Americans certainly remember Sputnik. At a time when the world was larger and scarier, the Soviets had a metal basketball flying over the United States and the rest of the world. It made people nervous, but it was also a tremendous scientific achievement. However, it wasn’t the plan to use it as the first orbiter, as [Scott Manley] explains in a recent video that you can see below.
The original design would become Sputnik 3, which, as [Scott] puts it, was the first Soviet satellite that “didn’t suck.” The first one was essentially a stunt, and the second one had an animal payload and thermal problems that killed the canine occupant, [Laika].
Most people don’t remember the later Sputnik missions. However, they did some of the first science in Earth’s orbit. [Scott] has a lot of history related to the early days of space science.
The original Sputnik did little more than beep from orbit. We were surprised the CIA didn’t swipe one of them.
Very interesting. History tends to only mention the first Sputnik. Nice to know there were more in the series. One thing….in the video, where were the illustrations ? Where were the pictures ? The lecture out in a backyard was informative but without any supporting pictures it was kind of boring.
It’s similar with Apollo, I think. People remember “the moon landing”, Apollo 11, but the other landings seem to be forgotten quite often.
Same goes for Apollo 8 (first manned orbit around moon) or the Mercury and Gemini missions. Or the Apollo–Soyuz mission.
Speaking of the forgotten Sputnik missions,
maybe it also was because of animal abuse that people don’t want to think about it.
It’s not very noble or heroic of humanity to forcefully put feeling beings into a capsule in order to watch them perish. Alone, in insulation.
https://thesciencesurvey.com/spotlight/2023/01/18/laika-the-space-dog-the-ethics-of-animal-experimentation/
I believe that even some of the scientists responsible for Sputnik 2 were sad about Liaka’s fate, but when your government want’s to show it has the biggest penis in the world you gotta do what you gotta do.
Too many Youtubers ignore the medium they’re working in and just talk to camera rather than show even a few simple pictures, it’s about the worst form for documenting or describing anything technical that doesn’t move.
He’s on holiday ATM, previous vids have all you ask & sometimes more, he’s done thoroughly researched vids sometimes with footage that I didn’t even know existed. Check his back catalogue for more examples.
Not sure why this one in particular got a full article though
(First) Sputnik automaton with the original beep: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cICFkZL7vv8
I didn’t know that in 1957 the Russians had installed a station at the South Pole equipped with a metal arm intended to rotate an object around the Earth.
You should become a comedian.
I find your lack of sense of humor disturbing ;)
And in 1937 Universal Studios had a plane and then large letters orbiting above the equator….😁
The Russian were able to make larger launchers and that related to their ability to launch a bomb, the US had smaller launchers. It is interesting that the first US satellite had science instruments that hinted at the Van Allen radiation belt.
Actually, the Russians had data indicating the Van Allen belt, also (and first). They failed to realize what it meant. More reading: https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/article/70/12/46/904087/Discovering-Earth-s-radiation-beltsSix-decades
Typical Youtube video obviously aimed at people who can’t read, whatever the subject.
Or aimed at people who do their cultural/scientific training on YT.
However, there are people who know (without the invaluable help of YT/s) the stages of the conquest of space, including the Sputnik and Vanguard series.
As for the sacrifice of the first space travelers, all the countries participating in the conquest of space at that time used animals. The goal was not to watch them die in their space capsule, the goal was scientific and the technology of this period in terms of life support in orbit was very experimental.
Should we have instead sacrificed the first men in space? It must be remembered that the payload capacities of the first satellites simply did not allow sending a man, all ethical questions aside. And even if it had been possible, no decision-maker would have taken this risk. Perhaps for Von Braun, whose conscience was not much disturbed by the sacrifices of the first (forced) workers of the space conquest at Mittelbau-Dora, this would have been a possible solution at a time when American society was still discriminating /s.
In any case, and despite the sometimes unfortunate animal experiments that preceded humans, there were subsequently tragic accidents in human spaceflight where men lost their lives.
Space conquest is a very dangerous activity.
It needed a war criminal and genius to actually get those engines running in stable condition. Then, complaining about Laika while having an egg-topped bacon & beef burger tells a lot about selective perception (or cognitive dissonance, if you like).
The road to space is also a stage where bigotry is performed. Not always, not in total, but also.
Like the Hindenburg more US airships were lost, men and craft. Let’s not forget 17 from NASA, the first Apollo on the pad, and two shuttles.
Well, I think it is some paper clips and an ice cream cone with some filler and paint.
Let’s be honest here, it’s amazing that a communist society could ever be capable of launching anything into space at all.