Episode 41: The Space Race

This series is going to be the most ambitious of the podcast by far, talking about the more than one dozen astronauts buried at Arlington while trying to also stitch together a coherent story of the US space race. 

Human kind had been observing, charting, and pondering on the heavens for thousands of years. Over the centuries, more delicate and accurate instruments were developed to provide a better understanding of the universe around us, which inspired authors beginning in the 17th to imagine and to create science fiction.

Johannes Kepler's The Dream, 1634 - Considered by many the first work of science fiction

Bishop Francis Goodwin's The Man in the Moone, 1638 - first English language sci-fi book

Cyrano de Bergerac's Comical History of the States and Empire's of the Moon, 1656

Voltaire's  Le Micromegas, 1752

Jules Vern's From the Earth to the Moon (1865) & Round the Moon (1869) inspired an early silent-era film called A Trip to the Moon (1902), which produced an image that I have seen pop up time and time again over the years.

  

A Trip to the Moon inspired the 1995 Smashing Pumpkins music video Tonight, Tonight

 

In the last 125 years were the innovators who lead to spaceflight developing their theories and ideas. 

Russian Konstantin Tsiolkovsky - The Father of Modern Astronics

American Robert Goddard - The Father of Modern Rocketry

German Hermann Oberth - The Father of Space Flight

It wasn't until after World War II and the onset of the Cold War that the Space Race entered its final stage, pitting the United States against the Soviet Union to see with global super power would reign supreme.

The Soviets jumped out to an early lead in the contest, successfully launching the first two satellites, Sputnik and Sputnik II, into space in 1957. Sputnik II carried Laika the dog, the first living creature in space.

A replica of Sputnik I

Laika the dog went into space aboard Sputnik II

After several failed attempts, the United States finally got its first satellite into space in early 1958 when Explorer I launched. That was quickly followed up with the creation of NASA as an independent agency with civilian oversight. After a rigorous selection process, NASA introduced the Mercury Seven, the first seven astronauts, one of whom the space agency hoped would be the first human in space.

A replica of Explorer I

The Mercury Seven Introductory Press Conference - (left to right) Gordo Cooper, Scott Carpenter, John Glenn, Deke Slayton, Gus Grissom, Alan Shepard, and Wally Schirra.