Page 2 of 3123

Nov 28

Space Rocket History #40 – The First Woman in Space, Vostok 5 & 6 with Bykovsky and Tereshkova – Part 2

Posted on November 28, 2013 by spac9750

Vostok 5’s orbit turned out to be lower than the expected 181 by 235 km. The actual orbit was 175 by 222 km. Initial calculations indicated the orbit of Vostok 5 would not decay for 10 or 11 days, however more conservative estimates, taking into account the increased solar activity and the resulting expanding of the upper atmosphere showed that the orbit could decay after only 8 days. With no way of predicting where Vostok 5 might land, the planned eight-day mission was now in question…

Tereshkova

Tereshkova on TV

Oct 17

Space Rocket History #34 – Group Flight – Vostok 3 and 4

Posted on October 17, 2013 by spac9750

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Email | TuneIn | RSS

In February of 1962, the United States put John Glenn into orbit. This prompted Soviet leadership to suddenly asked Chief Designer Korolev to launch the next space spectacular promptly. To make this mission truly spectacular the Soviets decided to launch a group flight of two Vostoks lasting up to four days in orbit.

Nikolaev

Popovich

Rolling Out

Vostok 4 on Pad

Popovich in Orbit

Nikolaev & Popovich

Mission Patch

By Dave

The Troops and I Thank-you For the Likes

The Troops and I Thank-you For 100 Likes on Facebook!

Sep 26

Space Rocket History #31 – Godspeed John Glenn – Mercury-Atlas 6 – Friendship 7 – Part 2

Posted on September 26, 2013 by spac9750

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Email | TuneIn | RSS

Mercury Control was still undecided on the course of action to take with the heat shield problem. Some controllers thought the retrorocket pack should be jettisoned after retrofire, while other controllers thought the retro pack should be retained, as added assurance that the heat shield would stay in place…

Watching the Mission

Splashdown

The Mercury 7

Glenn and JFK

NYC Parade

Friendship 7

Sep 12

Space Rocket History #29 – Mercury-Atlas 5 With Enos

Posted on September 12, 2013 by spac9750

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Email | TuneIn | RSS

Following the successful suborbital missions of Allan Shepard and Gus Grissom, NASA believed the Mercury capsule was ready for an orbital mission. But, there was a problem, the Redstone booster did not have the power to place the Mercury capsule into orbit. The Atlas booster had the power to put the capsule in orbit but not the confidence of NASA. By September of 1961 Four launches of the mercury-atlas had been made with only a 50 percent success rate…