The Space Race, part 2

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Mercury, Gemini, Apollo programs vs. Vostok, Voskhod, Soyuz programs, first part of the Space Race in article The Space Race, part 1, Short summary of lunar program.


The Space Race 1957-1975

The most interesting time occurred during the Space Race between 1957 and 1975. The periods can be divided into approximately three US/Soviet pairs: Mercury (Mercury project)/Vostok , Gemini (Gemini project)/Voskhod, and Apollo (Apollo program)/Soyuz. (see also Apollo-soyuz test project, Yuri Gagarin, Soviet lunar program ).

Vostok program was Soviet human space project to put humans into low Earth orbit. It took 6 missions to space in between 1961 and 1963. I will come back to the project separately.

Vostok 1 first man in space: Yuri Gagarin 12 April 1961 (Yuri Gagarin)
Vostok 2 first manned mission lasting full day: Gherman Titov 6 August 1961
Vostok 3 first simultaneous flights of two spacecraft: Andriyan  Nikolayev 11 August 1962
Vostok 4 first simultaneous flights of two spacecraft: Pavel Popovich 12 August 1962
Vostok 5 longest solo orbital flight almost 5 days: Valery Bykovsky 14 June 1963
Vostok 6 first woman in space (I will come back soon to this): Valentyna Tereshkova 16 June 1963

US Mercury program was running in between 1958 and 1963.

Before Gagarin's flight president Kennedy rejected NASA budget request to land on the Moon before the year 1970 because it was simply too expensive project. However the Gagarin's flight changed that and president Kennedy directed the race toward the Moon.

Voskhod program was the second Soviet manned space project, which used recycled components from the cancelled program. The first launch was in 1964 and last in 1965 and has been as a result of political pressure. Soyuz was not ready after Vostok program for another 3 years.

Voskhod 1 was the first crew mission consisting of 3 cosmonauts.
Voskhod 2 consisted of 2 cosmonauts and they achieved the first spacewalk.
In 1966 two dogs were flying 22 days mission. 

 Voskhod program was replaced by the Soyuz program, which means union in translation and originally it was intended to be a Moon landing project. It was third human space flight after the Vostok and Voskhod programs. The program consists of the Soyuz spacecraft and Soyuz rockets.  

Soyuz FG rocket carrying Soyuz TMA spacecraft (2006)

 There are several variants of the Soyuz spacecraft:
  • Soyuz-A 7K-9K-11K circumlunar complex proposal (1963)
    • Soyuz 7K manned spacecraft concept
    • Soyuz 9K proposed booster
    • Soyuz 11K proposed fuel tanker
  • Soyuz 7K-OK (1967–1970)
    • Soyuz 7K-L1 Zond (1967–1970)
    • Soyuz 7K-L3 LOK (1971–1972)
  • Soyuz 7K-OKS (1971)
  • Soyuz 7K-T or "ferry" (1973–1981)
    • Soyuz 7K-T/A9 (1974–1978)
    • 7K-MF6 (1976)
  • Soyuz 7K-TM (1974–1976)
  • Soyuz-T (1976–1986)
  • Soyuz-TM (1986–2003)
  • Soyuz-TMA (2003–2012)
  • Soyuz-ACTS (2006)
  • Soyuz-TMA-M (2010–2016)
  • Soyuz MS (since 2016)
  • Military Soyuz (P, PPK, R, 7K-VI Zvezda, and OIS)
    • Soyuz P manned satellite interceptor proposal (1962)
    • Soyuz R command-reconnaissance spacecraft proposal (1962)
      • Soyuz 7K-TK (1966)
    • Soyuz PPK revised version of Soyuz P (1964)
    • Soyuz 7K-VI Zvezda space station proposal (1964)
    • Soyuz OIS (1967)
      • Soyuz OB-VI space station proposal (1967)
      • Soyuz 7K-S military transport proposal (1974)
      • Soyuz 7K-ST concept for Soyuz T and TM (1974)
I will come back to the topic separately later. 

Gemini program (article Gemini project) succeeded several interesting achievement, for example the first space rendezvous Gemini 6A (December 1965) with Gemini 7 in distance of 0.30 metres.

On Gemini 12 (November 1966) Buzz Aldrin spent over 5 hours working during 3 EVA sessions, showing that human could work outside the spacecraft.

Disaster hits both sides. Moon is the next step!!


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