Even though Britain was relatively late in having an astronaut blast into space, (1991), us lot have actually contributed towards space exploration for a long time. Communication and tracking of rockets and satellites in orbit was achieved using stations such as Jodrell Bank in Cheshire, just south of Manchester, which, along with other stations, were used to track satellites like Sputnick and Pioneer 5.
The first international satellite, Ariel, was a British project successfully lofted into orbit on 26 April 1962 aboard a Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida, making the United Kingdom only the world’s third space-faring nation. (Let’s gloss over the fact that only a few months after its launch, Ariel was severely damaged by a high-altitude US nuclear test, the bastards….)
Then who, of my age-group, can forget the wonderful Telstar satellite that same year. For the first time in history, television pictures were ‘beamed’ across the Atlantic Ocean. The broadcast from the United States in July was received at Britain’s Goonhilly Earth station in Cornwall, with those first pictures transmitted live on BBC television. There was even an instrumental hit record called “Telstar”, which went to the top of the charts in both the U.K. and U.S.A.
There is no doubt that so much has been discovered, studied, developed and subsequently exploited to the benefit of most of us, due to the previous decades of space travel. But it all comes with a huge caveat.
Getting back to the moon over half a century since man first achieved it is proving very difficult. The amount of money granted to NASA to enable that first series of landings was astronomical, excuse the pun. It will never happen again. Remember that getting to the moon was America’s way of sticking two fingers up to the Russians and effectively saying “We have bigger cocks than you”, during the climax to the Cold War. It won’t happen again any time soon.
Also, we will never get near to other stars and galaxies anyway, because of the colossal distances involved. And if my blogging mate Dean is correct, Trump’s re-election later this year will, he reckons, cause World War Three within five years. All the money that could have been used for further space exploration will instead be used to blow ourselves up into oblivion.
So, I’ll leave you this week with the depressing thought that it won’t really matter what we’ve learnt over the past 60 years.
60 years of space travel: Alexei Leonov
Back in the 1950s and 60s, the Soviet Union was setting up the tone of space exploration.
We were the first to launch Sputnik in October 1957 and the first to send a man into space in April 1961. Everyone, still to this day, knows who Yuri Gagarin is. However, there’s another exciting story about a man who travelled extensively in space.
The fact is that the Russians – or, putting it more accurately, the Soviets – also were to first set up a man for a spacewalk in March 1965.
This man was Alexei Leonov. He was the first man to walk in space in 1965 and co-commanded the legendary Apollo-Soyuz space journey in 1975.
Leonov was much more than this, both as a spaceman and as a man. He was also a gifted artist, painting space-themed works. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, he became the head of an investment company.
His first spaceflight became a historic one momentarily. It was the Voskhod 2 mission, which he piloted in a two-man crew in March 1965. It was a 26-hour mission, during which Alexey Leonov became the first person to walk in space.
Ninety minutes after the launch, Leonov walked into space, floating freely outside the Voskhod capsule for more than ten minutes, hundreds of kilometers above the Earth.
Then, a space oddity happened.
When he attempted to return to the spaceship, he couldn’t. The pressure difference between the air in his space suit and the vacuum outside expanded the suit, making it so rigid that he could not move his fingers. Finally, he bled some air out of the suit so could close the lock’s outer hatch. By the time Leonov ended his spacewalk, it had lasted over twenty minutes.
During the re-entry stage, another space oddity happened.
The Voskhod’s onboard computer failed, and the capsule landed over 900 kilometers off course in a remote area of the Ural Mountains. Two cold days later, in the wilderness, the crew was finally rescued. Leonov was honoured with the Hero of the Soviet Union award for his spacewalk.
Later, he achieved another landmark in space.
In 1975, Alexei Leonov re-entered space as commander of the Soyuz 19 mission. It was the famous first joint Soviet-U.S. space project, known in the United States as the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP).
During his preparation phase, he intensively trained in the United States, learning English and making three visits to the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Leonov’s friendly attitude won the hearts of many Americans and, in many ways, did much to change Western perceptions of Soviet cosmonauts.
On July 15, 1975, Leonov and Valery Kubasov blasted off aboard Soyuz 19 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, the same day the American crew lifted off in an Apollo spaceship from Kennedy Space Center. Two days later, the two spacecraft docked. The crews visited each other and conducted various activities. Leonov was on the American side for five hours and 43 minutes.
By the way, Leonov kept in touch with American astronauts long after that mission until his death in October 2019.
I think Alexei Leonov was Russia’s greatest cosmonaut; a professional with universal space skills and a man of heart. Leonov Crater, on the far side of the Moon, is named after him.
P.S. Two more facts about Alexey Leonov.
During the moon race, he was Neil Armstrong’s alter ego as head of the Russian moon landing mission, which never happened. Theoretically, Alexei Leonov could have said something about the great leap and a small step…
In 1971, he was planned to fly as mission head on the Salyut 1 spaceship. In the last hours, his crew member fell ill, and their participation in the mission was cancelled. The backup crew that flew this mission died on re-entry.
60 years of Space Travel, have we achieved anything?
First, of course, it’s not sixty; at best we can say maybe twenty. Moreover, we took a forty-year break. But did we achieve anything? I would argue hell, yeah, we did a whole bunch of junk. No, I’m not about to launch into a list that includes Velcro, lame and cheap wrist watches.
I also think the Americans have done a crappy job of explaining what they are doing. During the Space Race, the Soviets & US were locked in a race for bragging rights (that’s all). Now many people think the US is in a race with China. The people making this claim do not follow the industry. Will the Chinese be the first to the moon? That’s entirely possible. The Chinese will crow about how they are superior to the West and there will be great chest thumping while the MAGAs will use this as proof that the US is in decline.
Can the Chinese Government pour billions into space and beat little Astrobotic from Pittsburgh’s North Side to the moon? Probably. Could they really beat NASA if the Americans decided hell, no? I freely admit to being partial.
The return to the moon is not sponsored by the bottomless pockets of the US Government. Instead, the money is measured in millions and is being given to small private start-ups. NASA gave SpaceX not only seed-money, they gave them the expertise that company needed to get the Falcon 1 off the pad. Now they are doing the same thing with several more, small private companies.
These little private start-ups are learning by face planting landers, not flags, on the lunar surface. While I understand, I still cringe a little at the thought of China crowing how they will beat the weak Americans. I know the people at NASA are right and I need to sit my nationalistic attitude aside. It still itches a little.
Will NASA send Artemis to Mars? Noooo — don’t listen to that propaganda BS. A dozen Starships will go and they will use all kinds of private landers, habitats, and rovers. The days of waving flags and bringing back a bag of rocks are over. Automated rocket fuel manufacturing facilities are the real, final frontier.