All Questions
Tagged with history soviet-union
29
questions
19
votes
8
answers
10k
views
What kept the Soviets from going to the Moon (before the US)?
I know that Saturn V's payload was 140 tons, about 20 times that of Soyuz. The Soviets did not have a functioning rocket with similar characteristics. But why? They had a head start in the space race ...
- 1,149
10
votes
1
answer
434
views
Was Fidel Castro ever in a Soviet spacecraft?
I was looking at a Roscosmos news item Russian monitoring tools track the stage of the rocket that launched the module of the Chinese station about the reentering Long March 5B
This situation will ...
- 11.6k
3
votes
1
answer
206
views
How did the first manned flight re-entry happened?
How was Yuri Gagarin brought back to the Earth?
Did he do entry himself, by ground control, or by software?
- 13.1k
8
votes
1
answer
476
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What was the first Soviet spacecraft that could recharge its battery it each orbit? Where were the photovoltaic cells made?
Sputnik 1 (/ˈspʌtnɪk, ˈspʊtnɪk/; "Satellite-1", or "PS-1", Простейший Спутник-1 or Prosteyshiy Sputnik-1, "Elementary Satellite 1") was the first artificial Earth ...
- 149k
27
votes
2
answers
4k
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Gagarin not ejecting from capsule
I'm currently reading a dutch book about the earlier days of manned spaceflight (Ruimtevaart B. van der Klaauw). Published in 1962
In a chapter about Vostok 1 the book reads as following
Translated ...
- 3,136
3
votes
1
answer
208
views
Is a cheap English translation available of Tsiolkovsky's "Outside the Earth"?
Anyone know where to pick up a copy of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky's science fiction book titled "Outside the Earth" (alternately titled: "Beyond the Planet Earth" and "Beyond ...
- 7,836
4
votes
0
answers
96
views
Venera 13/14 Design specifications
Does anyone know where I could find design specifications, plan sets, or other documentation for the Venera 13 or Venera 14 spacecraft? These are Soviet spacecrafts from the 1980s.
I suppose if ...
- 149k
5
votes
1
answer
154
views
How many Soviet space missions have had at least one tortoise?
Science Alert's These Are 7 of The Strangest Experiments Humans Have Ever Done in Space talks about two tortoises that flew aboard Zond-5 spacecraft on 2 September 1968, then later goes on to say:
We'...
- 149k
2
votes
1
answer
348
views
What was the first successful demonstration of a fuel cell in space?
Hydrogen fuel cells (together with batteries) were used for electrical power in the Apollo program, where it was recombined with oxygen on board to produce electricity.
Doing chemistry in practical ...
- 184k
38
votes
5
answers
7k
views
Did Sputnik 1 tell us more than "beep"? What science was improved by information gained from its orbiting the Earth?
Sputnik 1 was the first artificial satellite launched by humans to orbit the Earth.
This answer begins:
Sputnik had just one single job: Prove its existence by sending a simple "beep" ...
- 49.2k
1
vote
0
answers
84
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Missing Launch Vehicle
Early Soviet era launch vehicles had a variety of designations, e.g. the well known Vostok launcher and its derivations have been known as the R7, 8K72, Semyorka, SS-6, Sapwood, A-1 and SL-3 .
I'm ...
- 9,754
1
vote
2
answers
255
views
Why were two simultaneous command transmissions interpreted by Kosmos 57 as an order to begin the descent?
This answer to Encryption in radio system points to the Wikipedia article Kosmos 57 which says:
The unmanned spacecraft was destroyed on its third orbit around Earth. Two ground control stations, ...
- 1,030
33
votes
1
answer
6k
views
How did the U.S.S.R manage to rotate the N-1 from horizontal to vertical?
The title says it all - but I heard that NASA considered horizontal integration for the Saturn V couldn't be considered, as lifting the rocket to a vertical position would require an immense ...
- 6,392
35
votes
4
answers
7k
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How did the USSR track Gagarin's Vostok-1 orbital flight? Was tracking capability an issue in the choice of orbit?
For the USA's Mercury flights, a number of tracking stations were installed around the globe. John Glenn's first orbital flight was tracked with them, plus a number of ships.
(Tracking stations used ...
CommunityBot
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4
votes
0
answers
64
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Is there any work in English that gives a systematic treatment of Soviet/Russian rocket engines?
There seems to be some piecemeal information online such as RussianSpaceWeb.com, and of course, Sutton's History of LPRE gives an anthropological treatment of Soviet/Russian rocket engine lineup ...
- 1,348