to easily strike soviet territory the soviets had no such ability to strike at the united states rocketry however looked to be the solution to this the development of long-range ballistic missiles intercontinental ballistic missiles if you will became a priority for moscow okay so at this point clearly rocketry is all about the superpowers being in a race to see who could whip their missiles out onto the table to see whose was bigger right well yes but it wasn't just about the size of the missile it was also what each side was capable of doing with them let me explain we know a significant aspect of the cold war was a military competition over who was stronger and more prepared to go to war to defend their own interests and allies in order to win and keep allies it was important to appear stronger wealthier and more technologically advanced than the other side this way they could demonstrate that their ideological political and economic system was better than the other space programs a natural extension of military programs already underway afforded the potential for massive propaganda wins for whichever country was first to reach the cosmos so let's look at where the u.s program was in the early cold war period vernor von braun who was totally not a nazi and even signed a sworn affidavit to prove it had by 1946 ended up in the care of the us army at fort bliss in new mexico not far from the white sands proving ground later named the new mexico joint guided missile test range and eventually white sands missile range it was there that von braun and his small team of german transplants caught the americans up to speed on literal rocket science walking them through the technology involved in the a4 v2 rockets by 1949 the americans had their first major breakthrough with the rtv g4 bumper the first successful launch of a two-stage rocket the bumper was however a sounding rocket meaning it was a sub-orbital rocket designed to go up into the atmosphere to take measurements or conduct limited experiments but the americans had another major breakthrough starting in 1953 with the launch of the pgm11 redstone missile named after the redstone arsenal in huntsville alabama where von braun had been transferred in 1950. the pgm 11 was the american's first medium-range ballistic missile and would not only form the basis for the jupiter missiles so crucial to the cuban missile crisis but the fundamental platform for future american satellite launches as well as piloted space flight we also need to consider that the americans at this time didn't have a single unified rocket program or even a unified space program nasa wasn't going to be created until 1958 each branch of the military had their own rocket programs and each were working independently to develop their own intercontinental ballistic missile or icbm as part of these independent development projects various tests were conducted through the late 1940s and even 1950s on a4 v2 platform rockets launching living creatures into space the first such test was done on february 20th 1947 with a payload of fruit flies on board space by the way is now full of fruit flies because those damn things are impossible to get rid of later launches involved mice and monkeys albert ii a rhesus monkey became the first primate in space on june 14th 1949 traveling to a height of 134 kilometers although he was killed on re-entry when the capsule parachute failed to deploy all of these tests were aimed at observing the impact of space flight on living creatures including reactions to space flight itself as well as health impacts and the effects of radiation meanwhile the soviet union was busy with its own rocket development program headed by sergey korolov and supported by his guests the german rocket scientists that had been picked up in 1946 by 1948 the soviets had made their own analogous version of the v2 rocket the r1 successfully launched from casputinjar near stalingrad on october 10th that it wasn't a v2 and was designed and manufactured using all soviet parts was actually vitally important to the soviet missile program as it gave them valuable experience in designing and manufacturing future rocket platforms the soviet union continued developments and tests and like the americans these tests including space flights with animals on board august 15th 1951 saw the launch and recovery of two dogs desig and sigan who traveled to a height of 110 kilometers on may 15 1957 the soviets successfully launched their own two-stage rocket the r-7 semyorka becoming the world's first icbm in the process incidentally the r7 launch took place from scientific research test range number five near churatam in the kazakh ssr we now know it as the baikonur cosmodrome by the way now the soviet government continued to view rocketry and rocket science as a largely military matter the defense of the soviet union from potential western attack was by default made a higher priority than the development of an independent space program despite this however suggestions for civilian applications or at least not directly military obligations anyway were being proposed as early as 1948 the scientist and engineer mikhail thicharav was making suggestions to korlov to begin work on a project that would put an artificial satellite into orbit tichondravov even presented the idea to the academy of artillery sciences but the idea was dismissed as being fantasy of course the fantasy was converted to reality in 1953 when corlove made a pitch to the central authorities to do just what tikrun rav had proposed put a satellite into orbit although the military applications continued to dominate funding and interest korolov got the go-ahead to begin working on the new program this was made official on october 26 1954 when the soviet administers signed a decree authorizing the construction and launch of the first artificial satellite of course that decision was being made behind closed doors and was not publicized to the world on the 29th of july 1955 president eisenhower's press secretary james hagerty announced that the united states was planning to launch an artificial satellite into orbit not to be outdone four days later leonid sedov a soviet scientist attending an international conference announced that the ussr was planning to do the same thing this is often considered to be the start of the space race as we commonly recognize it the soviets were especially interested in being able to capitalize on the propaganda victory that beating the americans into space would provide it was at this time that the scientific research test range number five the polygon was established as a dedicated site that could provide all the necessary resources for space launches so you remember how i mentioned a few minutes ago how multiple branches of the us military were pursuing their own independent rocket programs well by 1955 the us government was choosing between three of the proposed projects put forward by the military to see which rocket platform would be best suited for putting a payload into orbit the us air force was putting forward its atlas rocket which we feel it's important to point out had not yet been tested or even built the abma the army ballistic missile agency which was headed by von braun proposed the use of updated versions of their own redstone rockets the navy wanted to use their viking and arrow b rocket systems a project collectively called vanguard now both the army proposal and the air force proposals faced some challenges the air force proposal atlas faced the biggest hurdle as the rocket wasn't even built yet so would need to go through construction and testing to ensure it would be fit for purpose it was dismissed as a result as a side note atlas did get built but its first flight didn't take place until after the first satellite had been successfully launched and what about the army project well rates don't existed so it had that going for it but then there's always a but the eisenhower administration was reluctant to use a rocket that had been designed not only by military engineers but also german scientists that had been recruited through paperclip it was felt that the optics of launching such a rocket over the soviet union was too antagonistic from both illegal and a propaganda perspective the legal question at the time was of particular interest as there was no international consensus at the time if national jurisdiction of airspace extended into space or ended where the atmosphere did the redstone option also suffered because it would rely on the jet propulsion lab or jpl to design and build a satellite as anyone who's worked in project management before knows adding more moving pieces especially external moving pieces always increases the chances of delays and challenges so this left the navy's vanguard program despite being designed by the naval research laboratory vanguard was more of a scientific research project with putting scientific equipment into orbit being one of its primary functions of course it didn't hurt the program that scientific equipment could easily be swapped for reconnaissance equipment instead but vanguard was chosen as the best option to carry the us space program forward and aimed to put a satellite into earth orbit in 1957 or 1958 by 1956 a vanguard rocket had successfully completed a sub-orbital flight and it was felt that a 1957 satellite launch was on track crucially however both abma and jpl the jet propulsion lab continued to work on their own space flight project meanwhile back in the ussr by january of 1957 the work there relating to the design and construction of a satellite was being completed all that was needed was the final tests of the rocket to carry the payload into orbit testing the r7 began with three failures and it wasn't until august 21st that the first successful flight took place one more successful launch was carried out on the r7 although there were re-entry problems after studying the issue the soviet scientists concluded that although the r7 would need further modification to be used to deliver warheads to a target it would be fine for satellite launching it was then decided to attempt to put the waiting satellite into the heavens on october 4 1957 at 2228 moscow time the soviet union launched the r7 rocket from the kuratan range and at 2233 it could confirm that for the first time in history an artificial satellite had been placed into earth orbit it was named sputnik which translated to satellite in astronomical terms but could also be translated as traveling companion sputnik was allowed to make a full orbit of the earth before soviet scientists confirmed their success that was a full 96 minutes and 20 seconds that they had to wait tas the soviet news agency then released the following statement as a result of great intense work of scientific institutes and design bureaus the first artificial earth satellite has been built the soviet union had secured the first win in the space race sputnik gave a steady beat beat beep sound as it orbited a signal that anyone with a shortwave radio could pick up and listen to as the satellite traveled overhead the impact of this clear triumph of soviet technology was profound in the united states it sparked a crisis of confidence but also spurred american programs to try and catch up the space race was on we're gonna make a deliberate choice to stop the story here but we'll pick up again later with the us response including the vanguard project and redstone as well as the stories of stray dogs turned into heroes the triumphs of the son of a collective farmer and of a parachutist from yaroslavl and of mercury and gemini and eventually of the tragedy and redemptions of apollo and soyuz we hope you've enjoyed today's episode and to make sure you don't miss all of our future episodes please make sure you're subscribed to our channel and have created three separate and competing programs to ensure you will be the first to press 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2021-09-14 17:34
