Re: New meaning of the term "Sputnik"

["M. Edward (Ed) Borasky" <znmeb@...>]

On Tue, Jul 24, 2012 at 6:53 PM, KHMan <keinhong@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 7/25/2012 5:50 AM, Leo Razoumov wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 11:50 PM, Yuri Takhteyev wrote:
>>>
>>> When Korolev's team finally got around
>>> to building one, they called it "Prosteishii sputnik 1" - "Basic
>>> satellite 1".
>>
>>
>> It is summer time (in the Northern hemisphere) and some people might
>> have spare time while on vacation.
>> A good book on the history of the Russian Space Program was translated
>> in English and is available at Amazon for $1.99/volume
>>
>> Boris Chertok "Rockets and People - Volume I [Kindle Edition]" for $1.99
>> http://www.amazon.com/Rockets-People-Volume-I-ebook/dp/B0075GLYQG/
>> There are also volumes 2,3 and 4.
>
>
> [Totally off topic] NASA's History Program Office helped with the English
> translation of Chertok's memoirs and a quick googling will get you the PDFs
> at NASA. I eyed it at NASA publications last year but have not got around to
> reading them.
>
>
>> The whole Sputnik 1 launch was very ad-hoc and to a some degree an act
>> of desperation. The previous tests revealed that the military payload
>> that R-7 ICBMs were supposed to carry was disintegrating on reentry
>> into dense atmosphere. To buy time to redesign the payload shield and
>> to deflect the criticism Sergey Korolev decided to try payload that
>> only goes up and does not need to get down. The rest is the History...
>
>
> IMHO Korolev knew exactly what he was doing. The higher-ups, not so much.
> Remember, it was the International Geophysical Year and both sides had
> public plans for artificial satellites. The intended satellite, Sputnik 2,
> was almost complete, but Vanguard was a (non-military) competitor and von
> Braun at Huntsville was straining at the leash, threatening to do it as soon
> as he got any kind of go-ahead. Build a stop-gap, get it orbited quickly.
> Full marks to Korolev. :-)
>
> --
> Cheers,
> Kein-Hong Man (esq.)
> Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
>

Yeah, Sputnik I went up ... two Vanguard flops ... the Explorer I ...
then Gagarin ... what an exciting time to be an American or a Russian
dreaming of space travel.





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