Sputnik To Mir: A Brief History Of The Soviet/Russian Space Program

10 Pages 2473 Words

elopment of an earth–orbiting satellite. Initially, he was unable to get support for the concept, and his presentation to a meeting of the Academy of Artillery Sciences was met with skepticism. “The topic is interesting…but we cannot include your report,” was the official reaction, according to Korolev’s biographer, Yarolslav Golovanov. Towards the end of 1953, though, having redesigned the R–7 rocket to carry a heavier payload, Korolev drafted a decree for the Central Committee of the Communist Party which included the possibility of using the vehicle to launch a satellite. Korolev’s deputy, Vassily Mishin, stated that the designer had to propose a Sputnik launch as part of the test program of the ICBM program, in order to get it approved by a group strongly influenced by the military. This group plagued Korolev throughout his career through their opposition to almost any space exploration initiative which might detract from weapons development. Thus, Korolev’s proposal was so delicately phrased that it merely referred to a “…new article which permits speaking about the possibility of designing an artificial Earth satellite within the next few years. By a certain reduction of the weight of the payload it will be possible for the satellite to achieve the necessary velocity of 8,000 m/sec.” The launch itself, on October 4, 1957, jolted the world, and in particular the Americans, who had every reason to think that they would have been first to achieve such a success.
The concept of putting up a satellite had been known to the world’s space enthusiasts for many years. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Robert Goddard had both written of the feasibility of such a launch. Serious proposals to launch a spacecraft into Earth orbit had been discussed since the mid–1940s. It was not until July 29, 1955, that the Eisenhower Administration announced that the US would launch a satellite—Vanguard. It would blow up on...