In our time line (the one where Sky Net is NOT blasting humanity to dust) we also have another auspicious space first. April 19, 1971 the Soviets put the first working space station into orbit.
Built out of parts from other spacecraft, Salyut 1 was far less successful than say NASA's less than sterling offering Skylab.
The first crew could not dock because of a failure in the docking collar. The crew if Soyuz 11 spent three weeks aboard Salyut 1, only to be killed on re-entry due to a failure of a pressure seal. Salut 1's controllers fired it's retro-rockets Oct. 11, 1971 and the craft disintegrated over the Pacific ocean a short time later.
Web Page on Salut 1
WIKI for Salut 1
Built out of parts from other spacecraft, Salyut 1 was far less successful than say NASA's less than sterling offering Skylab.
The first crew could not dock because of a failure in the docking collar. The crew if Soyuz 11 spent three weeks aboard Salyut 1, only to be killed on re-entry due to a failure of a pressure seal. Salut 1's controllers fired it's retro-rockets Oct. 11, 1971 and the craft disintegrated over the Pacific ocean a short time later.
Web Page on Salut 1
WIKI for Salut 1
4 comments:
I am amazed by the courage of every person who has gone into space, especially in the early days.
They didn't know what they would face but they strapped themselves into giant rockets and went.
Magnificent.
Blizno
You know what always mystified me? The blase attitude of people to launches and their ilk after it had been done a couple of times. You hit it straight on the head! Astronauts climb into little more than a tin can which is strapped onto monster rockets fueled with enough high explosives to level a medium sized city and allow someone to light it off! Any other time these brave souls would be questioned for mental competency! You are so right - every person who has gone into space has unrivaled courage.
Great comment Blizno, thanks
I watched the first moon landing on a B&W TV in rural Minnesota. I had to jiggle the rabbit-ears antenna to get even a grainy picture.
My cousin sat through some of the commentary before the landing and finally said that it was boring and reached for the channel knob.
I told him that if he touched that channel knob he would pull back a stump.
Something in my tone stopped him. He left the room and I spent the most amazing hours of my entire life watching the LEM touch down and humans set foot on the moon for the first time ever.
Oh man Yes! I was pumped after the tension from Apollo 8 (I am sorry, but if I had been Lovell, I think I would have committed mass murder - and it shows just what sort of stand up guy Lovell was when he was with NASA, the mission was everything, then 13 - )...and the ubber tension of 10 would they or wouldn't they fire the accent. You know NASA went so far as to make it almost impossible (and I am being VERY generous here...and you know what I am talking about) to make orbit if they hadn't. But I am digressing ... I was watching CBS and Walt and Wally were doing their schitk and me...well I was in a cast during that mission so I didn't and couldn't going anywhere even if I had wanted to and I sure as hell didn't. When Neal stepped off I kept telling my younger brothers to go look at the moon, there were men waling on it! Even for me it was a hard thing to wrap my head around. Boy that 20 inch Philco/Ford tv was a magic maker that year. What a time to be alive huh? wild.
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