The End of an Era

[HoagieOfDoom]

...who just happened to come up with the idea of putting a transponder up there just to see if it was feasible.

Sputnik has a funny history. The rocket it rode on, the R7, was originally pitched to Kruschev by its chief designer, the legendary Segei Korolev, as an ICBM. But the R7 is the single most useless ICBM created for a variety of reasons, which were completely intentional on Korolev's part as he was duping Kruschev so he could get funding for a space shot. Once more military ambition leads to scientific progress. Also, Sputnik 1 was originally supposed to the carry the then still incomplete Sputnik 3 scientific payload, but Kruschev was insistent on getting something launched in time for the International Geophysical Year.

Hilariously, Kruschev had no idea how much of a political bombshell Sputnik turned out to be. He was reportedly flabbergasted (and then delighted) by the American response.

Anywho, NASA, at it's roots, was a military operation. Don't ask me why they decided to split it off from the newly created Air Force - I guess it made it look a little more friendly to the taxpayers.

The various organizations that went into NASAs creation (the National Advisory Committe on Aeronautic, various personnel and equipment from the Army Ballistic Missile Agency [like Wernher von Braun], a few elements from the Navy's Project Vanguard) were military or military-inspired endeavors, but NASA itself was created as a civilian agency from those components. There was never a split off from the Air Force because the Air Force was already doing its own thing with ICBMs (from which came the Atlas and Titan II rockets and the Rocketdyne F-1 engines that powered the first stage of the Saturn V). While NASA in the 60s was working on getting a man to the moon the Air Force was running its own concurrent programs more focused on taking advantage of low earth orbit with project like Blue Gemini, the X-23 Dyna-Soar and the Manned Orbiting Laboratory, none of which progressed past the mockup stage. When the 70s rolled around, the Air Force was proficient in its own use of light- and medium-launch vehicles for spy satellites using Atlas and Delta series rockets, though they would piggyback on certain NASA projects.

First woman to orbit the Earth (in what I see as a flagrant sin of pride)? Russians. And she was originally a textiles worker!

This was a purely political stunt. Kruschev made a big show of the communist ideal, that is that all are equal regardless or race, class, gender, what have you, and really milked Valentina Tereshkova's flight all it was worth. Ironically, after her flight she retired from their cosmonaut corps, married another cosmonaut and became the ideal housewife, never flying again.

Soviet workmanship left something to be desired, especially after one particularly nasty disaster wherein an entire Russian crew perished when a atmospheric pressure equalization valve opened far too early during re-entry.

This was the Soyuz 11 accident, which happened after the Apollo mission. The crew had spent nearly a month aboard Salyut 1, the world's first space station. The Soyuz 1 accident might be what you're thinking of. After two unmanned tests of the Soyuz they got ahead of themselves and decided to launch two manned Soyuz capsules in succession, the hope being that they would perform a manned orbital rendezvous. When Soyuz I reached orbit, pilot Vladimir Komarov (the only cosmonaut in Soyuz I) immediately ran into a whole slew of problems, ranging from electrical issues with the solar panels to faults in the computer. It was bad enough that after only a few orbits an abort was called for and Komarov's wife was called to the command center for basically a last conversation with her husband. On de-orbit, the parachutes tangled and the capsule slammed into the Earth at nearly 300m/s.

NASA took risks that were just as bold and dangerous (Apollo 8) but managed to come through them unscathed, beyond Apollo 1 of course.

...but our side was quick to find flaws and correct them.

Not without the mother of all witch hunts, though. North American Aviation got creamed following the fire at the pad, although blame lay equally with them and NASA. And that's not even considering the political fallout. But to be fair to the Russians, they ran into a major problem when Korolev, their chief architect of their moonshot program, died following surgical complications before serious testing of the Soyuz and the N1 rocket could begin. His successor, something-or-other Mishin (Valentin is his given name, I think), was largely thought to be overly cautious and is listed as a contributor to the eventual downfall of the Russian moonshot.

BA, you may be interested in checking out the history of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N1_rocket]N1 Rocket. It was the Russian version of the Saturn V, and while it produced more thrust overall the Saturn's use of liquid hydrogen gave it a boost in terms of tonnage-to-space.

My only real hope of going to space is left in the hands of corporate entrepreneurs, for in this day and age they are the ones that truly rule the USA.

The private sector vs. government space flight debate is interesting, but better discussed over on the politics board.

EDIT: Cleared up some context, spelling and tag syntax.