WEBVTT - How the Space Race Worked 0:00:00.960 --> 0:00:04.440 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:13.119 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:13.240 --> 0:00:16.520 There's Charles w Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry laughing at me, 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:19.480 and uh, this is stuff you should know the podcast. 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:23.439 That's right, Welcome, Welcome every one. That welcome friends. That 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:25.840 was one of the best false starts we've ever had. 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:28.640 It was like four and one. That was weird. Jerry 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:34.120 hit record and Josh went, Chuck, you gotta welcome people 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:39.240 on the podcast. I forgot. Hey, hey, man, you're sure 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:43.239 it's taking me back. Man, it's taken me back to 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:49.080 July exactly five years and three hundred and sixty days 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:53.239 before my birth. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Yeah, I just 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:56.360 calculated that really quickly. Yeah, that was pretty chuck as well, 0:00:56.480 --> 0:00:59.280 I believe it or not. No, Yeah, you know I 0:00:59.320 --> 0:01:01.360 was born in the seven I know, is it seventy 0:01:01.440 --> 0:01:05.319 or seventy one. It's a nice round number, seventy one. 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:09.759 I do remember all the Space race stuff though, from 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:13.840 being young. Yeah, I remember the tail end obviously for sure. Well, 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:16.679 we had already won when I was around. Yeah, we 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:18.520 kind of already one since I was around, but it 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:20.320 was still like a big deal. It's still doing the 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:23.240 victory lap basically. Yeah. When I was around, it was 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:25.800 Space Shuttle, Space Shuttle, Space Shuttle, and as an adult, 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:28.880 I've not seen two of the space shuttles in person. Uh, 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:32.240 launches are just like in the hangar. The commission was 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:33.920 in the hangar. That's pretty cool, tho things are? He 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:36.440 was very cool. Yeah, yeah, they're really neat. I've never 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:39.559 seen one. You definitely should. There's one at the New 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:43.800 Air and Space Museum at Dulis Airport. I think it's 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:48.160 Enterprise maybe or Endeavor, and then um. You can also 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:52.160 see one at Kate Canaveral Kennedy Space Center, which I 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:57.360 highly recommend to anyone who's even remotely interested in space, 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:01.800 space exploration or the history of space. Kennedy is the 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:04.560 place to go. It is awesome. I've been to and 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:10.400 can recommend the Naval Air Station Museum in Pensacola, Florida. Okay, 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:14.800 and I've been Huntsville. But have you been to Space Camp? No? Man, 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:18.040 that's where Space Camp is, right Huntsville. I think so. 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:22.440 I don't know. If it's just look inside that movie 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:23.959 and all the privileged kids you got to go to 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:26.400 the movie was big. I never saw it. Yeah, I 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:28.640 mean I was at the right age where a movie 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:31.320 about kids in space was kind of perfect. So what's 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:34.440 that Huntsville then? Is it like just the the that's 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:37.400 like the rocket place, that's where they did the the 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:41.760 original stuff, right. I think Huntsville's before Kennedy. We should 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:45.000 know this stuff. I think it was in conjunction with it, 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:47.240 if not before it. But yes, so it was a 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:50.160 space center and I think it still is. Marshall is 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:54.720 in Huntsville. It's getting on to a great start anyway. 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:57.400 You like space. I like space. We're not like space 0:02:57.480 --> 0:03:00.280 junkies or anything like that. We don't like Intravene Slee 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:04.679 injected space now like Tom Hanks. You know, we never 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:07.160 produced a mini series about it or anything like that, 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:11.960 but you know, it's an interesting thing. I think after 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:14.760 researching how the space race worked, it occurred to me 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:17.600 that there's at least two other episodes that we should 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:20.480 do how the moon landing worked, where he did did 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:23.440 they fake the moon landing? Which was a pretty good one, 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:27.760 but we should do one like assuming that it actually happened, 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:32.120 and then uh, the International Space Station or just space 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:35.640 stations in general, like the history of the like Skylab Mirror, 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:38.120 you know, the I S s. Totally should Okay, so 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:41.280 we'll do those people we have committed ourselves, like John 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:44.080 Kennedy committed America to put a man on the moon 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:47.080 by the end of the sixties. So we're going to 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:52.200 do our podcasts on space stations. Yeah. So, like I said, 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:55.600 you took me back to July nine, So let's take 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:57.120 everybody back. Do you want to get in the way 0:03:57.120 --> 0:04:00.600 back machine? Oh? Man? Yeah? Well the stuff this thing 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:14.440 and did you leave like a halfy eating cheeseburger in here? 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:18.400 Something is funky? Yeah, I thought that might keep. It's 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:22.000 not keeping. Sorry, there's a mongoose in here. We can 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:24.480 just go back in time to when that burger was fresh, 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:27.279 good thinking. Will you share it with me? You obviously 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:29.920 only wanted half. Well that's why we all know we're kidding, 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:34.240 because Chuck didn't leave behind a half of cheeseburger. Silly. Okay, 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:37.839 So Chuck, here we are. I assume this is yeah, 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:42.600 it's July, and we're gonna listen in as you and 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:48.400 I do a dramatic reading of the transmission between mission 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:54.080 control and the lunar Landing Module I'll be mission control. 0:04:54.600 --> 0:05:01.680 Then I'll beat eagle. Okay, thirty seconds uh in prencies 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:07.400 of fuel remaining? Okay and stop de segent command over 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:12.400 righte off, We copy you down, Eagle. Here's a tranquility 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:19.040 base here. The Eagle has landed, Roger, tranquility. We copy 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:21.120 you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:24.039 about the term blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot, 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:30.479 Yeah it is. We're all wearing short sleeve shirts with ties. Uh, 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:33.920 we're all cool under pressure. We've got flat tops and 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:36.200 a lot of people don't know. I didn't know actually 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:39.320 until I read this that when the landing module for 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:42.839 Apollo eleven, the first time human set foot on the 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:46.640 Moon that we know of, um, the there was a 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:49.200 really tense moment where they were about to run out 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:51.760 of fuel as they were trying to land. That's what 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:53.960 that thirty seconds thing was from. And had they run 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:57.200 out of fuel, all three or all two astronauts on 0:05:57.240 --> 0:06:00.600 board who landed would have died. Yeah. I mean they 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:05.479 basically had to uh do it manually. Yeah, they took over. 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:08.800 That's why they had. As Tom Wolfe put it, the 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:13.720 right stuff. Great great book, great great movie, I've never 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:16.240 read the book, but the movie is amazing, so good. 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:18.400 If if you're out there and well, if you're a 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:21.240 fan of space, then you've seen the right stuff. That 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:24.479 just reminded me. Remember when I told you about garbage 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:27.040 pails stew So, I guess it must have been for 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:29.760 my dad's birthday or something. My family rented the right 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:32.760 stuff and we made garbage pails too. That was part 0:06:32.760 --> 0:06:36.919 of the thing. Yeah every year. No, yeah, yeah, we 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:38.839 didn't like my dad that much. Yeah, we got a 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:41.120 listener mail from someone in Michigan that did the garbage 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:43.520 jack and awesome. I did not see that one, so 0:06:43.600 --> 0:06:46.920 it must have been a Midwestern thing. Okay, so I'm 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:49.640 not insane in either is my father? No? But see 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:53.320 the Right Stuff people, really really great movie that encapsulates 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:57.640 the Mercury program and the Mercury Seven and uh plus 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:01.320 uh leave on Helm, isn't it is that? Yeah? Great? 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:03.520 Who did you play? He was? He was not one 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:06.920 of the Mercury seven. He was he got cut your 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:09.320 cut now. I don't think he was even an astronaut training. 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:12.360 I think he was just part of the support military crew. 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:14.680 I can't remember exactly. It's been a while Yeah, that's 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:19.160 an odd cameo. It wasn't came It was a genuine part, right, 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:21.760 But I mean, like, why leave on helm he acts? 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:23.440 Oh I didn't know that. Yeah, he was in coal 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:26.440 Miner's Daughter and stuff. And he was in that Marquee 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:32.880 Mark movie a couple of years ago, shoot Shooter, Shooter, Sniper. 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:39.960 We done. Yeah, alright, alright, we got way off. Anyway, 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:43.600 When Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, buzz Aldrin 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:48.000 was close on his heels. Uh. That ended effectively a 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:52.520 more than a decade of what was known as the 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:57.080 Space Race. Yeah, very exciting time in the United States. Yeah. 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:00.120 People were way way into it. Yeah, it was it 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:03.640 was like, um, people cared. Yeah, it was like how 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:08.520 the voice is viewed now. Oh boy, you know, I 0:08:08.520 --> 0:08:13.480 guess I've ever seen that show if it really happens 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:17.880 a nice So the Space Race, it was this kind 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:20.600 of this we should define it. It was this Cold 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:27.440 War byproduct of the tensions between the US and the USSR, 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:32.640 which we're competing for utter dominance in over the world 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:37.800 one way or another. And um, out of that quest 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:44.160 for dominance came a an uneasy balance of polarization and 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:46.360 you're either with one side or against them. There was 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:51.760 very few neutral states, uh, And from this came kind 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:56.719 of a just a constant challenge. It was each country 0:08:57.280 --> 0:09:03.719 drove the other to try to advanced technologically, economically, um 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:06.720 and just every single way. And it was kind of 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:10.120 a really fruitful time, especially if you are into the 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:16.120 whole military industrial complex gig. Yeah. But from from this 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:20.319 competition we reached the Moon. The Soviets ended up building 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:23.960 a mere space station. Like everything we know about space 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:26.640 came out of this race. This tension between the US 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:29.360 and the USS are Yeah, and it was it's pretty neat, 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:33.600 like the early space programs were. It was all brand new. 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:37.280 So it wasn't like let's see how much work we 0:09:37.320 --> 0:09:39.520 can get done up there. It was let's see if 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:41.360 we can get up there. Let's see if this guy 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:43.400 won't die if we shoot him up there. And it 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:45.440 was like logical steps like can we put a chip 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:47.240 up there? Can we put a ship with a jump, 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:49.080 Can we put a ship with a human? Can we 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:51.760 put too humans? How long can they stay? Can they 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:54.120 dock with other ships and meet other astronauts? Can we 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:57.800 actually trick them into drinking tank? Yeah? Exactly. And then 0:09:57.840 --> 0:10:00.720 eventually all right, we feel like we and get up there. 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:04.560 Now we need to start accomplishing some things besides just 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:06.160 getting up here. That's right. I mean they brought back 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:07.839 lunar rocks and things. Don't get me wrong, they had 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:11.720 goals aside from hitting a golf ball on the moon. 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:15.880 But I just find it really remarkable that it's and 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:18.160 logical that it was all just a series of steps 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:20.800 and each time we try to one up one another. 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:25.520 It was progress for the world, for mankind. And it's 0:10:25.559 --> 0:10:30.280 really difficult to overstate the effect that that rivalry had. 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:32.280 I mean, we'll kind of see that, you know, if 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:34.160 I want to achieve something. The other one was like, 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:38.719 we've got to top you somehow by tenfold. Yeah, you 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:43.120 send the man, we send the woman. Right, Yeah, yeah, Yeah, 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:44.920 that was a good one. Like it was a lot 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:48.199 of everyone's trying to get a first in there. Exactly. 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:52.319 I thought you were doing Sean Connery doing the Ford October. No, 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:56.800 they bring a knife, you bring a gun. No. If 0:10:56.800 --> 0:10:58.760 you thought that was my Irish accent, then I'm worse 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:02.040 than I thought I've made. Yeah, just I'm not hearing right, Okay, 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:05.400 So the the Space Race put us into space. Everything 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:09.240 we now understand and know and have in space, and 0:11:09.320 --> 0:11:12.200 a lot of stuff on Earth is directly related to 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:15.120 the space race, and the space race we trace back 0:11:15.160 --> 0:11:19.040 to the Nazis. Yeah, it's funny those space races between 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:21.920 the US and Russia. But it was really Germany. Yeah, 0:11:22.000 --> 0:11:25.600 that kind of started everything. During World War two, Nazi 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:30.320 Germany had a world class rocket program led by a 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:35.320 guy named Werner von Braun. Yeah, and von Braun um. 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:37.840 At some point during World War two, I guess saw 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:39.880 the writing on the wall. He came up with the 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:43.280 V two rocket, which was the scourge of Britain. Yeah, 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:46.760 it's uh. It was the first ballistic missile, and ballistic 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:51.640 missile means it's not steered, it's fired on a trajectory 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:56.760 and then just regular forces of nature and mechanics run 0:11:56.800 --> 0:11:59.880 the show, as opposed to a cruise missile which is steered. 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:03.920 But it could it could hit London from like a 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:06.679 launch pad around the Baltic Sea if they did their 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:10.920 calculations correct. So von Braun had developed the V two rocket, 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:13.240 and at some point during World War two, I guess 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:15.200 he saw the writing on the wall that he and 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:17.920 he lost faith that the Germans were gonna win. So 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:21.760 he got together some of his fellow rocket scientists, literal 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:26.520 rocket scientists uh, and said, hey, let's surrender to the Americans. 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:30.280 I'll bet you if we come to them and bring 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:34.679 some knowledge and schematics and stuff, that they'll just totally 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:37.680 ignore the whole Nazi thing. And they were right, kind 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:43.520 of work, uh, And Hitler pouted and um died. And 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:46.760 then we got these dudes, Van Broun in particular, and 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:49.720 took him to White Sands, New Mexico and said you 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:53.680 now work for us, And they said great, because you 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:57.760 guys got better food and cool cars and and women. Yes, 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:02.160 there's like everything you need in New Mexico, Land of 0:13:03.000 --> 0:13:06.360 Land of plenty. Uh. You ever been to White Sands? No, 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:09.160 I have it. It's pretty cool. Van Nostrum went, or No, 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:12.120 he went to the Trinity testing site. That's not White Sands. 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:16.200 I don't think so. No. Um. So White Sunds relocated 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:19.080 to Huntsville and Marshall, Yes, so I was right by 0:13:19.120 --> 0:13:22.560 calling a Marshall, Yes, Marshall Space Flight Center. So the 0:13:22.679 --> 0:13:25.679 Soviets did the same thing. They poached a bunch of 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:30.480 Nazi rocket scientists and created their own program under the 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:35.280 leadership of a very talented and apt Russian named Sergei Kralov. 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:40.880 And so basically it was von Braun versus Kralov. Teams 0:13:40.880 --> 0:13:44.400 of Nazi scientists working in the USSR in the USA, 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:49.000 working with obviously American colleagues, Soviet colleagues, and Germany is like, 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:52.199 what about our space program? They're They were like, you're lucky. 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:55.040 We even let you have a flag right now. Um, 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:59.640 and that was the start of the space race. And 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:05.360 that's that's incorrect. There was a program developed, rocket program developed, 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:07.880 another rocket program developed, and at the time, both of 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:12.360 these nascent US and Soviet rocket programs they were designed 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:15.320 to blow each other up. But at some point the 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:20.920 scientists said, hey, how about rather than pointing them over Earth, 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:24.400 how about up, let's shoot these things up and see 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:29.120 what we can do. Yes, uh, like maybe carry a 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:33.960 satellite space Eisenhower and this jumping ahead a little bit. 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:37.720 He also had the foresight to say, you know what, Uh, 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:39.720 space is fun and all, but we can use this 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:43.600 for military purposes. So he started a couple of national 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:48.640 security programs, one for the military potential of using these rockets, 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:51.960 and the other one with the CIA. To say that 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:55.360 was called the the National Reconnaissance Office, and that was 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:58.840 secret until the nineties. Yeah, is it still around. I 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:03.680 don't think so. It's codename Corona. And that was Eisenhower saying, well, 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:05.160 if we can get satellites up there, and maybe we 0:15:05.160 --> 0:15:08.280 can start spying on the Russians with these satellites. So 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:10.680 there was I was kind of surprised to learn that 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:16.240 intelligence was behind some of this that early on. Yeah. So, 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:22.400 uh the beginning what's called uh it was an International 0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:24.880 Geophysical Year, and that was when a bunch of scientists 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:27.920 got together and said, hey, let's get together from all 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:30.480 over the world and let's all do some put our 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:34.000 heads together to do some like serious studying of our planet. 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:38.400 That nate, yes, super neat. They said, Okay, well, like 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:42.760 we've got these governments, these incredibly powerful governments behind us, 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:45.080 let's see if we can use it for some good 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:48.680 Like yes, we'll create their spy satellites and whatnot, but 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:50.640 let's also see if we can funnel some of that 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:55.800 funding towards space exploration, putting satellites into orbit. Let's see 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:57.920 what we can do. And they did, and as a 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:01.320 as a result, both the United and the USSR as 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:06.720 a result of this International Geophysical Year, UM said we're 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:09.160 going to be the first to launch a satellite in 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:12.160 the orbit, and the race was on. That was the beginning. 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:15.960 What was that? That's right, And one thing is clear 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:18.360 if you know anything about the space race, is that 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:22.440 the US was getting their butts kicked in the early 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:24.840 part of that game. Like, if this is a four 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:28.520 quarter game, I would say the first at the halftime, 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:31.800 they were probably losing about the half. Somewhere in the 0:16:31.840 --> 0:16:36.400 half they started to come back and maybe she changed 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:39.040 momentum around the half, okay, so like they had definitely 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:41.360 lost all of the first quarter. Okay, but if this 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:43.320 is basketball, they had to run late in the second quarter, 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:46.920 maybe to get the fans fired up, Okay, exactly. The 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:51.040 Soviets definitely start We're winning early though, um with their 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:55.080 sput Nick one, which means traveler in Russian, and they 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:58.120 launched that on October four, nineteen fifty seven, So they 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:00.240 were the first ones to launch a sad all it 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:03.040 in this space. That's right. They scored that first point 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:04.720 they did, there was a big one. Well it's a 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:06.800 big one they had. They seem to want to do 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:09.600 things a little more robustly than Americans. Americans seemed to 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:13.880 be a little more conservative, like with how many rockets 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:15.680 can we put on, how fast can it go? How 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:18.520 what should the payload be? And the Russians were pushing 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:21.919 the boundaries a little or sorry the Soviets, um, but 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:25.600 they were Russians. Yeah rescues yeah, um, but they had 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:28.080 a payload much larger than than the Americans were willing 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:31.680 to try. But we weren't too far behind. Um. About 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:34.480 four months later, in January thirty first, nineteen eight, we 0:17:34.600 --> 0:17:38.959 launched launched our Explorer one right, and actually we launched 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:43.960 Explorer which was finally attached to a Juno rocket, which 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:46.920 was von Braun's design. And the reason we didn't launch 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:51.679 one first was because for some reason America had decided 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:55.280 to go with a different rocket design and ignored von Braunze. Yeah, 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:59.320 and space experts historians say we most likely would have 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:01.720 gotten one up there before the Soviets had we just 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:04.840 stuck with von Braun's design because it would have been 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:07.159 ready earlier and it proved that it could have worked, 0:18:07.520 --> 0:18:10.080 so we could have beaten them, but we didn't. And 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:13.600 that's actually the first point scored by the Soviets. So 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:16.080 after that it was like, Okay, well what's next. What's 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:21.920 the next logical step from there? Start NASA? Yeah, I guess, 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:26.320 so we need a bureaucracy here. Yeah, Congress passed the 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:30.040 Space Act and that's what created NASA, and the Soviets 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:34.440 created their space program Russ Cosmos and said let's do this, 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:39.320 uh in earnest And it's pretty interesting when we're gonna 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:41.480 go over some of the differences here. It's interesting to 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:44.639 see this early, some of the different approaches, just some 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:48.320 of the basic approaches to what each nation thought was 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:52.440 like the way to the way to go. Um. So 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:55.320 here's one of them. The Soviet rockets, like I said, 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:58.200 were more powerful. So right off the bat, they were 0:18:58.880 --> 0:19:02.119 using more juice, right. The Soviets were using what are 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:04.840 called Voss Stock rockets early on in the beginning of 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:08.560 their program. Uh and uh the Americans were using Redstone 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:11.560 and Atlas rockets. Yeah. And this is when we started 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:13.920 the Mercury program. Like we referenced in the right stuff, 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:19.760 the Mercury Seven, Scott Carpenter, Heroes, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:23.639 Gus Grisson, uh, Wally Shira, Alan Shepard, and Deek Slayton. 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:28.399 Those were some brave, like they would be the guys 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:31.200 today that are wearing like those wingsuits and jumping off mountains. 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:35.240 You know that they were the early uh what do 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:36.840 you what do you call those thrill seekers? What's the 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:40.960 word for him? Early thrill seekers? Now extreme, That's what 0:19:41.000 --> 0:19:46.000 I was looking for. Mountain dew code red mountain dew. 0:19:46.840 --> 0:19:49.440 Uh want to go ahead? So I was gonna say 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:53.400 you you can kind of like, um, the programs were 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:57.879 We're started and finished roughly at around the same time. 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:01.520 So you have the Mercury program going on in America initially, 0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:03.600 and at the same time, the Soviets are carrying out 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:08.359 their voss Stok program. So another difference is that the 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:13.040 Soviets were like, uh, everything that they did super secret 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:15.560 about it all, and it was tough to you know, 0:20:15.640 --> 0:20:16.919 you can't turn on the TV and get a lot 0:20:16.960 --> 0:20:20.960 of information about uh the cosmonaut of the month um, 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:22.399 which by the way, I was like, how do you 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:25.119 pronounce that in Russian? And apparently it's very close it's 0:20:25.200 --> 0:20:33.439 cosmon f not well. Yeah, I was curious about the 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:36.960 word not as a suffix, and apparently that came from 0:20:37.320 --> 0:20:42.480 the Greek. Yeah, like nautical. So they're they're space sailors essentially. 0:20:42.680 --> 0:20:46.040 Don't you think it would radically alter our view of space? 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:49.080 In the International Space Station and everything. Everyone we're called 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:53.560 cosmonauts or astronauts if they you basically took away any 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:57.920 kind of national or ethnic identity once you got out 0:20:57.960 --> 0:21:01.480 in space, like everybody was an astro Oh yeah, I 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:03.959 thought you were going to say if they use sailor 0:21:04.000 --> 0:21:07.679 instead of not and it was Astra sailor, Cosmo sailor. 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:10.320 Everybody was a dream sailor once you got on the space. No. 0:21:10.440 --> 0:21:12.080 I think you're totally right. I mean, I think that's 0:21:12.160 --> 0:21:15.960 like naming your teams. It is because like even now China, 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:19.000 since Tycho knots in there in this space, so you 0:21:19.000 --> 0:21:21.679 can say, just just by reading a news report, you 0:21:21.680 --> 0:21:24.080 know who's up there. Yeah, there's a Tycho, not a 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:29.000 cosmonaut and an astronaut. Well, you're totally right, there's no accident. No, Um, 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:32.920 so divisive. Well it was a space race. Yeah, it's 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:37.960 not a shuttle relay. That's true. Um, and not space shuttle. 0:21:38.000 --> 0:21:39.560 You know what I mean, I knew it. You mean, okay, 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:43.040 I'm sure most people out there. So, Um, the Soviets 0:21:43.080 --> 0:21:47.160 were secret the Americans were not. We proudly broadcasted our 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:49.560 successes and failures for the world to see. And there 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:52.960 were some failures. There were. We should say that when 0:21:53.480 --> 0:21:57.600 the USSR launched spot Nick, Um, we had not one 0:21:57.760 --> 0:22:02.760 but two major failure they kind where the rocket will 0:22:02.800 --> 0:22:04.679 go up and then just come right back down and 0:22:04.720 --> 0:22:07.520 explode on the launch pad kind of failures and they 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:10.960 were dubbed things like flop Nick and caput Nick, and 0:22:11.080 --> 0:22:15.520 it was very demoralizing for America. Or a pre launched 0:22:15.520 --> 0:22:19.400 test catching fire and losing three of our astronauts, including 0:22:19.440 --> 0:22:22.680 Gus Grissom, Well that was the beginning of the Apollo program. Yeah, 0:22:22.760 --> 0:22:24.560 but that one didn't even that was that was on 0:22:24.600 --> 0:22:27.440 the launch pad, that was a test. Was that televised? 0:22:28.760 --> 0:22:30.840 I don't know about that, but they still don't know 0:22:30.880 --> 0:22:36.880 what caused the actual fire. But um, the oxygen UH 0:22:37.760 --> 0:22:40.320 chamber did not help. No, they used to they used 0:22:40.320 --> 0:22:43.080 to pump a hundred percent oxygen rather than an air mixture. 0:22:43.119 --> 0:22:45.399 I think now it's like thirty percent aboard like the 0:22:45.440 --> 0:22:47.720 I S S. But they would they would have a 0:22:47.760 --> 0:22:51.400 hundred percent oxygen and there was extremely flammable and yeah, 0:22:51.520 --> 0:22:55.159 don during a test, I think in January of nineteen 0:22:55.320 --> 0:22:59.879 sixty seven. UM, they the catsule caught fire and killed 0:23:00.160 --> 0:23:04.680 three astronauts inside within like five minutes, the fire burned 0:23:04.720 --> 0:23:08.040 itself out and they were dead. Luckily they supposedly died 0:23:08.119 --> 0:23:14.399 from smoke inhalation. But which is what quicker? Yeah, they're burning, Yeah, 0:23:14.920 --> 0:23:17.680 but I don't know well, And the Soviets were the 0:23:17.680 --> 0:23:20.600 actually the first ones to learn that pure oxygen wasn't 0:23:20.600 --> 0:23:23.960 a good idea, and they didn't tell us that obviously, 0:23:24.200 --> 0:23:27.520 not because their program was in secret. Yeah. One of 0:23:27.560 --> 0:23:29.679 the other differences I thought was pretty interesting was that 0:23:29.720 --> 0:23:35.480 the Soviets um used a spherical capsule uh, in which 0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:42.399 the cosmonaut just rode along and they ejected and parachuted 0:23:42.440 --> 0:23:45.560 out and the capsule crashed into land, whereas we had 0:23:45.560 --> 0:23:49.320 our our funny shaped capsule that the astronauts actually drove, 0:23:49.400 --> 0:23:53.080 so they were pilots, and they splashed down into the 0:23:53.080 --> 0:23:57.600 sea still in the capsule. So again, two completely different approaches. 0:23:58.160 --> 0:24:00.760 And I just find it interesting that, you know, the 0:24:00.800 --> 0:24:03.639 Americans like, no, we want our pilots to fly and 0:24:03.760 --> 0:24:06.600 fly into the ocean because it's a soft place to land. 0:24:07.160 --> 0:24:10.360 And you know, it worked, didn't Somebody I think one 0:24:10.400 --> 0:24:13.040 of those guys, Jeff Bezos or somebody like that. We 0:24:13.440 --> 0:24:17.560 found one of the original mercury capsules at the bottom 0:24:17.560 --> 0:24:23.720 of the ocean. Interesting. Yeah, that neat pictures of it underwater. Well, 0:24:23.720 --> 0:24:26.560 the benefits of a spherical spacecraft as it can enter 0:24:26.560 --> 0:24:30.360 the atmosphere just however it wants to. Whereas you got 0:24:30.359 --> 0:24:33.960 to kind of nail that with the with the mercury 0:24:33.960 --> 0:24:38.360 capsule comical. You couldn't just go in there like upside down. Yeah, 0:24:38.440 --> 0:24:40.879 you have to use your boosters to thrust into place 0:24:40.920 --> 0:24:44.320 and just your yaw and all that stuff. Pilots dude. Yeah, 0:24:44.359 --> 0:24:46.919 well it's like Apaul of thirteen. That was one of 0:24:46.920 --> 0:24:51.880 their big concerns was being accurately angled to re enter 0:24:51.920 --> 0:24:54.600 the atmosphere. Els they were in big trouble. That's scary. 0:24:54.840 --> 0:24:57.000 That was such a good movie too. Yeah, that was good. 0:24:57.280 --> 0:25:00.440 The vomit comment, Yeah, do you remember for that? That's 0:25:00.440 --> 0:25:04.520 what they use for to train and to shoot. That's 0:25:04.520 --> 0:25:09.000 how they simulated to Yeah. I still love to write 0:25:09.000 --> 0:25:10.359 on the thing. I bet it's awesome. Have you ever 0:25:10.400 --> 0:25:13.040 seen that footage of those girls like on the Vomit 0:25:13.119 --> 0:25:17.000 comment or something similar? Girls? Yeah, there's three girls in 0:25:17.040 --> 0:25:19.080 a seat and one of them throws up and it 0:25:19.160 --> 0:25:21.360 just goes right back into her face, and this kind 0:25:21.359 --> 0:25:24.960 of hovers there. Have you not seen that? No, I 0:25:25.040 --> 0:25:29.640 gotta send that to you. Is there real? Yeah? Yeah, man, 0:25:29.680 --> 0:25:32.000 it is gross. What are they doing putting girls in 0:25:32.280 --> 0:25:36.840 the vomit comment? They what? No, I mean not like 0:25:37.080 --> 0:25:41.040 seven year old girls? Women? Women. We heard from our 0:25:41.080 --> 0:25:45.760 feminist listeners and they said girls is better than females. 0:25:45.960 --> 0:25:47.960 Girls is successible. I'm just coming with that. No, no, no no, 0:25:48.040 --> 0:25:51.120 I'm still amazed that people just say female if they're 0:25:51.119 --> 0:25:53.679 not talking about like a study or something. You know, 0:25:54.040 --> 0:25:56.959 I've been listening over there and anyone say that it's 0:25:57.000 --> 0:26:02.760 actually very very common female male. Yeah, it's very common. 0:26:02.920 --> 0:26:08.320 You've done your own, uh an impromptu survey just by 0:26:08.480 --> 0:26:10.920 being alive, man, being awake. Yeah. No, And it wasn't 0:26:11.000 --> 0:26:13.080 like the vomit comment, Like, I don't think it was 0:26:13.160 --> 0:26:16.359 the one that like Ron Howard wrote on it was 0:26:16.400 --> 0:26:18.520 a right at Disney. It's basically it looks a lot 0:26:18.600 --> 0:26:22.080 like a light aircraft that's doing a nose dive, but 0:26:22.280 --> 0:26:26.120 they're they're basically waitless for a second, So it's obviously 0:26:26.119 --> 0:26:29.240 not a light aircraft. But it just looks small. But 0:26:29.320 --> 0:26:31.119 that girl just pukes in her own face. It is 0:26:31.200 --> 0:26:33.640 so gross, all right, So just to clear it up, 0:26:34.400 --> 0:26:36.879 Chuck wasn't saying that women should not be allowed in 0:26:36.960 --> 0:26:40.320 vomit comments, and Josh wasn't saying that the women in 0:26:40.359 --> 0:26:43.560 the vomit comments were seven year old. I think that 0:26:43.560 --> 0:26:47.520 does well, put thank you. So the Soviets scored the 0:26:47.520 --> 0:26:51.560 second point as well. Second touchdown Big one April twel 0:26:51.720 --> 0:26:56.119 nineteen sixty one. They actually put cosmonaut uh Euri Gagarin 0:26:56.960 --> 0:26:59.000 uh into space and he was the first man in 0:26:59.040 --> 0:27:03.280 space and the first man to orbit the Earth, and uh, 0:27:03.320 --> 0:27:04.919 that was egg on the face of the US at 0:27:04.960 --> 0:27:09.119 that point on fourteen nothing. Yeah, I think if you 0:27:09.160 --> 0:27:12.000 could like give him a couple of touchdowns for that one, 0:27:12.320 --> 0:27:16.840 you should nothing. Yeah, I mean, like Urie was the 0:27:16.880 --> 0:27:22.600 first person in space and again apparently America could have 0:27:22.640 --> 0:27:28.160 been the first. But it's actually better that, um, I guess. 0:27:28.240 --> 0:27:30.480 Von Braun said, we need to schedule a more test 0:27:30.480 --> 0:27:33.000 than the percent certain about putting a human in here, 0:27:33.800 --> 0:27:38.520 and um they they they added one more test, which 0:27:38.560 --> 0:27:42.000 pushed Alan Shepherd's Freedom seven flight back by a couple 0:27:42.000 --> 0:27:46.440 of months, which put it a month after Uri Gagarin's flight, Right, 0:27:47.440 --> 0:27:49.680 so we could have done it. But even if we had, 0:27:49.720 --> 0:27:52.800 the Russians still would have basically beaten us. They would 0:27:52.840 --> 0:27:54.879 have gotten at least some points even for being second, 0:27:55.200 --> 0:27:58.880 because Alan Shepherd's flight was basically shot up into a 0:27:58.960 --> 0:28:02.240 suborbital edition and came right back down. It was a 0:28:02.240 --> 0:28:05.440 fifteen minutes suborbital space flight, which you can do now 0:28:05.440 --> 0:28:08.359 if you've got like a hundred grands pretty much. Um, 0:28:08.480 --> 0:28:12.520 what you'r Garon did was he shot up into actual 0:28:12.600 --> 0:28:16.639 Earth orbit and orbited the Earth, the entire Earth once, 0:28:17.200 --> 0:28:19.400 and then came back down a hundred and eight minutes later. 0:28:19.480 --> 0:28:23.800 So yeah, straight up and down in fifteen minutes or 0:28:24.000 --> 0:28:26.359 up full orbit of the Earth and back down a 0:28:26.440 --> 0:28:29.080 hundred and eight minutes. I mean it's actually good that 0:28:29.160 --> 0:28:34.359 we came second in that anyway, And that chuck that 0:28:35.400 --> 0:28:40.920 lit the fire beneath America's bottom, like we gotta get going, yeah, 0:28:41.000 --> 0:28:43.520 because think about it, I mean, like we're down three touchdowns. 0:28:43.600 --> 0:28:48.120 Who wrote this one? Craig Freud and Rich right, he 0:28:48.280 --> 0:28:51.880 points out, like this is the time of the followed 0:28:51.920 --> 0:28:57.120 the McCarthy trials. Um, the people did not like the Soviets. 0:28:57.440 --> 0:29:01.080 America really wanted to dominate, and we were getting our 0:29:01.200 --> 0:29:06.240 butts kicked publicly by the USSR and it was demoralizing. 0:29:06.320 --> 0:29:10.840 But rather than let ourselves get beat down, Kennedy got 0:29:10.840 --> 0:29:13.000 with NASA and said, what can we do to beat 0:29:13.040 --> 0:29:17.080 these guys? That's right, because not only with those two 0:29:17.080 --> 0:29:19.640 things were they beating us, but they at one point 0:29:20.040 --> 0:29:25.600 during UH this time had more hours in space, this 0:29:25.720 --> 0:29:29.640 one rocket than all of ours put together. Yeah, so 0:29:30.000 --> 0:29:33.880 we were getting trounced bad. So they were basically just 0:29:33.960 --> 0:29:37.120 doing like victory lap after victory lap, like they would 0:29:37.120 --> 0:29:40.120 send guys up in orbit the Earth one after the other. Yeah. 0:29:40.200 --> 0:29:44.440 At the end of the UM the Vostok UH program, 0:29:44.440 --> 0:29:48.280 which was their first program, I believe, yes, their first program. 0:29:48.480 --> 0:29:51.400 By the time they finished it, they had not only 0:29:51.520 --> 0:29:53.440 sent the first man in his space, they sent the 0:29:53.800 --> 0:29:59.520 first woman in his space, Valentina Tereshkova, and she orbited 0:29:59.520 --> 0:30:03.400 the Earth forty eight times in Vostok six. During the 0:30:03.440 --> 0:30:05.720 Mercury program, I think the best we came up with 0:30:06.000 --> 0:30:08.840 was Gordon Cooper doing twenty two times around the Earth. 0:30:09.360 --> 0:30:13.840 So they were just crushing us um and just racking 0:30:13.880 --> 0:30:17.320 up the points left and right. That's right. So America says, 0:30:17.360 --> 0:30:20.520 you know what, we should develop something a new program, 0:30:20.800 --> 0:30:22.560 and that's how it works. You know, they have a program, 0:30:22.640 --> 0:30:24.720 it does what it does over a period of years. 0:30:24.760 --> 0:30:27.520 Then they retired that they start up in newing. The 0:30:27.560 --> 0:30:31.360 new program was the Gemini program, and the Soviets started 0:30:31.400 --> 0:30:38.480 the Voss called program on a little bit and they 0:30:38.800 --> 0:30:40.800 again got out to a little early lead with that 0:30:40.840 --> 0:30:45.600 program because they were the first to send multiple cosmonauts up, 0:30:46.200 --> 0:30:50.560 sent three into vols called one and then had a 0:30:50.600 --> 0:30:55.760 spacewalk before we did Alexei Leonoff and Volscott two March 0:30:55.800 --> 0:30:59.719 eighteenth nineteen. So there's still they're still beating us at 0:30:59.720 --> 0:31:03.240 this point. They are, but by this time, just a 0:31:03.240 --> 0:31:07.360 couple of weeks after Alan Shepherd's first flight and while 0:31:07.360 --> 0:31:14.040 we're still just reeling from the the the Ryga Garan flight, 0:31:14.800 --> 0:31:19.120 Um Kennedy came out onto the news and said, you 0:31:19.120 --> 0:31:20.920 know what, we're going to be the first to put 0:31:20.960 --> 0:31:22.440 a man on the Moon, and we're gonna do it 0:31:22.480 --> 0:31:25.320 before the decades out. He kind of declared that the 0:31:25.320 --> 0:31:29.760 finish line almost like whoever does this and it's gonna 0:31:29.800 --> 0:31:34.680 be us. We'll win and this is a substantial gold 0:31:34.720 --> 0:31:38.200 is set. I mean, like we've been beaten twice and 0:31:38.240 --> 0:31:41.600 like you said, trounced um by the Soviets, and now 0:31:41.600 --> 0:31:44.640 we're suddenly saying like, oh yeah, let's go to the moon. 0:31:44.800 --> 0:31:48.040 Let's see who's first to the moon. And uh that 0:31:48.960 --> 0:31:51.760 set the foundation for everything to follow. That began the 0:31:51.800 --> 0:31:54.960 Gemini program, which, like you were saying, the Mercury program, 0:31:55.080 --> 0:31:59.360 Each program was designed to kind of prove that we 0:31:59.400 --> 0:32:03.239 could do with certain step. The Mercury program proved that 0:32:03.320 --> 0:32:05.720 a human being could go into space and safely come 0:32:05.760 --> 0:32:09.720 back down, could orbit the Earth. These next two programs, 0:32:10.040 --> 0:32:14.360 I guess the next Soviet program, what is it again? Yeah, 0:32:14.520 --> 0:32:17.880 that one proved that a person could survive out in 0:32:17.960 --> 0:32:22.840 space outside of a space capsule or space transport um. 0:32:22.920 --> 0:32:26.680 And the Americans had Gemini, which ultimately bridged the gap 0:32:26.720 --> 0:32:30.160 between Mercury program and the Apollo program, which would put 0:32:30.240 --> 0:32:32.520 us on the Moon. And both the vox Shot and 0:32:32.600 --> 0:32:38.440 the Gemini programs were like putting multiple people in space 0:32:38.480 --> 0:32:44.000 together to work and do neat stuff, that's right. And 0:32:44.200 --> 0:32:47.880 uh so with Gemini early on we were like, all right, 0:32:47.920 --> 0:32:50.360 you guys are beaten into the punch. You're getting people 0:32:50.400 --> 0:32:51.680 up there, and you can fly around the Earth a 0:32:51.680 --> 0:32:55.680 bunch of times. You got the quantity part down, But 0:32:55.760 --> 0:32:58.480 we've got to focus on quality here in the US 0:32:58.680 --> 0:33:02.280 and learn how to do things up there like change orbits. 0:33:02.320 --> 0:33:05.600 Can you do that? Rusky? And they said, and yet 0:33:06.120 --> 0:33:08.640 And so all of a sudden we were flying around 0:33:08.680 --> 0:33:13.880 up there, changing orbits, um rendezvousing with other spacecraft, docking 0:33:14.120 --> 0:33:17.160 with rockets, and you can fly around the Earth as 0:33:17.200 --> 0:33:21.239 much as you want, but we're actually putting putting our 0:33:21.280 --> 0:33:24.560 work into practice, like you know, what's it gonna take 0:33:24.560 --> 0:33:26.280 to get on the moon. Since someone up there for 0:33:26.280 --> 0:33:28.920 two weeks and dock with someone else, change orbits, fly 0:33:29.040 --> 0:33:31.720 that thing around. And we were able to do that successfully. 0:33:31.720 --> 0:33:34.560 And that's when we started pulling ahead because the Soviets 0:33:34.560 --> 0:33:37.000 were just doing laps around the Earth. Well, they were 0:33:37.040 --> 0:33:39.200 doing some other stuff they did do, like spacewalks and 0:33:39.200 --> 0:33:41.960 stuff like that. But yeah, it was these two programs 0:33:41.960 --> 0:33:45.520 are where we started to pull away. And um, it 0:33:45.600 --> 0:33:49.680 was that Gemini program that we used to to prove 0:33:49.840 --> 0:33:52.680 that we could do things like spend two weeks in space, 0:33:52.720 --> 0:33:54.200 which is how long it would take, Like he said 0:33:54.240 --> 0:33:55.680 to go to the moon and back. Yeah, and the 0:33:55.960 --> 0:33:58.120 Soviets were doing a lot of unmanned missions at the time, 0:33:59.000 --> 0:34:02.920 or sending animals up their data gathering stuff like that. Yes, 0:34:03.360 --> 0:34:07.680 there were a lot of animals sent to space that 0:34:07.680 --> 0:34:12.000 that perished, that never came back, or that came back 0:34:12.000 --> 0:34:17.400 in as fireballs. It's sad. I went to this museum, 0:34:17.760 --> 0:34:20.080 um do you mean? I did? In in l A. 0:34:20.160 --> 0:34:24.359 It's called the Museum of Jurassic Technology. You should go. 0:34:24.920 --> 0:34:28.600 It is the most unique, peculiar museum you will ever 0:34:28.680 --> 0:34:30.719 go to in your life. But one of the exhibits 0:34:30.840 --> 0:34:35.080 is a hall of portraits of Soviet space dogs. Oh 0:34:35.120 --> 0:34:38.359 really pretty neat, interesting and sad because they all ended 0:34:38.400 --> 0:34:41.480 up dead. Huh yeah, it's it's sad. But the tone 0:34:41.480 --> 0:34:45.160 of them more is the national pride, Like these dogs 0:34:45.200 --> 0:34:49.520 gave their life the advancement of humans. Yeah. But I mean, 0:34:49.560 --> 0:34:51.160 like if you, if you step back and really think 0:34:51.160 --> 0:34:54.080 about it, these portraits are very much like human portraits. 0:34:54.200 --> 0:34:57.279 Like the dogs are like looking up right, uh, you know, 0:34:57.400 --> 0:34:59.960 into the future, with their chin raised and like their 0:35:00.200 --> 0:35:04.640 their breast you know, proud. Yeah, yeah, and yeah there 0:35:05.040 --> 0:35:07.279 the way they're done, it's neat. Well what they're looking 0:35:07.280 --> 0:35:14.600 at is a dog treat. They're staring at the effect. Yeah, uh, 0:35:14.640 --> 0:35:16.480 that's pretty neat. I'm gonna check that out. Oh you 0:35:16.520 --> 0:35:20.799 need to go, man, go with a child's heart. Well, 0:35:20.880 --> 0:35:23.439 I have no choice then, Okay, that's the only heart 0:35:23.480 --> 0:35:27.560 I have. Uh all right. So where we're Project Jim 0:35:27.560 --> 0:35:30.200 and I, we have a little bit of a momentum. 0:35:30.239 --> 0:35:32.480 We we have what it takes. We have the right stuff, 0:35:32.520 --> 0:35:34.839 if you will, to make it to the moon and 0:35:34.840 --> 0:35:37.680 to walk around up there. And that is when Apollo 0:35:37.760 --> 0:35:41.200 one caught fire, which was a pretty big setback in 0:35:41.280 --> 0:35:44.400 January nine seven. Yeah, I mean, like, not only do 0:35:44.520 --> 0:35:48.120 we lose like three of our great astronauts, these guys 0:35:48.120 --> 0:35:51.600 were some of the originals. Um, I imagine that it's 0:35:51.600 --> 0:35:54.680 scared the living daylights out of all the other astronauts 0:35:54.800 --> 0:35:57.400 and all of the people in mission control in NASA 0:35:57.600 --> 0:36:00.840 and Americans like, you know, this is everybody knew it 0:36:00.880 --> 0:36:03.520 was dangerous, but now it was proven like it's deadly. 0:36:04.080 --> 0:36:07.560 So this is a deadly endeavor that we're undertaking here. Yeah, 0:36:07.560 --> 0:36:10.200 they knew that, they knew how dangerous it was. That's 0:36:10.200 --> 0:36:13.080 why all their wives were just you know, no, no, 0:36:13.120 --> 0:36:14.640 I don't. I don't mean that might mean more like 0:36:14.680 --> 0:36:17.399 the American public. Oh yeah, like yeah, you're right now, 0:36:17.480 --> 0:36:21.200 we're losing people. Now. These aren't like dogs like these 0:36:21.239 --> 0:36:23.759 are three guys you know, yeah, totally, and people that 0:36:23.800 --> 0:36:26.080 America had grown to love, you know, like national heroes 0:36:26.160 --> 0:36:29.879 at this point, right like the voice you gotta quit 0:36:29.920 --> 0:36:33.719 saying that. And so after the fire, actually they disassembled 0:36:34.320 --> 0:36:37.360 the launch pads but left the posts as a permanent 0:36:37.640 --> 0:36:45.000 memorial to Apollo one astronauts. Yeah, and rebuilt launch pads elsewhere. Alright, 0:36:45.040 --> 0:36:49.600 So at this point, the Soviets are concentrating on, like 0:36:49.640 --> 0:36:52.480 I said, unmanned spacecraft. They're like, all right, you can 0:36:52.480 --> 0:36:54.880 go walk on the moon, but we're gonna send We're 0:36:54.880 --> 0:36:57.720 gonna orbit the Moon at least, and we're gonna develop 0:36:57.800 --> 0:37:01.480 some docking systems and um, seeing how long we can 0:37:01.520 --> 0:37:05.520 stay up there. Other David Blaine esque feats of strength, right, 0:37:05.880 --> 0:37:08.400 which is kind of neat Like at some point around 0:37:08.440 --> 0:37:12.960 nineteen sixty seven sixty eight, the Soviets said, it's obvious 0:37:13.080 --> 0:37:15.000 the Americans are going to make it to the moon. 0:37:15.200 --> 0:37:17.279 We're not going to send a man to the moon 0:37:17.400 --> 0:37:21.280 right now within time to be first. So let's pursue 0:37:21.320 --> 0:37:23.960 some other stuff that the Americans aren't doing, Like what's 0:37:23.960 --> 0:37:26.440 the big deal about the moon anyway? Right, And as 0:37:26.440 --> 0:37:29.280 it turns out that kind of right, kind of um. 0:37:29.320 --> 0:37:35.400 But humanity as a whole benefited from that decision because 0:37:35.480 --> 0:37:38.520 the while the Americans were perfecting what the Americans were 0:37:38.520 --> 0:37:41.240 perfecting things like space shuttles and that kind of stuff, 0:37:41.640 --> 0:37:44.200 things that came directly out of the Apollo program and 0:37:44.239 --> 0:37:48.879 the lunar landing and just that that science. The Russians were, 0:37:48.920 --> 0:37:53.000 like you said, experimenting with things like docking systems, space stations. 0:37:53.239 --> 0:37:56.360 They ended up building the Mirror and so after the 0:37:56.560 --> 0:37:59.120 sky Lab. Yeah, we had sky Lab in the seventies, 0:37:59.160 --> 0:38:02.719 which I again go to the National Air and Space Museum. 0:38:02.760 --> 0:38:05.080 There's two. There's one at Dullest and then there's one 0:38:05.120 --> 0:38:09.279 like on the mall in d C. Yeah, it's like 0:38:09.320 --> 0:38:12.480 when it's one of the main Smithsonian museums. They have 0:38:12.640 --> 0:38:14.640 like a model of skylight that you can walk through. 0:38:14.640 --> 0:38:19.439 It's so seventies rrific, It's awesome. Yeah. Um, so we 0:38:19.440 --> 0:38:21.800 were experimenting with space stations, but at the same time 0:38:22.160 --> 0:38:25.719 it was very apparent after well, it wasn't the end 0:38:25.719 --> 0:38:27.239 of the Cold War. This is before the end of 0:38:27.239 --> 0:38:29.680 the Cold War, but after we won, after we landed 0:38:29.680 --> 0:38:34.520 on the Moon, apparently the Soviets and Americans said, hey, 0:38:34.840 --> 0:38:38.080 let's see if we can work together, and they actually 0:38:38.120 --> 0:38:43.080 did in a very symbolic but also technically um proficient 0:38:43.480 --> 0:38:48.759 manner the Soyo's Apollo mission of And we'll talk more 0:38:48.760 --> 0:39:00.760 about that right up in this break man. That music 0:39:00.840 --> 0:39:04.080 that's got me fired up. I know. Wow, we already won, 0:39:04.160 --> 0:39:07.400 even yeah, at least the first time. All right, So 0:39:07.440 --> 0:39:10.200 we left off you were talking about the joint Apollo 0:39:10.440 --> 0:39:14.640 Soya's test project UM, which was a really big deal 0:39:14.680 --> 0:39:16.680 to get together on this, and I'm I'm kind of 0:39:16.680 --> 0:39:20.239 surprised even back then that they had the foresight to 0:39:20.280 --> 0:39:23.799 work together, you know. Yeah, but because then we still 0:39:23.840 --> 0:39:26.880 weren't like great friends his nation in the early seventies, no, 0:39:27.000 --> 0:39:29.200 and space was still a huge question as to whether 0:39:29.280 --> 0:39:32.760 or not it could or should or would be weaponized too, Yeah, exactly. 0:39:32.760 --> 0:39:35.120 So for the two dominant superpowers on the planet to 0:39:35.160 --> 0:39:37.800 get together was a big deal. Yeah, And that happened 0:39:37.800 --> 0:39:42.440 in they literally got together in space when an Apollo 0:39:42.520 --> 0:39:46.280 craft carrying three of our astronauts hooked up and docked 0:39:46.320 --> 0:39:50.239 with the Soya's spacecraft with two cosmonauts, and they spent 0:39:50.280 --> 0:39:53.680 a couple of days, uh, you know, working and probably 0:39:53.680 --> 0:39:57.160 getting into one another, maybe drinking vodka. Yeah, they're probably 0:39:57.200 --> 0:39:58.600 We're not so different. We don't have to go to 0:39:58.600 --> 0:40:03.440 space and get drunk. Exactly. It's the best. I like tang, 0:40:03.680 --> 0:40:06.400 you like tank, right, let's put some podka in it. Exactly. 0:40:07.000 --> 0:40:10.439 So that was a big deal. And UM, at least 0:40:10.560 --> 0:40:14.319 from that, it proved that we could work together, our 0:40:14.320 --> 0:40:17.759 space agencies could work together, and UM it led to 0:40:17.800 --> 0:40:22.920 this this age of cooperation that grew directly out of 0:40:22.960 --> 0:40:26.480 the rivalry. UM. And like we said, the Russians were 0:40:26.560 --> 0:40:30.040 kind of paying attention to living for the duration in space. 0:40:30.560 --> 0:40:34.080 The Americans big thing was this Space Shuttle. We basically 0:40:34.080 --> 0:40:35.759 had like some cars that we could drive to the 0:40:35.800 --> 0:40:39.440 Moon or space and back. Um, and we kind of 0:40:39.440 --> 0:40:42.399 put the two together. Um. The Russians had the Mere 0:40:42.480 --> 0:40:48.440 Space Station and in the nineties their crews had worked 0:40:48.560 --> 0:40:51.640 in the eighties or nineties, I don't remember their crews. 0:40:51.880 --> 0:40:54.120 At least one crew had spent more than a year 0:40:54.640 --> 0:40:59.160 in space. That was huge, super huge because part of 0:40:59.160 --> 0:41:01.200 the goal with all of these is, can we one 0:41:01.280 --> 0:41:04.799 day live in space? Period? And so ultimately this led 0:41:04.880 --> 0:41:08.640 to this joint cooperation led to the International Space Station 0:41:09.320 --> 0:41:11.759 UH in the nineties. Yep. And if you go up 0:41:11.760 --> 0:41:14.120 to the International Space Station, you're gonna see Russians and 0:41:14.120 --> 0:41:17.839 you're gonna see Americans and they're all up there working together. Still. Oh, 0:41:17.920 --> 0:41:21.400 but Chuck, that is possibly changing. Yeah, I guess I 0:41:21.440 --> 0:41:25.400 should have said had been working together nicely, like good neighbors. 0:41:25.440 --> 0:41:28.520 Because is it Russia trying to like evict this now? Well, 0:41:28.560 --> 0:41:31.640 they're basically saying like, hey, you guys can't get up 0:41:31.640 --> 0:41:34.560 there anymore because and we're not going to give you 0:41:34.600 --> 0:41:36.879 a ride. No, well, no, they will give us a ride, 0:41:36.880 --> 0:41:39.960 but it's seventy one million dollars a ride now yeah, 0:41:40.560 --> 0:41:44.080 and um, at the very least, it's humiliating that Americans 0:41:44.480 --> 0:41:47.000 are having to hit your ride from Russians who are 0:41:47.000 --> 0:41:50.040 basically extorting money from us. So is this all at 0:41:50.080 --> 0:41:52.440 the root of it? Is it like just tensions between 0:41:52.719 --> 0:41:56.080 Putin and the US? Yeah, it all came from the 0:41:56.200 --> 0:41:59.520 Ukraine stuff in the sanctions. One of the first Russians 0:41:59.520 --> 0:42:02.719 to be anction was the head of the Russian Space Agency. 0:42:03.280 --> 0:42:06.439 So They were like, oh really, you know that's that's 0:42:06.400 --> 0:42:10.120 space station up there, Like, you guys are in trouble now, 0:42:10.400 --> 0:42:12.279 So I wonder is it not going to be the 0:42:12.320 --> 0:42:16.200 International Space Station anymore? I think what Russia is basically 0:42:16.280 --> 0:42:19.880 saying is watch what happens when we stopped giving you 0:42:19.880 --> 0:42:22.560 guys ride right, and then we say, you know what, 0:42:22.640 --> 0:42:24.680 let's just let the space station fall out of orbit. 0:42:25.360 --> 0:42:27.920 We Russia will still have a space flight program, a 0:42:28.000 --> 0:42:31.160 human space flight program. You guys won't because the International 0:42:31.160 --> 0:42:34.759 Space Station is the only piece of human space flight 0:42:34.800 --> 0:42:38.680 equipment that the United States has because the space Shuttle 0:42:38.760 --> 0:42:43.160 program was scrapped. Wow. Uh so the space Shuttle was scrapped, 0:42:43.560 --> 0:42:48.879 Like you said, um Bush before he left office sort 0:42:48.880 --> 0:42:51.920 of had to read a directive for NASA moving forward 0:42:52.480 --> 0:42:56.839 that is moot now because Obama scrapped a lot of it, 0:42:57.080 --> 0:43:00.279 um Bush want to go back to the moon basically, 0:43:00.960 --> 0:43:03.359 and even some of the people within NASA said, it's 0:43:03.400 --> 0:43:06.239 like Apollo on steroids, and do we really need to 0:43:06.280 --> 0:43:07.759 go back to the moon, Like what can we gain 0:43:07.800 --> 0:43:10.359 from that at this point? So Obama scrapped it and 0:43:10.440 --> 0:43:15.759 redirected NASA's funding towards more rocket technology. Research like how 0:43:15.800 --> 0:43:19.760 can we fire rockets farther and uh, can we refuel 0:43:19.760 --> 0:43:22.879 them in flight? And not just for military, but maybe 0:43:22.880 --> 0:43:26.080 this stuff can be useful, uh, you know in the 0:43:26.120 --> 0:43:32.120 space program as well. So that is the current space program. 0:43:32.120 --> 0:43:36.839 But there's a new space race. Yeah, um ish China. Yeah, 0:43:37.239 --> 0:43:43.360 has come along and very methodically and plaudingly has followed 0:43:43.719 --> 0:43:47.920 and met its space goals. Two thousand three put its 0:43:48.000 --> 0:43:50.960 first man in space. What do you said? They were 0:43:51.160 --> 0:43:55.000 taco nuts, Tyco nuts, Psycho nuts. Yeah. Yeah, one of 0:43:55.120 --> 0:43:58.759 the um I read an article about China's space race 0:43:58.920 --> 0:44:02.320 and they said, so far their space program program is 0:44:02.480 --> 0:44:06.720 roughly equivalent to the US and Soviet space program circum 0:44:06.719 --> 0:44:10.440 mid sixties. I saw that too. Yeah, so they're clearly behind, 0:44:10.600 --> 0:44:14.200 but apparently they are making a lot of headway in 0:44:14.200 --> 0:44:17.520 a short amount of time. Plus they have the luxury 0:44:17.560 --> 0:44:21.160 of not having to invent items like microchips from scratch, 0:44:21.560 --> 0:44:24.160 right that people, the Russians in the so in the 0:44:24.200 --> 0:44:27.600 Americans and the space race had to do. Um. The 0:44:27.640 --> 0:44:31.480 fact is, though, if you if you read anything about 0:44:31.600 --> 0:44:35.440 China and it's space ambitions and the United States in 0:44:35.480 --> 0:44:40.640 the state of its current space program, you basically find 0:44:40.760 --> 0:44:44.280 you're sitting around reminiscing about the golden days of Tang 0:44:44.400 --> 0:44:51.760 and guests. Grissom. Yeah, we're we're China is basically going 0:44:51.800 --> 0:44:54.799 to dominate space. They're poised to dominate space. They very 0:44:54.800 --> 0:44:59.759 cleverly have started a space uh station program that will 0:45:00.320 --> 0:45:04.640 come online at the same time that the I S S, 0:45:04.680 --> 0:45:08.600 the International Space Station UM makes its fiery ark in 0:45:08.680 --> 0:45:11.839 to the Pacific Somewhere I read, Yeah, the I S 0:45:11.840 --> 0:45:13.880 S is going to come down some time after two 0:45:13.920 --> 0:45:18.000 thousand sixteen, probably two thousand twenty, and the United States 0:45:18.040 --> 0:45:21.759 will have no presence in space any longer. China will 0:45:21.800 --> 0:45:24.160 be the only game in town with the space station. 0:45:25.239 --> 0:45:29.480 And I feel like, I don't know that this is true, 0:45:29.520 --> 0:45:38.520 but I feel like in something like space space exploration, UM, 0:45:38.560 --> 0:45:41.640 that's kind of something that you have to build on momentum. 0:45:42.080 --> 0:45:46.080 Once you use momentum, you really are set back. Like 0:45:46.160 --> 0:45:48.560 all of these people who are working for NASSA who 0:45:48.560 --> 0:45:51.799 have been laid off recently, and as they age out 0:45:51.880 --> 0:45:56.480 and retire and and all of that cumulative knowledge and 0:45:56.480 --> 0:46:00.279 and organizational memories lost. So even if we m to 0:46:00.920 --> 0:46:03.560 ten years from now, five years from now and say, 0:46:03.560 --> 0:46:07.799 whoa we're a spacefaring nation. We need to get back 0:46:07.880 --> 0:46:11.120 out there. We've lost quite a bit already, not to 0:46:11.200 --> 0:46:13.400 mention in the ensuing five or ten years where we 0:46:13.400 --> 0:46:16.480 start to lose exponentially more. Yeah, it takes a while 0:46:16.520 --> 0:46:18.840 to ramp that back up. And my my I agree. 0:46:19.080 --> 0:46:21.680 My fear is this that we're going to take our 0:46:21.760 --> 0:46:26.919 typical or what's come to be our typical klectocratic view 0:46:26.960 --> 0:46:29.799 of things and just let private business handle it. We'll 0:46:29.840 --> 0:46:33.680 just let you know, SpaceX handle it. For America. They're 0:46:33.719 --> 0:46:36.480 addicted the money, so they're in their pursuit of money. 0:46:36.840 --> 0:46:39.760 Um will benefit as a nation. Well, that hasn't necessarily 0:46:39.760 --> 0:46:42.400 worked out for us with like you know, housing markets 0:46:42.400 --> 0:46:46.080 and stock markets and dangerous chemicals and that kind of thing. 0:46:46.400 --> 0:46:49.919 So while I do think that the true space race 0:46:50.000 --> 0:46:54.120 right now is between private industry amongst itself and private 0:46:54.160 --> 0:46:57.480 industry and China, I don't think that as a nation, 0:46:57.840 --> 0:47:00.520 by sitting back and just leaving it to private industry 0:47:00.719 --> 0:47:06.239 and virtually withdrawing our federal dollars from space exploration, that 0:47:06.360 --> 0:47:08.680 the United States is going to benefit in any way, 0:47:08.680 --> 0:47:12.080 shape or form. Well, Yeah, especially when you hear Aston 0:47:12.120 --> 0:47:16.000 Kutcher is going up on Virgin Galactic. How's that helping us? 0:47:16.280 --> 0:47:22.120 It's not Angelina Jolie's up there, though, I don't know. 0:47:22.440 --> 0:47:24.960 I mean, I think it's neat, but it's it's one 0:47:25.000 --> 0:47:29.759 of those private space travel for the super rich. It's 0:47:29.840 --> 0:47:33.080 just like another thing for the super rich, like owning 0:47:33.160 --> 0:47:37.000 a yacht, Like, how does that benefit me that if 0:47:37.000 --> 0:47:39.080 you've got several hundred thousand dollars you can take a 0:47:39.120 --> 0:47:42.480 suborbital flight, which is basically like a tourist. You know, 0:47:42.560 --> 0:47:46.600 that's not that's not advancing I don't think that's advancing 0:47:46.880 --> 0:47:50.400 our space exploration at all. Just leave it to business. 0:47:51.280 --> 0:47:53.879 We'll see. And that's not to say that SpaceX or 0:47:55.120 --> 0:47:57.960 or any of the private space industries aren't working to 0:47:58.040 --> 0:48:02.920 do things beyond send movie stars enriched people to space. No, 0:48:03.160 --> 0:48:05.879 they're working to send the rest of us to space too. 0:48:06.000 --> 0:48:08.040 It's just the rich people and movie stars are the 0:48:08.080 --> 0:48:10.760 ones who will have the money to hit that first 0:48:10.800 --> 0:48:13.759 price point. But they're doing other things too, though, like 0:48:14.040 --> 0:48:17.360 research or are they not? Uh, Like that's what I 0:48:17.400 --> 0:48:19.959 need to look at. I would imagine that probably most 0:48:20.000 --> 0:48:25.080 of the goals of anything like SpaceX or any company 0:48:25.120 --> 0:48:28.760 like that is to is to make money from space, 0:48:29.120 --> 0:48:34.160 so I would guess mining, um, basically selling the services 0:48:34.239 --> 0:48:39.600 to space agencies, colonizing and selling a moon condos. Sure, 0:48:39.800 --> 0:48:44.400 like India, Iran, Um. These countries have space programs as 0:48:44.440 --> 0:48:47.680 well and are entering space themselves. Space X can go 0:48:47.880 --> 0:48:52.560 basically contract for them. Um. Yeah, they're they're doing stuff, 0:48:52.560 --> 0:48:55.280 but they're not doing stuff necessarily just for the pursuit 0:48:55.320 --> 0:48:59.239 of science like for the US even Yeah yeah, um, 0:48:59.280 --> 0:49:01.959 I got a couple of things before we finish. There's 0:49:02.040 --> 0:49:06.839 some inventions that sometimes are mistakenly attributed to NASA which 0:49:06.880 --> 0:49:11.200 aren't necessarily true, but our favorites in space. Yeah. Velcro 0:49:11.320 --> 0:49:15.120 is the one I've always heard that's wrong, is it? Yes? 0:49:15.400 --> 0:49:19.000 It was invented in the nineties by a hiker who 0:49:19.200 --> 0:49:22.760 um noticed that little birds were stuck to his socks 0:49:22.800 --> 0:49:25.880 and wondered how they stuck. I've heard that story. Look closely. 0:49:25.920 --> 0:49:28.360 This is the true story. Look closely and saw that 0:49:28.520 --> 0:49:30.840 birds have little hooks and his socks have little loops, 0:49:30.920 --> 0:49:33.439 and that gave rise to velcon and velcro is used 0:49:33.440 --> 0:49:36.880 a lot by NASA, so it's often wrongfully attributed to NASA. 0:49:36.920 --> 0:49:39.440 All right, this is a fun game, since you you 0:49:39.480 --> 0:49:43.160 know this stuff? Okay. How about Eminem's No, the popular 0:49:43.200 --> 0:49:45.279 candy that melts in your mouth and on in your hands. No, 0:49:45.520 --> 0:49:48.600 they also don't like squish around in space. The candy 0:49:48.640 --> 0:49:52.480 coated shell makes it great for space travel, but not 0:49:52.600 --> 0:49:57.680 invented four space. What about the joystick? Yes, okay, that 0:49:57.840 --> 0:50:00.400 is the direct result of the Space Race and the 0:50:00.440 --> 0:50:05.840 space programs. What about GPS? Yeah, because you can't spell 0:50:06.160 --> 0:50:12.680 Global Positioning satellite without positioning. Yeah it system, isn't it? 0:50:12.800 --> 0:50:16.840 GPS system? Yeah? It uses satellites. So we also have 0:50:17.320 --> 0:50:20.560 the space race bot that one. We also have the 0:50:20.600 --> 0:50:24.080 space face to thank for satellite TV. Uh. What about 0:50:24.520 --> 0:50:28.399 um smoke detectors in your home? Yes, because of Space 0:50:28.440 --> 0:50:36.560 program base yeah. Um. What about tang sopping dots, the 0:50:36.600 --> 0:50:40.040 freest dride, the dipping dots. I don't know, man, that 0:50:40.200 --> 0:50:43.160 was supposed to be like the you know, outer space 0:50:43.160 --> 0:50:45.440 ice cream. It's what the answer? Not tan supposedly, but 0:50:45.480 --> 0:50:48.480 I don't know if it was developed by NASSA for them. 0:50:48.560 --> 0:50:53.080 Um Tang. No, it was already around freeze drive foods. 0:50:53.880 --> 0:50:57.799 The freeze drying process was already around the freeze drive 0:50:57.880 --> 0:51:01.719 blood to save for later. Um. But then NASA adopted 0:51:01.719 --> 0:51:04.799 it to start free drying food, so technically you can 0:51:04.840 --> 0:51:07.600 thank NASA for free drive food. Yeah, and while tang 0:51:07.680 --> 0:51:10.120 was not invented by the Space program, it was definitely, 0:51:10.680 --> 0:51:14.440 um heavily marketed as being tied to the space program, 0:51:14.480 --> 0:51:17.080 and it was a big deal. Like it was like 0:51:17.200 --> 0:51:18.840 people gave it to their kids because they thought it 0:51:18.840 --> 0:51:22.080 would make them go into space. Yeah, like stronger and 0:51:22.120 --> 0:51:25.480 smarter and yeah, pretty much you got what are what 0:51:25.520 --> 0:51:27.120 are some other? I have one more for you. Have 0:51:27.200 --> 0:51:30.759 you ever heard there's like this um urban legend that 0:51:30.960 --> 0:51:33.759 the American Space program and the Soviet Space program both 0:51:33.760 --> 0:51:37.480 had this problem. Um, the the Americans they needed to 0:51:37.520 --> 0:51:39.480 be able to write in space, but if you use 0:51:39.520 --> 0:51:43.440 a pen, pens are functioned by gravity, and if you're 0:51:43.440 --> 0:51:47.360 in zero gravity you can't use a pen Seinfeld, had 0:51:47.400 --> 0:51:51.479 an astronaut been right, Yeah, So supposedly that NASA spent 0:51:51.600 --> 0:51:54.359 millions of dollars in coming up with a zero G pen, 0:51:54.719 --> 0:51:58.719 while the Soviets had a much better idea pencil. Was 0:51:58.760 --> 0:52:01.799 that really? Yeah? Wow, So apparently that's an urban myth. 0:52:02.120 --> 0:52:06.239 Both programs used pencils to start, but the Apollo one 0:52:06.280 --> 0:52:09.480 fire showed that you don't want anything that's even remotely flammable, 0:52:09.560 --> 0:52:15.800 like a wooden pencil aboard your spacecraft. So NASA started 0:52:15.880 --> 0:52:18.960 using mechanical pencils, which were a couple of hundred dollars 0:52:18.960 --> 0:52:22.040 a piece. They were way over paying them for him. Um. 0:52:22.120 --> 0:52:24.520 And then a man by the name of Fisher, who 0:52:24.520 --> 0:52:27.440 owned Fisher Pen Company, used his own millions of dollars 0:52:27.640 --> 0:52:33.080 to create a pressure functioning pen rather than gravity functioning pen, 0:52:33.400 --> 0:52:35.799 a space pen, which he in turns sold to the 0:52:35.920 --> 0:52:39.399 US Space program and eventually the Soviet space program for 0:52:39.560 --> 0:52:42.400 just a few dollars each. So that millions of dollars 0:52:42.440 --> 0:52:46.640 space pen is a myth that you that's your Paul 0:52:46.680 --> 0:52:53.319 Harvey moment. Uh pencils and hey, shout out to our 0:52:53.320 --> 0:52:55.960 buddy David Reese, who wrote the quintessential books how to 0:52:56.000 --> 0:53:00.640 sharpen Pencils book. Yep, not books, but if you want 0:53:00.680 --> 0:53:02.600 to know about sharpening pencils, that's the way to go. 0:53:02.800 --> 0:53:04.799 There's a book and he will explain that. And he's 0:53:04.800 --> 0:53:07.320 a great funny guy than a friend. So yeah, he's good. 0:53:07.320 --> 0:53:09.040 I always like to plug that. He's got a new 0:53:09.040 --> 0:53:13.560 show coming out. Well, um, what that geo? Oh yeah, yeah, 0:53:13.640 --> 0:53:16.280 what's it about. It's called Going Deep with David Reese, 0:53:16.320 --> 0:53:19.920 where he each episode is like how to open a Door, 0:53:19.960 --> 0:53:23.160 how to make ice, how to Squatterfly, where he goes 0:53:23.239 --> 0:53:26.920 deep into the how too is a very mundane task. 0:53:27.000 --> 0:53:29.400 It's nicely done. Yeah, I can't wait to see it 0:53:29.680 --> 0:53:32.719 for sure. Um, have you got anything else? I got 0:53:32.719 --> 0:53:35.080 nothing else. So if you want to know more about 0:53:35.160 --> 0:53:37.480 space race, you can type space and Race in the 0:53:37.480 --> 0:53:39.560 search part house to first dot com. And if this 0:53:39.640 --> 0:53:42.239 fascinated you, you should go back and listen to our 0:53:42.520 --> 0:53:46.040 was the mood Landing a hoax episode? Uh? And our 0:53:46.080 --> 0:53:49.279 episode did Reagan Star Wars program and the Cold War, 0:53:49.760 --> 0:53:53.239 both of them excellent excellent episodes we've done and you 0:53:53.239 --> 0:53:55.719 can find them both at Stuff you Should Know dot com, 0:53:56.000 --> 0:54:02.280 Slash Podcasts, slash archive. And we did a very special 0:54:02.280 --> 0:54:07.040 television episode about the Private Space Race. So one of 0:54:07.040 --> 0:54:11.680 our ten TV episode Stuff you Should Know featured John Hodgman. Uh. 0:54:11.840 --> 0:54:13.719 And the gist of the episode is we are have 0:54:13.800 --> 0:54:18.279 been invited to do some training for private space play. Yeah, 0:54:18.280 --> 0:54:21.239 it's bax and it's a fun episode. So you can 0:54:21.280 --> 0:54:23.640 get that on iTunes and Google Play and or you 0:54:23.680 --> 0:54:25.799 can stay up until four in the morning and watch 0:54:25.800 --> 0:54:29.480 it on side. Maybe apparently they do show the late 0:54:29.600 --> 0:54:33.480 night yeah, like regularly. Yeah cool for weird I'll have 0:54:33.520 --> 0:54:37.040 to watch those. Uh. If you already said all that, 0:54:37.280 --> 0:54:41.799 I think it's time, buddy for listening, ma'am. Okay, I'm 0:54:41.800 --> 0:54:45.920 gonna call this, uh breastfeeding from Becky. Hey, guys, I'm 0:54:45.920 --> 0:54:48.080 a newer fan. I'm so glad to found y'all. I 0:54:48.120 --> 0:54:50.120 discovered your shows while looking for ways to spend the 0:54:50.160 --> 0:54:52.319 vast amount of free time I have during my day. 0:54:52.320 --> 0:54:55.799 Now my husband I just had our first child, Penelope. 0:54:56.120 --> 0:54:59.680 Do you have free time? Well, you know, raising the 0:54:59.719 --> 0:55:03.520 kid not free. I wouldn't call it free time. I agree. Um, 0:55:03.560 --> 0:55:06.319 I've discovered that breastfeeding is very time consuming. I think 0:55:06.360 --> 0:55:08.080 she means while she's breastfeeding is not a lot of use. 0:55:09.360 --> 0:55:11.480 Basically forced to sit around for long stretches of time 0:55:11.480 --> 0:55:14.000 and able to do anything besides think, read, or listen 0:55:14.040 --> 0:55:17.319 to podcasts. I feel as if our daughters already leaps 0:55:17.320 --> 0:55:18.959 and bounds ahead of all the other four month olds 0:55:18.960 --> 0:55:21.399 out there. This is a while ago, so she's even 0:55:21.440 --> 0:55:24.320 older than that. She's been educated about how meth and 0:55:24.360 --> 0:55:28.040 crack cocaine, work, sign language, human cannonballs, the amputation, castration, 0:55:28.120 --> 0:55:31.640 diplomatic community, etcetera. The list is growing longer as we 0:55:31.680 --> 0:55:33.759 worked through the archives. Made me wonder if you ever 0:55:33.800 --> 0:55:36.239 thought about doing a show on breastfeeding. I thought at 0:55:36.239 --> 0:55:38.040 first it would be a super weird experience, but I've 0:55:38.080 --> 0:55:41.000 come to really be fascinated by the process. And let's 0:55:41.040 --> 0:55:44.400 be honest, it's something with which the vast majority of 0:55:44.560 --> 0:55:49.160 humans have had firsthand experience. So we didn't do breastfeeding 0:55:49.200 --> 0:55:51.640 doing No, we totally should that. That's a great suggestion 0:55:51.760 --> 0:55:55.000 as a huge hornet's nest too. Oh yeah, yeah, well, 0:55:55.080 --> 0:55:57.160 let's step right into it. Let's do it. That's from 0:55:57.160 --> 0:56:01.000 Becky Breastfeeding Becky. Thank you, Becky, Thanks Becky. Uh. If 0:56:01.040 --> 0:56:03.840 you want to suggest an episode, we are always up 0:56:03.880 --> 0:56:07.239 for that. We love great suggestions like Becky's. You can 0:56:07.239 --> 0:56:09.799 tweet to us at s Y s K podcast. You 0:56:09.840 --> 0:56:12.560 can join us on Facebook dot com slash stuff you 0:56:12.560 --> 0:56:15.240 should know. You can send us an email to Stuff 0:56:15.280 --> 0:56:18.919 Podcast at how stuff works dot com. Uh, and last 0:56:18.960 --> 0:56:20.600 but not least, you can hang out with us at 0:56:20.640 --> 0:56:24.400 our home on the web, the coolest location on the Internet. 0:56:24.560 --> 0:56:31.839 It's called Stuff you Should Know dot com. For more 0:56:31.880 --> 0:56:34.520 on this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff 0:56:34.520 --> 0:56:42.080 Works dot com.