Those of us old enough to remember the heady days of the 1960s when humans first ventured into space can rattle off the names easily. Vostok, Mercury, Voshkod, Gemini. And of course, Apollo.
Some of us even sought out Revell plastic model kits of these vehicles and commandeered shelf space in our homes for our glued-together space ships. My own models are long gone, model building has become more of an adult hobby than one for teenagers, and it seems that only the Space Shuttle and the various components of the Apollo missions are of interest to model builders of spacecraft.
This is the first of a series. I’ll begin by discussing, one by one, the historic spacecraft of that decade of the 1960s, the ones that first took humans into that high frontier, the ones that finally broke the chains of gravity.
VOSTOK
The Soviets were first, of course. Yuri Gagarin rode aloft on April 12, 1961, in the Vostok 1 spacecraft atop an R-7 booster rocket. An earlier less powerful version of this rocket was the world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
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The Soviets were not only first, they were clearly ahead in what came to be known as the “Space Race”. Their larger and more powerful rockets let them launch larger satellites and spacecraft, and let them push a crewed spacecraft to the speeds necessary to enter orbit. Gagarin circled the Earth once, with a total flight time of 108 minutes.
Vostok’s re-entry capsule was spherical. There were no thrusters on board to allow the cosmonaut to adjust his orientation, so the entire sphere was covered with heat-resistant material that burned away from the friction generated by the atmosphere. Initial entry into the upper reaches of the atmosphere took place at speeds of about 17,000 miles per hour. Slamming into the ever-thickening layers of air slowed the capsule down, but at the cost of temperatures in the thousands of degrees for the outside of the capsule, and strong g-forces from the rapid deceleration. It did have its weight distributed to leave the cosmonaut in a horizontal position. It would have been difficult to survive the re-entry deceleration of eight times the force of gravity otherwise.
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Something that was suspected but not confirmed for years was that the cosmonaut did not land with the spacecraft. After parachutes slowed the capsule to a safe speed and the atmosphere at 23,000 feet was thick enough for breathing, the cosmonaut ejected and parachuted to earth on his own. Had he landed with the capsule, the impact would have been hard enough to injure or kill him. The Soviets did not have the advantage of the Americans in landing in the somewhat softer oceans; instead they had vast land areas under their control.
Why was this kept secret? The organization responsible for setting standards and keeping records in aeronautics (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale) required at that time that the pilot land with the craft. There was concern that Gagarin’s spaceflight record would not be recognized. The FAI revised its rules however, and Gagarin’s pioneering flight has earned him a well-deserved place in history.
Gagarin himself did not outlive his fame. He died in a training flight of his MiG-15 jet in March 1968. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left a medal commemorating him on the moon in July, 1969. The April 12 date of his flight is celebrated internationally as Yuri’s Night to commemorate milestones in space exploration. In 2011, it was declared the International Day of Human Space Flight by the United Nations.
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