Vostok 1 and the First Human in Space

On April 12, 1961, the Russians launched Vostok 1, the first spacecraft that would carry a human into space. This person was Yuri Gagarin.  He made a 108 minute orbit around the Earth. When he dropped down from the spacecraft after reentry, he landed in a different spot from where he launched.

“The spacecraft consisted of a nearly spherical cabin covered with ablative material. There were three small portholes and external radio antennas. Radios, a life support system, instrumentation, and an ejection seat were contained in the manned cabin” (NASA.gov). The cabin itself also contained many other apparatus. While Gagarin was in orbit, the spacecraft itself was being manned from below. He maintained consistent communication with the stations below, and was able to calmly make a full orbit around the Earth. While above, he was able to view many changes in weather over the continents, as well as many features in the terrain.

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The Vostok was designed for Gagarin to be able safely eject and land on the ground with a parachute. When he reentered the atmosphere, he landed in Kazakhstan, south of Russia.

Gagarin’s successful orbit of the Earth would lead to new developments in space exploration as well as the launching of many more spacecraft that contained humans. Many saw this feat as groundbreaking, and the USSR was praised for having accomplished such an amazing task.

Luna 3 and the First Images of the Far Side of the Moon

Date: October 7, 1959

Luna 3 was the third spacecraft in a series of Soviet spacecraft that was launched towards the Moon. This spacecraft was the first to bring back images of the far side of the moon, the part that cannot be seen from Earth. The pictures it returned were not very clear, but digital enhancements made the mapping of the side of the Moon possible.

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“The spacecraft was a cylindrically shaped canister with hemispherical ends and a wide flange near the top end. The probe was 130 cm long and 120 cm at its maximum diameter at the flange” (NASA.gov). The outside of it was covered with some solar panels that powered the battery inside. It had various antennas on top and on the bottom, and there were openings in the top where cameras could take pictures through. Other instruments and equipment were also located on the outside of the spacecraft.  On the inside were the cameras and film equipment, as well as other measuring instruments.

The camera onboard detected the Moon as Luna 3 went by it. It started to automatically take shots. When the photos were taken, the film went under development, and the final prints were then scanned. Through a different process, the images were able to be sent as radio signals towards Earth. “The first image was taken at 03:30 UT at a distance of 63,500 km from the Moon's surface and the last 40 minutes later from 66,700 km. A total of 29 photographs were taken, covering 70% of the far side” (NASA.gov).  After it completely took all of the shots, it revolved back towards Earth, and the images were transmitted as it got closer to it.

By October 22, contact was lost with the probe, and the date that it burned up on is unknown, though it is believed to be between 1960 and 1962.

Luna 2- The First Lunar Probe

Date: September 14, 1959

Luna 2 was the second spacecraft launched towards the Moon by the USSR. It was part of a series of spacecraft under the name of “Luna” which was named because of the objective of reaching the Moon. The significance of this spacecraft was that it was the first to impact the Moon’s surface. It impacted the lunar surface east of Mare Serenitatis (NASA.gov), one of the large basaltic plains that rest on the moon’s surface.

Luna 2 was of similar design to Luna 1. It was small and spherical, and it had a lot of antennas protruding out of its body. “The instrumentation was also similar, including scintillation- and geiger- counters, a magnetometer, and micrometeorite detectors” (NASA.gov). Luna 2 also carried Soviet pennants like its predecessor. It also did not have any propulsion system on it, as it was just meant to crash into the moon.

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“After launch and attainment of escape velocity on 12 September 1959, Luna 2 separated from its third stage, which travelled along with it towards the Moon” (NASA.gov). A day after, the spacecraft released a trail of orange gas, which, as with Luna 1, was used to calculate its path and to test how gas was affected in space. On September 14, communication with the spacecraft stopped, meaning that it had hit the moon. Some 30 minutes after Luna 2 came in contact with the Moon’s surface, the third stage of its rocket also impacted the Moon at an unidentified location. The mission confirmed that the Moon had no considerable magnetic field, and found no evidence of radiation belts around the Moon (NASA.gov).

The Corona Program

Date: June 1959

Corona was a program that involved various reconnaissance satellites. These satellites were used to spy over the USSR, the People’s Republic of China, and other areas.

These satellites were mainly watching over the Soviets to see where they were constructing their ballistic missiles and how they were getting to them. Even though they were also involved in this Space Race, the USSR was not to be trusted, as it could be easily making missiles meant to harm the U.S. and other countries.

“The first launches of the Corona program were announced by the USAF as satellites in the Discoverer series. This Discoverer program, then described as a satellite technology development effort, was in reality mainly a cover for the Corona photographic missions” (NASA,gov)

  “The satellites used film canisters that were returned to earth in capsules for evaluation. These capsules were designed to be recovered by a special aircraft during parachute descent, but were also designed to float to permit recovery from the ocean. All film was black-and-white, with the exception of some small samples of infrared and color film carried on some missions as experiments” (NASA.gov).

In the Corona program, the first satellite was dubbed KH-1, and future versions would go to the next number. The KH stands for keyhole, and the numbers stand for the type of cameras the satellites used.                                                                                                                                                                       In 1995, President Clinton signed an Executive Order directing the declassification of intelligence imagery acquired by the Corona, Argon, and Lanyard missions. The order provides for the declassification of more than 860,000 images of the Earth's surface, collected between 1960 and 1972.” (NASA.gov)

                                                                                                                                 

Luna 1

Date: January 4, 1959

Luna 1 was the first satellite launched by the USSR to reach the moon and to get out of the escape velocity of earth. It was also the first to successfully be aimed at the moon.

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This spacecraft was sphere shaped, with antennas extending from the top. This satellite also did not have any propulsion system installed in it.  “The spacecraft contained radio equipment, a tracking transmitter, a telemetering system, five different sets of scientific devices for studying interplanetary space, including a magnetometer, geiger counter, scintillation counter, and micrometeorite detector, and other equipment.” (NASA.gov).

On the 3^rd of January, the satellite spewed a bunch of orange gas into space. This gas was able to be seen from earth.  This gas served as a way for astronomers to track the progress of the satellite, as well as an experiment to see how gas reacted in space. When it received an incorrect signal from the ground-based control center, the satellite missed the Moon by about 5,900 km on January 4^th. The satellite also went into orbit with the Sun, between the orbits of the earth and the Moon.

The measurements obtained during this mission provided new data about the Earth's radiation belt and outer space, as well as the discovery that the Moon had no magnetic field and that a solar wind, a strong flow of ionized plasma emanating from the Sun, streamed through interplanetary space (NASA.gov).

This satellite would be the first of a series of missions to be launched to the moon.

Project SCORE- The First Communication Satellite

Date: December 18, 1958

Project SCORE was the world’s first communication satellite.  SCORE stands for “Signal Communication by Orbiting Relay Equipment”. It was launched with an Atlas rocket on December 18, 1958 from Cape Canerval. The Atlas rocket was one of the first missiles made by the U.S. to become an ICBM.

“In late June 1958, the U.S. Army Signal Research and Development Laboratory at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey was directed to construct a communications satellite with a maximum weight of 150 pounds…The entire rocket was to be placed into orbit and, therefore, it was decided that the communications equipment would be integrated…The orbit was expected to be low… was only 2 to 3 weeks. The low orbit and short life would limit opportunities for real time relay between two ground stations, therefore, a store and forward mode was added by including a tape recorder. This would also give the satellite a worldwide broadcast capability. Since reliability was a concern, a second tape recorder was added to the communications package” (Space Policy Project).

By December, the SCORE was ready to become of use and would be launched. When it was launched and in orbit, a tape recording was played from the satellite that played a messaged from the President to the world. From there on, it responded to all other forward voice and teletype transmissions coming from stations on earth. On January 21, 1959, the satellite ended up falling into the atmosphere after its batteries had died, and it burned on reentry.

Though this satellite demonstrated a way to send and receive transmissions to and from space, it had really been create because of the competition between the U.S. and the USSR. Things would become more tense as each country would put out their next missions into space.

Explorer I- The First American Satellite in Space

Date:  January 31, 1958

Soon after the USSR had launched its own missiles into space, the U.S. responded with the Explorer initiative, launching their first satellite, Explorer I, into space.

“Following the launch of the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, the U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency was directed to launch a satellite using its Jupiter C rocket developed under the direction of Dr. Wernher von Braun” (NASA.gov) With the help of Wernher von Braun, a leading scientist in the creation of the Nazi missiles, the U.S. would be able to manufacture its own rockets and missiles.

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The main instrument on the satellite was a cosmic ray detector. Once the cosmic rays were seen as being very minimal, Dr. James Van Allen theorized that the satellite had come in contact with a radiation belt. This belt would later be known as Van Allen Belt (NASA.gov).                                                                                                                                                                            Explorer 1 revolved around Earth in a looping orbit that took it as close as 354 kilometers to Earth and as far as 2,515 kilometers from it. It made one orbit every 114.8 minutes, or a total of 12.54 orbits per day. The satellite itself was 203 centimeters long and 15.9 centimeters in diameter (NASA.gov). Explorer I was at its final transmission on May 23, 1958. On March 31, 1970, Explorer I descended into and burned in the atmosphere.

The start o the Explorer program was the first step for the U.S. to get into the space race and to eventually become the prominent leader in space exploration.