1 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:07,160 Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 2 00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:13,920 Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 3 00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:17,320 Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 4 00:00:17,400 --> 00:00:21,720 Speaker 1: How Stuff Works not love all things tech, and recently 5 00:00:22,040 --> 00:00:25,000 Speaker 1: I got an email from tech Stuff listener Lim asking 6 00:00:25,040 --> 00:00:27,720 Speaker 1: me to do an episode about the Space Shuttle program. 7 00:00:27,720 --> 00:00:30,479 Speaker 1: And I'm gonna do that, but it really sent me 8 00:00:30,520 --> 00:00:32,880 Speaker 1: down a very long rabbit hole, and I thought it 9 00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:34,600 Speaker 1: might be fun to look at some of the early 10 00:00:34,840 --> 00:00:38,199 Speaker 1: manned spacecraft and a couple of the unmanned ones to 11 00:00:38,400 --> 00:00:41,720 Speaker 1: that preceded the Space Shuttle programs. So we're actually gonna 12 00:00:41,760 --> 00:00:45,879 Speaker 1: do a block of space related episodes. This is the 13 00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:49,560 Speaker 1: first one. We're gonna have several more, including ones about 14 00:00:49,760 --> 00:00:53,559 Speaker 1: different eras of space exploration, the different rockets that have 15 00:00:53,640 --> 00:00:57,840 Speaker 1: been used in space exploration, and the Space Shuttle program. 16 00:00:57,960 --> 00:01:01,440 Speaker 1: So we're blasting off into out space for a few episodes. 17 00:01:01,560 --> 00:01:04,800 Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy the ride. Now, before I get started, 18 00:01:05,440 --> 00:01:07,839 Speaker 1: I want to give you guys some trigger warnings early 19 00:01:07,880 --> 00:01:10,600 Speaker 1: on in this episode. So I'll be talking a bit 20 00:01:10,680 --> 00:01:14,800 Speaker 1: about some early space missions that involve animals, and not 21 00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:17,160 Speaker 1: all of those are happy stories. So if you are 22 00:01:17,200 --> 00:01:20,759 Speaker 1: distressed by sad stories about animals, and there is one 23 00:01:20,800 --> 00:01:23,120 Speaker 1: coming up later in this episode, I'll point it out 24 00:01:23,160 --> 00:01:25,480 Speaker 1: when I get to that section, just be aware that 25 00:01:25,480 --> 00:01:29,120 Speaker 1: that's going to happen. And second trigger warning, I'm one 26 00:01:29,160 --> 00:01:33,040 Speaker 1: of those people who gets distressed about sad stories about animals. 27 00:01:33,480 --> 00:01:37,600 Speaker 1: So if you get distressed by bald tech podcasters who 28 00:01:37,600 --> 00:01:40,080 Speaker 1: are barely able to keep it together on microphone because 29 00:01:40,080 --> 00:01:42,560 Speaker 1: they're talking about a sweet doggie, then this is your 30 00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:46,520 Speaker 1: trigger warning for that as well. Before there were spacecraft 31 00:01:46,640 --> 00:01:49,760 Speaker 1: with actual human beings in them, there were many earlier 32 00:01:49,800 --> 00:01:55,200 Speaker 1: experiments and projects and thought experiments that provided valuable information 33 00:01:55,240 --> 00:01:58,320 Speaker 1: about what it would take to get people into space. 34 00:01:58,880 --> 00:02:02,840 Speaker 1: The scientists and engineers responsible for those experiments came from 35 00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:05,720 Speaker 1: all over, and much of their work was advanced not 36 00:02:05,840 --> 00:02:09,639 Speaker 1: through a pursuit of knowledge but through conflict. And I've 37 00:02:09,680 --> 00:02:12,480 Speaker 1: mentioned this in other episodes, but the space race was 38 00:02:12,639 --> 00:02:17,080 Speaker 1: largely fueled by pretty ugly political rivalries and a need 39 00:02:17,120 --> 00:02:21,000 Speaker 1: to demonstrate a position of technological dominance and capability. Now, 40 00:02:21,040 --> 00:02:25,200 Speaker 1: I don't say that to diminish the incredible contributions of 41 00:02:25,400 --> 00:02:29,800 Speaker 1: countless individuals who have dedicated their lives to exploring the unknown, 42 00:02:29,840 --> 00:02:33,320 Speaker 1: whether it is piloting a spacecraft or working on Earth 43 00:02:33,400 --> 00:02:36,520 Speaker 1: so that others can do that. I I say it 44 00:02:36,600 --> 00:02:39,840 Speaker 1: to illustrate that much of the work they did was 45 00:02:39,919 --> 00:02:43,000 Speaker 1: made possible because the people in charge of the purse strings, 46 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:46,480 Speaker 1: the ones who were actually paying the checks, were really 47 00:02:46,600 --> 00:02:49,240 Speaker 1: interested in their country being seen as the most powerful 48 00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:55,440 Speaker 1: and more importantly unassailable entity on Earth. So double edged sword. 49 00:02:55,960 --> 00:02:58,440 Speaker 1: Before I talk about any specific spacecraft, I want to 50 00:02:58,440 --> 00:03:01,520 Speaker 1: give an overview about some of the early scientists and 51 00:03:01,600 --> 00:03:04,960 Speaker 1: engineers who helped pave the way. Now, I could go 52 00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:07,640 Speaker 1: all the way back to the Renaissance, when folks like 53 00:03:07,720 --> 00:03:12,760 Speaker 1: Galileo made astronomical observations that challenged the prevailing geocentric view 54 00:03:12,760 --> 00:03:16,160 Speaker 1: of the universe, but that would make this show way 55 00:03:16,200 --> 00:03:19,000 Speaker 1: too long, and I've already got five episodes planned in 56 00:03:19,080 --> 00:03:21,639 Speaker 1: this block. I don't need to add more to them, 57 00:03:21,680 --> 00:03:24,040 Speaker 1: so I'm gonna skip ahead of bit. One person I 58 00:03:24,120 --> 00:03:27,000 Speaker 1: do feel I must mention published a work at the 59 00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:31,040 Speaker 1: end of the nineteenth century that was incredibly important. His 60 00:03:31,120 --> 00:03:37,360 Speaker 1: name was Konstantine Siolkovsky, a Russian scientist. In eighteen ninety six, 61 00:03:37,400 --> 00:03:40,200 Speaker 1: he began writing a work the English title of this 62 00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:45,160 Speaker 1: work is Exploration of Cosmic Space by means of Reaction Devices, 63 00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:49,840 Speaker 1: and essentially Siolkovsky was working out the logistics of escaping 64 00:03:49,920 --> 00:03:54,080 Speaker 1: Earth's gravity, going to space and using rockets to do it. 65 00:03:54,640 --> 00:03:56,720 Speaker 1: He did this at a time when Russia was still 66 00:03:56,800 --> 00:03:59,560 Speaker 1: under the control of the Czar. In fact, it really 67 00:03:59,600 --> 00:04:03,320 Speaker 1: wasn't an after the Russian Revolution of nineteen seventeen in 68 00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:06,360 Speaker 1: the formation of the Soviet Union in nineteen twenty two 69 00:04:06,680 --> 00:04:10,640 Speaker 1: that Siolkovsky really received any support for his work. The 70 00:04:10,680 --> 00:04:14,800 Speaker 1: Soviet government was very interested in rockets that could go really, 71 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:19,000 Speaker 1: really far. Siolkovsky wasn't just a theorist either. He would 72 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:22,000 Speaker 1: also test his ideas. He introduced the concept of using 73 00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:26,160 Speaker 1: wind tunnels to judge rocket aerodynamic design, for example, so 74 00:04:26,520 --> 00:04:29,880 Speaker 1: he was practical as well well as a theoretical physicist. 75 00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:33,960 Speaker 1: Over in the United States, meanwhile, a physicist named Robert 76 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:36,760 Speaker 1: Goddard was also working out the requirements to send a 77 00:04:36,839 --> 00:04:39,080 Speaker 1: rocket to space. He he came out along a little 78 00:04:39,120 --> 00:04:43,919 Speaker 1: bit after Sulkovsky. He also invented liquid fueled rockets. He 79 00:04:43,960 --> 00:04:47,240 Speaker 1: received patents for his designs in nineteen fourteen, and he 80 00:04:47,320 --> 00:04:50,560 Speaker 1: build the first working liquid fueled rocket In the mid 81 00:04:50,680 --> 00:04:55,359 Speaker 1: nineteen twenties. He pioneered work in elements like gyroscopic control 82 00:04:55,480 --> 00:04:58,719 Speaker 1: to help with flight stability, and also power driven fuel 83 00:04:58,760 --> 00:05:01,279 Speaker 1: pumps for fuel managed it and a couple of years 84 00:05:01,400 --> 00:05:05,880 Speaker 1: later scientists in Europe would create similar designs, largely independently, 85 00:05:06,080 --> 00:05:08,320 Speaker 1: which would be put to use in Germany's V two 86 00:05:08,480 --> 00:05:11,360 Speaker 1: rockets during World War Two. The V two is short 87 00:05:11,440 --> 00:05:15,640 Speaker 1: for fair Gel tongs FAFA s VY or retribution weapon 88 00:05:15,680 --> 00:05:19,080 Speaker 1: to which, yeah, that kind of tells you the purpose 89 00:05:19,120 --> 00:05:21,840 Speaker 1: of that particular piece of technology. It was not meant 90 00:05:21,880 --> 00:05:26,440 Speaker 1: to explore space, however. On June twenty, nineteen forty four, 91 00:05:26,480 --> 00:05:29,640 Speaker 1: engineers conducted a test of a V two rocket that 92 00:05:29,720 --> 00:05:33,360 Speaker 1: saw it reach an altitude of one D seventy six kilometers. 93 00:05:33,880 --> 00:05:36,360 Speaker 1: That made the V two the first rocket to cross 94 00:05:36,440 --> 00:05:39,640 Speaker 1: the Carmen line, which you could call the edge of space. 95 00:05:40,200 --> 00:05:43,000 Speaker 1: The Carmen line is at a hundred kilometers above mean 96 00:05:43,120 --> 00:05:46,560 Speaker 1: sea level, and it's named after Theodore Fawn Karmen, who 97 00:05:46,600 --> 00:05:50,919 Speaker 1: was an Hungarian American engineer. He proposed that that altitude 98 00:05:50,960 --> 00:05:53,240 Speaker 1: would mark the point where it would be impossible to 99 00:05:53,360 --> 00:05:58,479 Speaker 1: maintain your your flight through UH lift alone at least 100 00:05:58,520 --> 00:06:01,120 Speaker 1: through conventional means, because the atmosphere would be too thin 101 00:06:01,360 --> 00:06:04,720 Speaker 1: to support an aircraft via lift unless the aircraft were 102 00:06:04,760 --> 00:06:09,480 Speaker 1: actually traveling faster than orbital velocity. Now, interestingly, in the 103 00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:12,039 Speaker 1: United States, it doesn't take as far to get up 104 00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:13,320 Speaker 1: to space. You don't have to go up to a 105 00:06:13,400 --> 00:06:16,039 Speaker 1: hundred kilometers to be in space. Now, I don't mean 106 00:06:16,080 --> 00:06:19,640 Speaker 1: that space is magically closer to the United States soil 107 00:06:19,839 --> 00:06:22,640 Speaker 1: or anything. Rather, I mean the United States Air Force 108 00:06:22,920 --> 00:06:26,200 Speaker 1: calls anyone who has traveled at an altitude higher than 109 00:06:26,279 --> 00:06:30,880 Speaker 1: eighty kilometers over sea level an astronaut. So if you 110 00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:34,000 Speaker 1: go higher than eighty kilometers and you're in the U. S. 111 00:06:34,040 --> 00:06:37,160 Speaker 1: Air Force, you're an astronaut. If you are anywhere else 112 00:06:37,160 --> 00:06:38,800 Speaker 1: in the world, they would say, you haven't actually been 113 00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:41,000 Speaker 1: to space yet. You need to go another twenty kilometers. 114 00:06:41,480 --> 00:06:43,640 Speaker 1: But I just thought that was an interesting little side point. 115 00:06:44,200 --> 00:06:46,400 Speaker 1: At the end of World War Two, there was a 116 00:06:46,480 --> 00:06:49,640 Speaker 1: scramble among allied powers to grab up some of the 117 00:06:49,680 --> 00:06:53,520 Speaker 1: more important assets that were formally held by the excess powers. 118 00:06:54,080 --> 00:06:58,360 Speaker 1: Two of the assets that the United States really wanted 119 00:06:58,600 --> 00:07:01,120 Speaker 1: were the V two rockets Germany had been using to 120 00:07:01,160 --> 00:07:05,400 Speaker 1: bombard various countries and the scientists who had helped design 121 00:07:05,680 --> 00:07:08,440 Speaker 1: those rockets, and the US did not want to put 122 00:07:08,440 --> 00:07:11,880 Speaker 1: the scientists on trial for developing weapons of mass destruction, 123 00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:16,400 Speaker 1: even though they had killed countless civilians. Instead, they wanted 124 00:07:16,400 --> 00:07:18,760 Speaker 1: those scientists to build rockets for the good old U. 125 00:07:18,840 --> 00:07:22,640 Speaker 1: S of A. This was called Operation paper Clip. In 126 00:07:22,760 --> 00:07:26,040 Speaker 1: ninety six, the United States launched some V two rockets 127 00:07:26,080 --> 00:07:29,480 Speaker 1: to the edge of space, but that would be the U. S. 128 00:07:29,560 --> 00:07:31,720 Speaker 1: Air Force definition of the edge of space, meaning it 129 00:07:31,760 --> 00:07:35,120 Speaker 1: was around eighty kilometers altitude, not a hundred and work 130 00:07:35,160 --> 00:07:37,840 Speaker 1: on the V two lead to the development of two 131 00:07:37,840 --> 00:07:41,320 Speaker 1: stage rockets, which, as their name suggests, means the rockets 132 00:07:41,480 --> 00:07:44,120 Speaker 1: have two segments designed to provide the energy needed to 133 00:07:44,160 --> 00:07:48,080 Speaker 1: boost the rocket out into space. I'll cover more details 134 00:07:48,160 --> 00:07:51,640 Speaker 1: about rockets and stage rockets and what that all means 135 00:07:51,880 --> 00:07:54,800 Speaker 1: in an upcoming episode of tech Stuff. Now here's the 136 00:07:54,840 --> 00:07:58,200 Speaker 1: part of the episode where I get really sad, the 137 00:07:58,280 --> 00:08:00,720 Speaker 1: bit that I warned you about earlier, because I'm a 138 00:08:00,800 --> 00:08:04,520 Speaker 1: softie and I love dogs, so this could be a 139 00:08:04,560 --> 00:08:06,400 Speaker 1: little hard for me to get through. It was hard 140 00:08:06,440 --> 00:08:08,600 Speaker 1: for me to research, and right I don't know if 141 00:08:08,600 --> 00:08:10,200 Speaker 1: it's gonna be hard for me to talk about. But 142 00:08:10,200 --> 00:08:13,920 Speaker 1: we'll find out together. So just take my hand. We'll 143 00:08:13,960 --> 00:08:17,800 Speaker 1: make it through this. Beginning in the early nineteen fifties, 144 00:08:17,880 --> 00:08:22,000 Speaker 1: the Soy Union began to experiment with simple spacecraft capsules, 145 00:08:22,480 --> 00:08:25,400 Speaker 1: and they put dogs in these capsules to test and 146 00:08:25,440 --> 00:08:27,360 Speaker 1: see if it might be viable to send a human 147 00:08:27,400 --> 00:08:30,520 Speaker 1: into space. No one was really sure yet. The first 148 00:08:30,520 --> 00:08:33,880 Speaker 1: two dogs to do this were named Desik and Saigon. 149 00:08:34,640 --> 00:08:37,720 Speaker 1: These were both put in very tiny capsules. They were 150 00:08:37,760 --> 00:08:42,800 Speaker 1: actually trained by being put into increasingly smaller crates over 151 00:08:42,920 --> 00:08:46,000 Speaker 1: prolonged periods of time, because they would have to sit 152 00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:49,480 Speaker 1: in these very tiny capsules for quite some time. They 153 00:08:49,480 --> 00:08:52,680 Speaker 1: were carried by our one rockets to an altitude of 154 00:08:52,720 --> 00:08:55,760 Speaker 1: one kilometers, which meant that they were actually crossing the 155 00:08:55,840 --> 00:08:58,719 Speaker 1: carm online. They were not going into orbit though, they 156 00:08:58,720 --> 00:09:01,559 Speaker 1: were just going very very high up into the atmosphere 157 00:09:01,640 --> 00:09:05,720 Speaker 1: and then coming back down. They were in special pressure 158 00:09:05,760 --> 00:09:09,880 Speaker 1: suits and they were inside a little pressurized cabin, so 159 00:09:09,960 --> 00:09:13,280 Speaker 1: the case they were in was a pressurized case. Both 160 00:09:13,280 --> 00:09:16,800 Speaker 1: of them returned from that first test flight alive and well. 161 00:09:16,920 --> 00:09:21,280 Speaker 1: On July twenty, nineteen fifty one. Desert would be put 162 00:09:21,320 --> 00:09:25,080 Speaker 1: on another test flight on July one with another dog 163 00:09:25,160 --> 00:09:29,320 Speaker 1: named Lisa. But at that occasion we weren't so lucky. 164 00:09:29,400 --> 00:09:32,360 Speaker 1: The two dogs died when the parachute for their capsule 165 00:09:32,480 --> 00:09:36,040 Speaker 1: failed to deploy. Saigon, however, would be adopted by a 166 00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:39,439 Speaker 1: Soviet scientist and would not go on any more flights 167 00:09:39,559 --> 00:09:42,800 Speaker 1: and lived out her life fine. The Soviets did several 168 00:09:42,840 --> 00:09:46,440 Speaker 1: more tests. They gradually would increase the altitudes until they 169 00:09:46,520 --> 00:09:49,400 Speaker 1: reached about four fifty kilometers and by then they were 170 00:09:49,440 --> 00:09:52,200 Speaker 1: using our five A rockets in the late nineteen fifties, 171 00:09:53,520 --> 00:09:58,040 Speaker 1: and then there was like okay. So on October four, 172 00:09:58,640 --> 00:10:02,560 Speaker 1: ninety seven, the Oviots launched sput Nick one that was 173 00:10:02,600 --> 00:10:05,880 Speaker 1: the first man made satellite to reach Earth orbit, to 174 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:10,080 Speaker 1: actually orbit the Earth in full. It was a silver 175 00:10:10,240 --> 00:10:14,839 Speaker 1: sphere that went beep. That's essentially all it did. It 176 00:10:14,960 --> 00:10:18,000 Speaker 1: sent out a radio signal and it orbited the Earth. 177 00:10:18,400 --> 00:10:20,680 Speaker 1: It was also a huge wake up call to people 178 00:10:20,720 --> 00:10:24,000 Speaker 1: in the United States. Scientists and government officials had known 179 00:10:24,080 --> 00:10:28,160 Speaker 1: about Russian work in the space program and also about 180 00:10:28,200 --> 00:10:31,360 Speaker 1: their advances in rocketry for a while. But sput Nick, 181 00:10:31,400 --> 00:10:34,319 Speaker 1: which could be detected by amateur radio operators and it 182 00:10:34,440 --> 00:10:38,680 Speaker 1: was ham operators were detecting this satellite in real time 183 00:10:38,720 --> 00:10:42,160 Speaker 1: as it crossed overhead. It was proof the Soviets could 184 00:10:42,160 --> 00:10:44,840 Speaker 1: put something up into space that could travel to the 185 00:10:44,880 --> 00:10:46,920 Speaker 1: other side of the world. And if they could do 186 00:10:46,960 --> 00:10:49,640 Speaker 1: it with a sphere what went beep, they might be 187 00:10:49,720 --> 00:10:52,439 Speaker 1: able to do it with a bomb. And this was 188 00:10:52,480 --> 00:10:55,240 Speaker 1: when the USSR and the USA were engaged in a 189 00:10:55,360 --> 00:10:58,400 Speaker 1: Cold war, so this was a big deal. It really 190 00:10:58,480 --> 00:11:00,600 Speaker 1: lit fires in the United States, not just in the 191 00:11:00,640 --> 00:11:04,720 Speaker 1: space program, but for a host of other technological research projects, 192 00:11:04,760 --> 00:11:08,200 Speaker 1: some of which would even evolve into stuff like the Internet. 193 00:11:08,800 --> 00:11:11,200 Speaker 1: So that's spot Nick one, and I did a full 194 00:11:11,240 --> 00:11:13,000 Speaker 1: episode on it in the past, so I'm not going 195 00:11:13,040 --> 00:11:15,839 Speaker 1: to go into further detail right here. When we come 196 00:11:15,880 --> 00:11:19,800 Speaker 1: back after I've stealed myself, will tell the sad story 197 00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:22,840 Speaker 1: of sput Nick two and like a But first let's 198 00:11:22,880 --> 00:11:33,559 Speaker 1: take a quick break and thank our sponsor. So Sputnik 199 00:11:33,640 --> 00:11:37,080 Speaker 1: one was an unmanned satellite. Sputnik two would be the 200 00:11:37,160 --> 00:11:40,960 Speaker 1: first spacecraft to carry a living creature inside of it 201 00:11:41,120 --> 00:11:44,640 Speaker 1: and go into Earth orbit, and that living creature was 202 00:11:44,760 --> 00:11:49,040 Speaker 1: like a spot Nick two launched on November third, nineteen 203 00:11:49,120 --> 00:11:53,640 Speaker 1: fifty seven, just a month after Sputnik one launched, and 204 00:11:53,679 --> 00:11:56,200 Speaker 1: inside the capsule was like a a dog that would 205 00:11:56,200 --> 00:11:58,839 Speaker 1: become the first animal to into Earth orbit, and unlike 206 00:11:58,880 --> 00:12:02,199 Speaker 1: the earlier tests with dogs, this was a one way 207 00:12:02,240 --> 00:12:05,599 Speaker 1: ticket from the beginning. The other experiments were designed in 208 00:12:05,640 --> 00:12:10,200 Speaker 1: an effort to ensure the dog's survival. The scientists wanted 209 00:12:10,200 --> 00:12:13,640 Speaker 1: the dogs to come back down and and safely land, 210 00:12:14,320 --> 00:12:17,280 Speaker 1: but they had no such plans for spot Nick two. 211 00:12:17,960 --> 00:12:19,960 Speaker 1: Like it was going to go up into orbit, and 212 00:12:19,960 --> 00:12:21,920 Speaker 1: the Soviets didn't have any way to bring her back 213 00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:25,160 Speaker 1: down safely. They knew the satellite would encounter drag, it 214 00:12:25,160 --> 00:12:28,959 Speaker 1: would lose speed, it would eventually have its orbit decay, 215 00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:31,920 Speaker 1: and the spacecraft would re enter their atmosphere. They had 216 00:12:31,960 --> 00:12:37,400 Speaker 1: no way of controlling its descent or mitigating the problems 217 00:12:37,559 --> 00:12:41,200 Speaker 1: of heat build up. Like, uh, no matter what, was 218 00:12:41,280 --> 00:12:44,760 Speaker 1: not going to survive that trip. She didn't live very long. 219 00:12:45,240 --> 00:12:47,640 Speaker 1: When she died is actually a matter of some mystery. 220 00:12:48,280 --> 00:12:51,040 Speaker 1: The Soviet Union originally reported that she actually survived a 221 00:12:51,080 --> 00:12:54,560 Speaker 1: full week in orbit, which is kind of horrifying to me. 222 00:12:55,840 --> 00:12:59,760 Speaker 1: But equally horrifying are the points of evidence that point 223 00:12:59,800 --> 00:13:02,160 Speaker 1: other wise. Later documents said she died only a few 224 00:13:02,200 --> 00:13:06,520 Speaker 1: hours after launch. Because the temperature inside the capsule reached 225 00:13:06,559 --> 00:13:09,679 Speaker 1: more than a hundred degrees, the forces she endured were 226 00:13:09,720 --> 00:13:14,080 Speaker 1: pretty rough. Uh. Data from Spotnik two indicates the capsule's 227 00:13:14,120 --> 00:13:17,079 Speaker 1: temperature increased after it orbited the Earth three times, and 228 00:13:17,640 --> 00:13:19,640 Speaker 1: that was the beginning of the end for her. And 229 00:13:19,679 --> 00:13:22,600 Speaker 1: the story really rips me up every time I think 230 00:13:22,600 --> 00:13:26,200 Speaker 1: about it, because, on the one hand, I certainly understand 231 00:13:26,280 --> 00:13:28,120 Speaker 1: the need to test whether or not it might be 232 00:13:28,200 --> 00:13:31,600 Speaker 1: possible to send a person to space and into orbits safely. 233 00:13:31,679 --> 00:13:35,520 Speaker 1: That is a huge, huge risk, and it was full 234 00:13:35,559 --> 00:13:39,240 Speaker 1: of unknowns. We had never done it before, so you 235 00:13:39,320 --> 00:13:41,880 Speaker 1: have to be sure that's going to be safe before 236 00:13:41,920 --> 00:13:44,480 Speaker 1: you put a human life at risk. And it's not 237 00:13:44,559 --> 00:13:47,960 Speaker 1: like we had the technological capabilities at that time to 238 00:13:48,080 --> 00:13:51,840 Speaker 1: do this without an actual organism on board to see 239 00:13:51,880 --> 00:13:54,520 Speaker 1: what happens to that organism. But it's still a really 240 00:13:54,559 --> 00:13:58,960 Speaker 1: hard story for me to get through. Ole Gazinco, who 241 00:13:59,040 --> 00:14:01,600 Speaker 1: was one of the scientists who worked on spot Nick two, 242 00:14:01,960 --> 00:14:05,400 Speaker 1: would later say that the mission wasn't designed to gather 243 00:14:05,520 --> 00:14:09,640 Speaker 1: sufficient information that would justify the death of Lyca. He 244 00:14:09,720 --> 00:14:13,040 Speaker 1: expressed regret in his involvement and the decision to sacrifice, 245 00:14:13,120 --> 00:14:17,160 Speaker 1: or essentially said we didn't get enough information from this 246 00:14:17,240 --> 00:14:22,760 Speaker 1: experiment to justify killing an animal in this way. By 247 00:14:22,760 --> 00:14:26,400 Speaker 1: the way, Laca's legacy lives on in multiple forms of media. 248 00:14:26,600 --> 00:14:31,360 Speaker 1: There's nick about Ziz novel Likeca, it's a fictional account 249 00:14:31,360 --> 00:14:35,040 Speaker 1: of her story. The animation studio Lika is named after her. 250 00:14:35,080 --> 00:14:37,680 Speaker 1: That's the studio that did films like Coraline and Cubo 251 00:14:37,760 --> 00:14:40,840 Speaker 1: and The Two Strings. There are poems about her. There 252 00:14:40,680 --> 00:14:43,560 Speaker 1: are songs, and my favorite in case you want to listen, 253 00:14:43,880 --> 00:14:47,360 Speaker 1: but I warn you it is emotional as a sad 254 00:14:47,400 --> 00:14:51,000 Speaker 1: song by Jonathan Colton. It's called Space Doggedy. It's actually 255 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:54,280 Speaker 1: an homage to David Bowie's Space Oddity song. He was 256 00:14:54,320 --> 00:14:59,240 Speaker 1: given a challenge to transform a song and the specific 257 00:14:59,240 --> 00:15:02,240 Speaker 1: song was Space Audity Audity by David Bowie. So he 258 00:15:02,280 --> 00:15:04,840 Speaker 1: took that and he said, I'm known for doing all 259 00:15:04,880 --> 00:15:06,720 Speaker 1: these songs about monkeys, so I wasn't going to do 260 00:15:06,760 --> 00:15:08,640 Speaker 1: one about the first monkey in Space. I decided to 261 00:15:08,640 --> 00:15:11,160 Speaker 1: do one about the first dog. And it's a really 262 00:15:11,200 --> 00:15:14,240 Speaker 1: sweet song. If you're a dog lover, it's uh, it's 263 00:15:14,240 --> 00:15:16,160 Speaker 1: it's very sad, but it's worth a Lessen. It's a 264 00:15:16,240 --> 00:15:18,160 Speaker 1: very good song, all right. I gotta get it back 265 00:15:18,160 --> 00:15:22,520 Speaker 1: together and talk more about spacecraft. So we're through with 266 00:15:22,600 --> 00:15:26,600 Speaker 1: the animal cruelty stuff. I think while spot Nick two 267 00:15:26,800 --> 00:15:29,520 Speaker 1: did not gather that much useful information, it did show 268 00:15:29,560 --> 00:15:32,200 Speaker 1: that was possible to keep a living organism alive in 269 00:15:32,360 --> 00:15:35,880 Speaker 1: orbit barring technological failures. And so now the race was 270 00:15:35,920 --> 00:15:37,920 Speaker 1: on to see who could get a human being into 271 00:15:38,040 --> 00:15:40,960 Speaker 1: orbit first. Over in the United States, efforts were rushing 272 00:15:40,960 --> 00:15:45,640 Speaker 1: along with the Mercury program. Understandably, there were many launches 273 00:15:45,720 --> 00:15:49,040 Speaker 1: with unmanned versions of the Mercury capsule. They wanted to 274 00:15:49,080 --> 00:15:52,080 Speaker 1: test its space worthiness before ever putting an actual human 275 00:15:52,120 --> 00:15:54,960 Speaker 1: being inside of it and sending that human off into space. 276 00:15:55,760 --> 00:16:00,400 Speaker 1: And there was one test with a special pilot. It 277 00:16:00,480 --> 00:16:05,720 Speaker 1: was for the Mercury Redstone to mission. Mercury missions were 278 00:16:05,800 --> 00:16:10,280 Speaker 1: given different designations. The Mercury Redstone missions were suborbital, meaning 279 00:16:10,600 --> 00:16:13,320 Speaker 1: these were tests where the Mercury capsule was sent up 280 00:16:13,360 --> 00:16:16,640 Speaker 1: into space, but not into an orbit around the Earth. 281 00:16:16,720 --> 00:16:18,960 Speaker 1: It would just go up and then come back down. 282 00:16:19,920 --> 00:16:22,200 Speaker 1: This was late in the testing phase, after they had 283 00:16:22,560 --> 00:16:26,520 Speaker 1: fired off multiple Mercury capsules that were unmanned. The special 284 00:16:26,520 --> 00:16:31,320 Speaker 1: pilot was a chimpanzee later named Ham. Ham's name comes 285 00:16:31,320 --> 00:16:33,800 Speaker 1: from the lab that trained him for the mission. It's 286 00:16:33,800 --> 00:16:37,200 Speaker 1: the Holloman Aerospace Medical Center, so it was kind of 287 00:16:37,240 --> 00:16:41,440 Speaker 1: an acronym. Ham was trained to activate switches when presented 288 00:16:41,480 --> 00:16:43,880 Speaker 1: with the stimulus of a lit indicator, so a light 289 00:16:43,960 --> 00:16:46,760 Speaker 1: lights up and the chimpanzee would reach out and hit 290 00:16:46,760 --> 00:16:49,280 Speaker 1: a switch. It was trained this way. He was trained 291 00:16:49,320 --> 00:16:51,920 Speaker 1: this way by he was given a banana pellets whenever 292 00:16:51,920 --> 00:16:54,680 Speaker 1: he did it correctly, so he was rewarded. If he 293 00:16:54,760 --> 00:16:57,280 Speaker 1: didn't do it, he would get a very mild electric 294 00:16:57,320 --> 00:17:02,400 Speaker 1: shock on his feet, which sounds pretty awful, but it 295 00:17:02,560 --> 00:17:05,000 Speaker 1: was mild. It was not something that was enough to 296 00:17:05,080 --> 00:17:08,320 Speaker 1: harm him, but to you know, to sting a bit 297 00:17:08,400 --> 00:17:13,080 Speaker 1: and and to essentially train him into this behavior. The 298 00:17:13,119 --> 00:17:17,639 Speaker 1: whole point of it was the the the medical center 299 00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:24,239 Speaker 1: wanted to train Ham to perform repetitive routine tasks and 300 00:17:24,359 --> 00:17:27,760 Speaker 1: to be able to do it on command, because they 301 00:17:27,800 --> 00:17:30,560 Speaker 1: weren't sure what would happen when someone was in orbit. 302 00:17:30,720 --> 00:17:34,119 Speaker 1: Would they maintain that ability, would they be able to 303 00:17:34,160 --> 00:17:38,200 Speaker 1: continue to do these routine tasks while they were in orbit, 304 00:17:38,280 --> 00:17:40,800 Speaker 1: or would weightlessness affect you in such a way that 305 00:17:40,840 --> 00:17:44,600 Speaker 1: you you were no longer able to do this. Because 306 00:17:44,640 --> 00:17:47,760 Speaker 1: if you put a pilot up into orbit and it 307 00:17:47,800 --> 00:17:51,600 Speaker 1: turns out after a short while that weightlessness or micro gravity, 308 00:17:51,640 --> 00:17:55,880 Speaker 1: if you want to be more specific, has a negative effect, 309 00:17:56,720 --> 00:18:00,119 Speaker 1: then you could condemn that person to die because are 310 00:18:00,160 --> 00:18:02,560 Speaker 1: no longer able to do whatever they need to do 311 00:18:02,600 --> 00:18:05,720 Speaker 1: in order to return to Earth safely. So this was 312 00:18:06,240 --> 00:18:10,000 Speaker 1: a test to see would waitlessness or microgravity have that 313 00:18:10,080 --> 00:18:14,760 Speaker 1: negative impact on cognitive abilities. So Ham got trained in 314 00:18:14,800 --> 00:18:17,440 Speaker 1: this way, learned how to flip switches according to lights 315 00:18:17,440 --> 00:18:20,160 Speaker 1: being lit up. Ham was not, by the way, piloting anything. 316 00:18:20,520 --> 00:18:24,160 Speaker 1: Ham was again acting acting on these little these little 317 00:18:24,200 --> 00:18:27,040 Speaker 1: lights that would blink on a console and would react 318 00:18:27,080 --> 00:18:30,920 Speaker 1: to that. On January thirty one, nineteen sixty one, Ham 319 00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:33,000 Speaker 1: who at that point did not actually have a name 320 00:18:33,080 --> 00:18:35,879 Speaker 1: yet because NASA thought it might be a bad idea 321 00:18:35,960 --> 00:18:39,080 Speaker 1: to name the chimpanzee just in case something did go wrong. 322 00:18:39,240 --> 00:18:41,280 Speaker 1: If something went wrong and they had named the chimpanze, 323 00:18:41,520 --> 00:18:44,240 Speaker 1: it would create kind of an emotional anchor point that 324 00:18:44,359 --> 00:18:46,879 Speaker 1: might make it even more difficult to move forward with 325 00:18:46,920 --> 00:18:49,600 Speaker 1: the space program. So he was just number sixty five 326 00:18:49,800 --> 00:18:53,080 Speaker 1: until he came back anyway, he got into a mercury capsule, 327 00:18:53,320 --> 00:18:55,720 Speaker 1: or was put into a mercury capsule. I should say, 328 00:18:55,760 --> 00:18:57,919 Speaker 1: I'll talk more about what those capsules were like in 329 00:18:57,960 --> 00:19:00,560 Speaker 1: just a little bit. And he would perform his duties 330 00:19:00,720 --> 00:19:04,120 Speaker 1: of switching switches on command pretty much as he would 331 00:19:04,119 --> 00:19:06,960 Speaker 1: on Earth. So he sent up into orbit, and he 332 00:19:07,400 --> 00:19:09,640 Speaker 1: saw the little lights, and he flipped the little switches, 333 00:19:10,280 --> 00:19:13,040 Speaker 1: and apparently it was pretty much the same as he 334 00:19:13,040 --> 00:19:15,199 Speaker 1: would have done back at home. It was a little slower, 335 00:19:15,240 --> 00:19:17,399 Speaker 1: but not by much. It was like a split second, 336 00:19:17,440 --> 00:19:21,560 Speaker 1: So it wasn't it wasn't statistically important. It appeared that 337 00:19:21,600 --> 00:19:24,600 Speaker 1: the rigors of space and effects of microgravity were not 338 00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:30,960 Speaker 1: negatively impacting his ability to think and react in that way, 339 00:19:31,119 --> 00:19:35,040 Speaker 1: which was a relief because there were also other issues 340 00:19:35,080 --> 00:19:41,159 Speaker 1: that happened that fortunately did not affect Ham's health. For 341 00:19:41,240 --> 00:19:45,960 Speaker 1: one thing, the spacecraft lost air pressure. There was a problem, 342 00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:49,880 Speaker 1: a breach, but Ham Ham was inside a pressure aze 343 00:19:49,960 --> 00:19:55,040 Speaker 1: capsule inside the spacecraft. The capsule part maintained its pressure, 344 00:19:55,119 --> 00:19:58,720 Speaker 1: so while the spacecraft itself lost some air pressure, Ham 345 00:19:58,760 --> 00:20:02,600 Speaker 1: was still safe inside. His flight was suborbital. It did 346 00:20:02,680 --> 00:20:04,320 Speaker 1: not go all the way up into orbit. It lasted 347 00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:07,720 Speaker 1: about sixteen and a half minutes long. He landed safely 348 00:20:07,720 --> 00:20:10,680 Speaker 1: in the ocean, because that's how the mercury capsules were 349 00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:14,520 Speaker 1: designed to make an ocean landing. There was a bit 350 00:20:14,640 --> 00:20:17,919 Speaker 1: of a scare because the capsule had that small breach 351 00:20:18,119 --> 00:20:20,679 Speaker 1: it actually started or not the capsule, but the spacecraft 352 00:20:20,920 --> 00:20:23,399 Speaker 1: had that small breaches actually started filling up with water 353 00:20:23,680 --> 00:20:26,119 Speaker 1: upon landing in the ocean. But the retrieval crew was 354 00:20:26,119 --> 00:20:28,200 Speaker 1: able to get to Ham in plenty of time, and 355 00:20:28,280 --> 00:20:32,680 Speaker 1: so Ham was extracted from the spacecraft. There was otherwise 356 00:20:32,720 --> 00:20:35,080 Speaker 1: a danger that Ham, really very real danger that Ham 357 00:20:35,080 --> 00:20:38,320 Speaker 1: could have drowned if they hadn't gotten to him in time. Uh. 358 00:20:38,359 --> 00:20:41,800 Speaker 1: He then was transitioned to live out most of his 359 00:20:41,920 --> 00:20:44,800 Speaker 1: life at the National Zoo in Washington, d C. Part 360 00:20:44,840 --> 00:20:48,280 Speaker 1: of the Smithsonian, but in nineteen eighty was transferred to 361 00:20:48,280 --> 00:20:51,520 Speaker 1: the North Carolina Zoo, and that's where he passed away 362 00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:55,000 Speaker 1: on January nineteenth. And he was in his mid twenties, 363 00:20:55,040 --> 00:20:57,640 Speaker 1: probably twenty five or twenty six. It's actually pretty young 364 00:20:57,720 --> 00:21:01,080 Speaker 1: for a chimpanzee, which can live up to age fifty. 365 00:21:01,800 --> 00:21:05,720 Speaker 1: Not entirely certain what caused his demise. I don't know 366 00:21:06,480 --> 00:21:09,199 Speaker 1: if he just got a disease or what. I couldn't 367 00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:11,480 Speaker 1: find a whole lot of information about what led to that, 368 00:21:11,600 --> 00:21:14,800 Speaker 1: but uh, he did get that name upon landing, and 369 00:21:14,800 --> 00:21:19,480 Speaker 1: he made history is the first non human hominid in space. Meanwhile, 370 00:21:19,880 --> 00:21:23,600 Speaker 1: over in the Soviet Union there was the Vostok program 371 00:21:23,720 --> 00:21:27,240 Speaker 1: that was going strong, So Mercury was starting to work 372 00:21:27,280 --> 00:21:30,119 Speaker 1: with these unmanned missions and the one with the chimpanzee. 373 00:21:30,800 --> 00:21:33,439 Speaker 1: Over in the Soviet Union there was a push to 374 00:21:33,480 --> 00:21:37,520 Speaker 1: go toward into space with a program called Vostok v 375 00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:41,880 Speaker 1: O S t O K. The Vostok looked like kind 376 00:21:41,880 --> 00:21:45,000 Speaker 1: of a giant circuitry component to me. There was a 377 00:21:45,040 --> 00:21:48,680 Speaker 1: re entry capsule that's where the crew member would say. 378 00:21:48,720 --> 00:21:52,240 Speaker 1: It was a one person spacecraft, and that was a 379 00:21:52,320 --> 00:21:55,960 Speaker 1: sphere essentially, and then had sort of a conical base 380 00:21:56,080 --> 00:21:58,560 Speaker 1: to it. That's where the retro rocket would be, and 381 00:21:58,680 --> 00:22:01,760 Speaker 1: it was supposed to jettice and off the spherical part. 382 00:22:02,480 --> 00:22:05,600 Speaker 1: And the sphere was two point three meters in diameter 383 00:22:05,640 --> 00:22:08,680 Speaker 1: that's about seven and a half feet in diameter, So 384 00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:11,760 Speaker 1: the cosmonaut didn't have a whole lot of room inside, 385 00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:15,959 Speaker 1: but it wasn't the most cramped quarters of any spacecraft, 386 00:22:16,440 --> 00:22:18,920 Speaker 1: it did have some odd designs to it. Apparently, the 387 00:22:18,960 --> 00:22:24,360 Speaker 1: instrumentation was at a ninety degree angle from the the 388 00:22:24,440 --> 00:22:27,320 Speaker 1: forward facing position of the cosmonaut, meaning that the cosmonaut 389 00:22:27,359 --> 00:22:29,040 Speaker 1: was going to have to turn his or her head 390 00:22:29,200 --> 00:22:32,199 Speaker 1: ninety degrees in order to see the instrumentation panel. That 391 00:22:32,200 --> 00:22:36,679 Speaker 1: seems like a weird design to me, but that's, I guess, 392 00:22:36,760 --> 00:22:40,960 Speaker 1: just the product of having to do this so quickly. Also, 393 00:22:41,400 --> 00:22:44,760 Speaker 1: there was an important part of figuring out where to 394 00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:49,240 Speaker 1: distribute the weight in this spacecraft see its spherical because 395 00:22:49,240 --> 00:22:51,439 Speaker 1: there was no way to control the capsule's path and 396 00:22:51,480 --> 00:22:55,600 Speaker 1: orientation once it re entered Earth's atmosphere and separated from 397 00:22:55,640 --> 00:22:58,880 Speaker 1: its engine system that was in that that conical section. 398 00:22:59,600 --> 00:23:02,440 Speaker 1: The sphere icle design meant it had to be shielded 399 00:23:02,440 --> 00:23:04,480 Speaker 1: on all sides because there was no way to be 400 00:23:04,600 --> 00:23:07,240 Speaker 1: absolutely certain how it might be oriented once it began 401 00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:10,880 Speaker 1: to descend. The best the Soviets could do was designed 402 00:23:10,880 --> 00:23:13,360 Speaker 1: the sphere in such a way that the equipment inside 403 00:23:13,400 --> 00:23:16,879 Speaker 1: would offset the center, the natural center of gravity for 404 00:23:16,880 --> 00:23:19,359 Speaker 1: the vehicle, and thus create a tendency for it to 405 00:23:19,400 --> 00:23:23,760 Speaker 1: maneuver into a predictable orientation. Also, the cosmonaut was meant 406 00:23:23,800 --> 00:23:27,600 Speaker 1: to actually eject from the capsule during descent, once reaching 407 00:23:27,600 --> 00:23:30,880 Speaker 1: an altitude of seven kilometers. From there, the cosmonaut would 408 00:23:30,880 --> 00:23:33,320 Speaker 1: float on down with a parachute and the capsule would 409 00:23:33,440 --> 00:23:37,200 Speaker 1: land on its own. The Soviets didn't quite have time 410 00:23:37,200 --> 00:23:39,960 Speaker 1: to develop a capsule that could descend gently enough to 411 00:23:40,160 --> 00:23:43,160 Speaker 1: ensure the survival of the human inside of it, so 412 00:23:43,320 --> 00:23:46,320 Speaker 1: this was a necessary step. It wasn't like an emergency 413 00:23:46,960 --> 00:23:50,159 Speaker 1: UH procedure, although the Soviet Union did call it that 414 00:23:50,320 --> 00:23:53,359 Speaker 1: for a while. This was actually normal practice was that 415 00:23:53,440 --> 00:23:57,200 Speaker 1: the cosmonaut would eject from the spacecraft at seven kilometers 416 00:23:57,240 --> 00:24:00,480 Speaker 1: and then parachute down by themselves. The Vostostom had a 417 00:24:00,520 --> 00:24:03,240 Speaker 1: retro rocket designed to slow the spacecraft down enough in 418 00:24:03,359 --> 00:24:05,960 Speaker 1: orbit to purposefully re enter the urt atmosphere, and if 419 00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:09,000 Speaker 1: that failed, the spacecraft would likely remain in orbit for 420 00:24:09,240 --> 00:24:12,640 Speaker 1: up to ten days, so cosmonauts were given enough food 421 00:24:12,640 --> 00:24:14,720 Speaker 1: and oxygen to last that long just in case. In 422 00:24:14,760 --> 00:24:18,000 Speaker 1: other words, there was no backup system. If the retro 423 00:24:18,160 --> 00:24:20,879 Speaker 1: rocket failed, then the cosmonaut was going to be forced 424 00:24:20,920 --> 00:24:25,200 Speaker 1: to sit there and wait until the orbital decay of 425 00:24:25,240 --> 00:24:28,399 Speaker 1: the spacecraft was enough for it to force it to 426 00:24:28,640 --> 00:24:32,399 Speaker 1: go and land or or re enter the r atmosphere, 427 00:24:32,800 --> 00:24:35,119 Speaker 1: and there was no real predicting where that might happen 428 00:24:35,359 --> 00:24:39,280 Speaker 1: at that point. Really, it's it would be based upon uh, well, 429 00:24:39,320 --> 00:24:44,840 Speaker 1: whatever the actual speed of the spacecraft was and it's 430 00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:49,040 Speaker 1: orbital altitude at that point. But yeah, it's kind of 431 00:24:49,080 --> 00:24:52,480 Speaker 1: scary to think there was no backup system to re 432 00:24:52,760 --> 00:24:54,919 Speaker 1: enter into the Earth's atmosphere in a controlled way, and 433 00:24:54,960 --> 00:24:56,960 Speaker 1: that it might just require you to wait it out 434 00:24:57,480 --> 00:25:01,720 Speaker 1: for ten days, also in a spacecraft that had notoriously 435 00:25:01,840 --> 00:25:06,960 Speaker 1: bad waste removal systems. I'll leave it at that. On 436 00:25:07,040 --> 00:25:09,560 Speaker 1: that happy note, let's take another quick break and thank 437 00:25:09,560 --> 00:25:20,000 Speaker 1: our sponsors. Al right, backtracking a little bit, the first 438 00:25:20,119 --> 00:25:23,960 Speaker 1: organisms to launch into orbit and return alive were an 439 00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:28,280 Speaker 1: early prototype of this Vostok capsule. It was the Vostok 440 00:25:28,400 --> 00:25:31,600 Speaker 1: one K model that carried them. It was the corrible 441 00:25:31,760 --> 00:25:34,320 Speaker 1: spot Nick two, which in the West we call spot 442 00:25:34,400 --> 00:25:38,520 Speaker 1: Nick five. That was the specific mission to carry animals 443 00:25:38,560 --> 00:25:42,280 Speaker 1: into orbit and return safely, uh and did so successfully. 444 00:25:42,320 --> 00:25:46,600 Speaker 1: It launched August nineteen, nineteen sixty and it carried Belka 445 00:25:46,680 --> 00:25:49,960 Speaker 1: and Stroka, two dogs, plus it had a couple of 446 00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:53,320 Speaker 1: rats in there. A whole bunch of mice and some plants. 447 00:25:53,760 --> 00:25:56,119 Speaker 1: It completed three orbits of the Earth and then it 448 00:25:56,200 --> 00:25:59,359 Speaker 1: returned safely, so everyone lived on that one. The first 449 00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:03,840 Speaker 1: human flight into orbit was aboard a Vostok three K 450 00:26:04,119 --> 00:26:08,800 Speaker 1: A spacecraft which had the official name Vostok one. And 451 00:26:08,840 --> 00:26:12,600 Speaker 1: I know that's confusing, because the Vostok one K was 452 00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:16,240 Speaker 1: a type of spacecraft. Wasn't the name that was a classification. 453 00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:20,280 Speaker 1: The Vostok one was the name of a spacecraft, but 454 00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:25,080 Speaker 1: it's classification was Vostok three K A YEA. The cosmonauta 455 00:26:25,160 --> 00:26:29,040 Speaker 1: board that flight was Uri Gagarin, and he launched into 456 00:26:29,040 --> 00:26:32,040 Speaker 1: the heavens on April twelve, nineteen sixty one. He was 457 00:26:32,080 --> 00:26:36,520 Speaker 1: the first of six manned flights aboard the Vostok three 458 00:26:36,600 --> 00:26:40,719 Speaker 1: K A spacecraft model. The sixth one of those flights 459 00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:45,560 Speaker 1: actually saw Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space. She 460 00:26:45,760 --> 00:26:50,680 Speaker 1: launched on June six, nineteen sixty three. The Vostok one 461 00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:54,399 Speaker 1: spacecraft had manual pilot controls, but they were meant to 462 00:26:54,400 --> 00:26:56,919 Speaker 1: be used only in the case of an emergency. The 463 00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:00,240 Speaker 1: plan was that all the controls of the space craft 464 00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:03,600 Speaker 1: would happen automatically or would be issued from ground control, 465 00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:06,200 Speaker 1: and the fear was that no one was really sure 466 00:27:06,400 --> 00:27:08,320 Speaker 1: what space flight was going to do to a person's 467 00:27:08,359 --> 00:27:10,679 Speaker 1: ability to think and react. It's that same thing that 468 00:27:10,680 --> 00:27:13,280 Speaker 1: the United States was trying to test with the chimpanzee. 469 00:27:13,600 --> 00:27:15,880 Speaker 1: So it could be that weightlessness could cause some sort 470 00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:20,000 Speaker 1: of space madness, or maybe the pilot just gets disoriented 471 00:27:20,320 --> 00:27:22,800 Speaker 1: to the point where that control of the spacecraft would 472 00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:26,120 Speaker 1: be in danger. So the manual controls were only supposed 473 00:27:26,160 --> 00:27:30,240 Speaker 1: to be activated by initiating a code sequence aboard the spacecraft, 474 00:27:30,680 --> 00:27:32,760 Speaker 1: and the pilot was not supposed to be told what 475 00:27:32,800 --> 00:27:36,800 Speaker 1: the code was unless there was an emergency. So if 476 00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:39,400 Speaker 1: it became necessary, ground control could send up a message 477 00:27:39,760 --> 00:27:43,159 Speaker 1: to URI and say, hey, here's the code sequence you 478 00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:45,720 Speaker 1: need in order to take manual control of your spacecraft. However, 479 00:27:45,760 --> 00:27:48,480 Speaker 1: as it turns out, at least one person gave URI 480 00:27:48,600 --> 00:27:51,000 Speaker 1: the code before you even got into the capsule, just 481 00:27:51,080 --> 00:27:54,560 Speaker 1: in case. The Volstock one would launch at six o 482 00:27:54,760 --> 00:27:58,879 Speaker 1: seven a m. Ten minutes after launch, Uri was in orbit. 483 00:27:59,480 --> 00:28:02,480 Speaker 1: He made one orbit of the Earth, and at seven 484 00:28:02,520 --> 00:28:06,399 Speaker 1: twenty five AM or thereabouts, his spacecraft's retro rocket fired 485 00:28:06,520 --> 00:28:09,760 Speaker 1: to slow down the spacecraft enough for re entry, and 486 00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:12,600 Speaker 1: things went a bit scary at first. The reentry model 487 00:28:12,680 --> 00:28:15,679 Speaker 1: for the Vostok one is that sphere I mentioned earlier, right, 488 00:28:15,720 --> 00:28:19,200 Speaker 1: It's a sphere that's kind of attached to a conical base. Well, 489 00:28:19,240 --> 00:28:22,280 Speaker 1: the conical base is supposed to detach from the sphere 490 00:28:22,359 --> 00:28:26,600 Speaker 1: upon reentry. It's supposed to uh to to separate from 491 00:28:26,680 --> 00:28:30,760 Speaker 1: little explosive bolts, but that's not exactly what happened. Part 492 00:28:30,800 --> 00:28:33,960 Speaker 1: of it ended up sticking to the sphere. It was 493 00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:36,880 Speaker 1: strapped there. There was a bundle of wires that kept 494 00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:41,080 Speaker 1: the two pieces tethered together, which complicated matters. The sphere 495 00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:44,760 Speaker 1: was meant to fall in a very controlled way, but 496 00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:47,800 Speaker 1: with this added weight that was tethered to it, it 497 00:28:47,880 --> 00:28:52,040 Speaker 1: was causing lots of gyrations and rotations. I can't imagine 498 00:28:52,400 --> 00:28:55,720 Speaker 1: what the forces felt like inside the spacecraft as it 499 00:28:55,760 --> 00:29:00,520 Speaker 1: was plummeting down and turning unpredictably. URI ended up experiencing 500 00:29:00,520 --> 00:29:03,280 Speaker 1: forces around eight G. That's eight times the force of 501 00:29:03,320 --> 00:29:08,360 Speaker 1: gravity we feel here on Earth. But fortunately, through that process, 502 00:29:08,920 --> 00:29:12,640 Speaker 1: the conical section eventually broke away and the sphere was 503 00:29:12,720 --> 00:29:16,920 Speaker 1: able to reorient properly, and at seven fifty the reentry 504 00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:21,320 Speaker 1: model reached the altitude of seven kilometers and your re ejected. 505 00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:24,719 Speaker 1: His parachute deployed, and he would land in Russia at 506 00:29:24,760 --> 00:29:28,360 Speaker 1: eight oh five, about two hours after he had launched. 507 00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:32,000 Speaker 1: Now a little less than a month after his successful 508 00:29:32,040 --> 00:29:34,640 Speaker 1: flight and orbit of the Earth aboard the Vostok one, 509 00:29:35,120 --> 00:29:38,640 Speaker 1: America established a new first. Alan Shepherd became the first 510 00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:42,479 Speaker 1: person to actually pilot a spacecraft while in space, as 511 00:29:42,520 --> 00:29:45,560 Speaker 1: opposed to ride in a capsule as more or less 512 00:29:45,600 --> 00:29:49,440 Speaker 1: a passenger. The mission included both automatic pilot and manual 513 00:29:49,480 --> 00:29:53,520 Speaker 1: control segments. Shepherd tested the Mercury's flight controls he was 514 00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:56,640 Speaker 1: aboard a Mercury capsule. He tested those flight controls to 515 00:29:56,640 --> 00:29:58,920 Speaker 1: make sure that the spacecraft would react in a way 516 00:29:58,960 --> 00:30:02,280 Speaker 1: similar to the way they had simulated it back on Earth, 517 00:30:02,680 --> 00:30:05,640 Speaker 1: and he found that pretty much they reacted the same 518 00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:09,360 Speaker 1: way the simulations did. Shepherd's historic flight took place on 519 00:30:09,440 --> 00:30:13,360 Speaker 1: May five, nineteen sixty one, aboard the Mercury spacecraft that 520 00:30:13,440 --> 00:30:18,640 Speaker 1: he named the Freedom seven. Each of the commanders of 521 00:30:18,680 --> 00:30:23,120 Speaker 1: the Gemini spacecraft got to name their own spacecraft, and 522 00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:25,600 Speaker 1: he called it the Freedom seven, not because it was 523 00:30:25,680 --> 00:30:28,880 Speaker 1: the seventh Mercury capsule. It wasn't uh he named of 524 00:30:28,880 --> 00:30:32,920 Speaker 1: the Freedom seven because seven was the number of astronauts 525 00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:36,080 Speaker 1: who were originally selected to be part of the Mercury programs, 526 00:30:36,160 --> 00:30:39,520 Speaker 1: so it was uh the seven referred to the number 527 00:30:39,560 --> 00:30:42,600 Speaker 1: of astronauts, not to the capsule, and it became tradition 528 00:30:42,800 --> 00:30:46,480 Speaker 1: all the other Mercury capsule pilots would name their spacecraft 529 00:30:47,040 --> 00:30:50,480 Speaker 1: a name plus the number seven. Shepherd's flight was a 530 00:30:50,520 --> 00:30:53,240 Speaker 1: suborbital one, so he did not go high enough or 531 00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:56,760 Speaker 1: fast enough to go into Earth orbit. He flew up 532 00:30:56,840 --> 00:31:00,160 Speaker 1: past the Karmen line and came back down again. His 533 00:31:00,200 --> 00:31:02,480 Speaker 1: flight was was more of a test flight to make 534 00:31:02,520 --> 00:31:04,800 Speaker 1: sure that a human pilot could withstand the rigors of 535 00:31:04,840 --> 00:31:08,200 Speaker 1: space travel and still operate the spacecraft properly. His flight 536 00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:10,600 Speaker 1: lasted a little more than fifteen minutes. He traveled about 537 00:31:10,640 --> 00:31:13,880 Speaker 1: three hundred two miles or four eighty six kilometers away 538 00:31:13,920 --> 00:31:17,320 Speaker 1: from the launch site in Cape Canaveral, Florida. He did 539 00:31:17,360 --> 00:31:21,240 Speaker 1: go to space. His space spacecraft actually reached an altitude 540 00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:24,680 Speaker 1: of a hundred eighty seven and a half kilometers. So 541 00:31:24,760 --> 00:31:28,560 Speaker 1: let's talk about what that spacecraft was like, not the 542 00:31:28,680 --> 00:31:31,760 Speaker 1: launch vehicle, the rocket. I'll talk about rockets in another episode, 543 00:31:31,760 --> 00:31:35,080 Speaker 1: but the spacecraft itself. The Mercury project started in the 544 00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:38,160 Speaker 1: late nineteen fifties and the goal was putting an American 545 00:31:38,160 --> 00:31:42,000 Speaker 1: in orbit, preferably before the Soviets did. That obviously didn't 546 00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:45,160 Speaker 1: work out, but the it did prove ultimately to be 547 00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:47,920 Speaker 1: a success in more meaningful ways to test love of 548 00:31:47,920 --> 00:31:52,800 Speaker 1: technologies that would be incorporated in later space projects. One 549 00:31:52,840 --> 00:31:55,120 Speaker 1: of those ways was that the US wanted to create 550 00:31:55,160 --> 00:31:57,760 Speaker 1: a spacecraft that would allow a human operator to control it, 551 00:31:58,120 --> 00:32:01,840 Speaker 1: including making adjustments to the spaces orientation upon re entry. 552 00:32:02,400 --> 00:32:05,240 Speaker 1: Rather than go with that spherical approach that the Vostok 553 00:32:05,320 --> 00:32:09,080 Speaker 1: spacecraft had, the Mercury is more of a cone shape. 554 00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:13,840 Speaker 1: It's something that would be repeated with the Gemini or 555 00:32:13,880 --> 00:32:18,840 Speaker 1: if you prefer, Giminy and Apollo spacecraft capsules. This helped 556 00:32:18,840 --> 00:32:22,200 Speaker 1: reduce the surface area that they had to coat with 557 00:32:22,400 --> 00:32:25,680 Speaker 1: heat shielding. Instead of coding the whole thing with heavy 558 00:32:25,720 --> 00:32:28,680 Speaker 1: heat shielding, they just put on the base of this 559 00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:31,880 Speaker 1: cone that was the part of the craft that would 560 00:32:32,520 --> 00:32:37,240 Speaker 1: face the Earth at an angle while going through the descent, 561 00:32:37,760 --> 00:32:39,560 Speaker 1: so it was the base of it that had to 562 00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:44,040 Speaker 1: be heavily shielded against heat. The Mercury capsule was three 563 00:32:44,040 --> 00:32:46,720 Speaker 1: point three meters long or ten point eight feet. It 564 00:32:46,880 --> 00:32:49,200 Speaker 1: was one point eight meters wide that's about six ft, 565 00:32:49,520 --> 00:32:51,760 Speaker 1: and the bottom side, the wise part of the spacecraft, 566 00:32:51,840 --> 00:32:54,560 Speaker 1: the part that's pointed towards the ground, had the heat 567 00:32:54,560 --> 00:32:57,720 Speaker 1: shield on it, and unlike the Vostok, the astronaut inside 568 00:32:57,760 --> 00:33:02,120 Speaker 1: the Mercury was meant to stay in during the entire descent. 569 00:33:02,240 --> 00:33:05,360 Speaker 1: They were not meant to eject from the spacecraft. So 570 00:33:05,400 --> 00:33:09,040 Speaker 1: the Mercury would deploy a pair of parachutes to control 571 00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:12,480 Speaker 1: and slow that descent. The first, which was called a 572 00:33:12,560 --> 00:33:16,920 Speaker 1: drogue parachute, would release at six thousand four meters or 573 00:33:16,960 --> 00:33:19,640 Speaker 1: twenty one thousand feet, and it was meant to provide 574 00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:22,400 Speaker 1: stability during the descent. It really only had a minor 575 00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:27,600 Speaker 1: effect on slowing down the spacecraft. The second parachute would 576 00:33:27,600 --> 00:33:30,200 Speaker 1: deploy it three thousand meters or ten thousand feet. That 577 00:33:30,280 --> 00:33:32,040 Speaker 1: was the one that was meant to slow its descent. 578 00:33:32,600 --> 00:33:35,440 Speaker 1: The Mercury was meant to land on water. Most of 579 00:33:35,520 --> 00:33:38,719 Speaker 1: Earth's surfaces covered by that stuff, so it made sense 580 00:33:39,400 --> 00:33:42,040 Speaker 1: just before impact the Mercury would deploy what was in 581 00:33:42,080 --> 00:33:45,480 Speaker 1: effect a giant airbag to help absorb some of the force. 582 00:33:45,520 --> 00:33:49,120 Speaker 1: Of impact, because while hitting the water sounds like that 583 00:33:49,120 --> 00:33:52,080 Speaker 1: would be great compared to say, hitting a giant rock, 584 00:33:52,400 --> 00:33:55,400 Speaker 1: hitting water at high speeds is rough stuff. So why 585 00:33:55,480 --> 00:33:57,560 Speaker 1: is that? Why is it that when you hit water 586 00:33:57,800 --> 00:34:00,720 Speaker 1: at a high speed it feels almost like you're hitting 587 00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:03,960 Speaker 1: a solid surface. Well, first we need to talk about 588 00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:07,160 Speaker 1: what makes us get hurt when we fall on solid ground. 589 00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:10,480 Speaker 1: So it's physics time. When we fall and hit the ground, 590 00:34:11,080 --> 00:34:13,680 Speaker 1: the ground is effectively hitting us back. That's the force 591 00:34:13,760 --> 00:34:16,480 Speaker 1: we feel when we fall down and hit the ground. 592 00:34:17,040 --> 00:34:20,480 Speaker 1: It's equal to the rate of change in momentum with 593 00:34:20,880 --> 00:34:25,400 Speaker 1: respect to time. So momentum is equal to mass times velocity, 594 00:34:25,560 --> 00:34:29,600 Speaker 1: So the mass the amount of stuff that's in motion, 595 00:34:29,960 --> 00:34:33,480 Speaker 1: and the velocity, which is the speed and direction of travel, 596 00:34:34,280 --> 00:34:37,880 Speaker 1: and the forces depending upon the rate of change in 597 00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:41,560 Speaker 1: that value. So we can determine our momentum. We take 598 00:34:41,560 --> 00:34:43,759 Speaker 1: our mass and we multiply at times the velocity we 599 00:34:43,760 --> 00:34:47,480 Speaker 1: were traveling an instant before we make impact. The velocity 600 00:34:47,480 --> 00:34:49,960 Speaker 1: in this case would be really closely tied to acceleration 601 00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:53,240 Speaker 1: from gravity unless something pushed us to get us going. 602 00:34:53,360 --> 00:34:57,680 Speaker 1: But essentially gravity is what we're using as our guide here. Anyway, 603 00:34:57,719 --> 00:35:00,200 Speaker 1: the important thing here is that the rate of change 604 00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:04,600 Speaker 1: of momentum is the key, not just momentum, not just 605 00:35:04,640 --> 00:35:07,839 Speaker 1: how fast you're going, but how quickly you go from 606 00:35:07,840 --> 00:35:10,880 Speaker 1: moving that fast to not moving at all. If you 607 00:35:10,920 --> 00:35:15,480 Speaker 1: slow down gradually, then obviously you don't you don't feel 608 00:35:15,520 --> 00:35:18,480 Speaker 1: a huge impact. But if you slow down instantly, you 609 00:35:18,520 --> 00:35:21,320 Speaker 1: feel impact. So you're going a certain speed until you 610 00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:24,560 Speaker 1: hit the ground and then you've essentially stopped. We're gonna 611 00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:28,880 Speaker 1: ignore bouncing here, we're just saying splatting. The rate of 612 00:35:28,960 --> 00:35:32,160 Speaker 1: change of momentum is incredible because you go from whatever 613 00:35:32,280 --> 00:35:36,040 Speaker 1: the speed was to complete stop and pretty much an instant. 614 00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:40,040 Speaker 1: Water is a little different from solid ground, obviously because 615 00:35:40,080 --> 00:35:41,719 Speaker 1: as a bit of a gift to it, right, if 616 00:35:41,760 --> 00:35:45,640 Speaker 1: you slide into the water, then there's not a big deal. 617 00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:48,759 Speaker 1: It's the rate of change in momentum ends up being 618 00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:52,279 Speaker 1: a little slower than if we hit solid ground. You 619 00:35:52,320 --> 00:35:57,080 Speaker 1: don't stop instantaneously because we displace water. But displacing water 620 00:35:57,200 --> 00:36:00,000 Speaker 1: actually takes time because for water to move out the way, 621 00:36:00,440 --> 00:36:03,719 Speaker 1: it has to push against other molecules of water, and 622 00:36:03,800 --> 00:36:05,800 Speaker 1: that water has to move and so on. There's a 623 00:36:05,880 --> 00:36:09,560 Speaker 1: ripple effect and that requires force and time. The water 624 00:36:09,640 --> 00:36:13,520 Speaker 1: is one of those pesky substances that really resists compression, 625 00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:16,920 Speaker 1: so you can't just squish it down. It moves. The 626 00:36:16,960 --> 00:36:19,120 Speaker 1: molecules have to move out the way. So the more 627 00:36:19,280 --> 00:36:23,080 Speaker 1: water you attempt to displace in a very short amount 628 00:36:23,080 --> 00:36:26,960 Speaker 1: of time, the less water you'll actually be able to displace. 629 00:36:27,960 --> 00:36:30,319 Speaker 1: It's just not going to move all the way fast enough. 630 00:36:30,440 --> 00:36:33,879 Speaker 1: So as you increase the velocity of a mass and 631 00:36:33,920 --> 00:36:36,160 Speaker 1: you aim it at water, you see less of a 632 00:36:36,200 --> 00:36:40,360 Speaker 1: cushioning effect from the water itself. There's still some Landing 633 00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:43,040 Speaker 1: on water at a high velocity is not the same 634 00:36:43,120 --> 00:36:47,799 Speaker 1: as hitting concrete at that same velocity, but the displacement 635 00:36:47,800 --> 00:36:50,480 Speaker 1: of water will not be sufficient to make the landing 636 00:36:50,480 --> 00:36:52,799 Speaker 1: a painless one. It's still gonna hit you like it's 637 00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:55,440 Speaker 1: a solid surface. So the air bags helped take some 638 00:36:55,520 --> 00:36:58,120 Speaker 1: of that force out, but not all of it, and 639 00:36:58,480 --> 00:37:00,600 Speaker 1: it would transfer some of the force the air bag 640 00:37:00,920 --> 00:37:04,680 Speaker 1: and make the landing inside the Mercury capsule survivable. It 641 00:37:04,719 --> 00:37:09,640 Speaker 1: wouldn't be gentle, but it wouldn't be as jarring as say, 642 00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:13,279 Speaker 1: the Vostok capsule would have been if they had used 643 00:37:13,280 --> 00:37:17,600 Speaker 1: a parachute. So the Mercury spacecraft would then, upon landing 644 00:37:17,600 --> 00:37:20,880 Speaker 1: in the water, raise an antenna from the top of 645 00:37:20,920 --> 00:37:23,800 Speaker 1: the spacecraft and sent out radio signals that would alert 646 00:37:23,880 --> 00:37:26,920 Speaker 1: nearby ships and helicopters where the capsule was so that 647 00:37:26,960 --> 00:37:29,640 Speaker 1: they could come and retrieve the capsule and more importantly, 648 00:37:29,840 --> 00:37:33,880 Speaker 1: the astronaut inside the capsule. Shepherd actually collaborated with the 649 00:37:33,920 --> 00:37:38,160 Speaker 1: automatic pilot system and this test flight, this early flight 650 00:37:38,480 --> 00:37:41,360 Speaker 1: wasn't a test flight, this early flight and the Mercury mission, 651 00:37:41,920 --> 00:37:44,319 Speaker 1: it was an intended design of the Mercury spacecraft. So 652 00:37:44,360 --> 00:37:46,719 Speaker 1: he used a controller that would send commands to the 653 00:37:46,719 --> 00:37:49,360 Speaker 1: automatic system to fire rockets in order to get the 654 00:37:49,360 --> 00:37:53,320 Speaker 1: spacecraft into the proper orientation for re entry. So essentially 655 00:37:53,360 --> 00:37:56,839 Speaker 1: he would say, the spacecraft is in this particular orientation, 656 00:37:56,920 --> 00:38:01,040 Speaker 1: I needed to move from this one to this new orientation, 657 00:38:01,480 --> 00:38:03,960 Speaker 1: and then the automatic system would try to make those 658 00:38:04,040 --> 00:38:09,880 Speaker 1: adjustments and turn the spacecraft the way uh Shepherd wanted 659 00:38:09,880 --> 00:38:13,440 Speaker 1: it to. It didn't go off without a hitch. It 660 00:38:13,520 --> 00:38:16,879 Speaker 1: was a little bit off, but it wasn't catastrophically off. 661 00:38:16,920 --> 00:38:19,840 Speaker 1: The freedom sevens orientation was not quite where NASA wanted 662 00:38:19,880 --> 00:38:22,600 Speaker 1: it to be, and some of the indicators also failed 663 00:38:22,960 --> 00:38:25,880 Speaker 1: during the landing process. It gave the incorrect impression that 664 00:38:25,960 --> 00:38:29,799 Speaker 1: important sequences like the retro rockets jettisoning off the heat 665 00:38:29,840 --> 00:38:32,400 Speaker 1: shield had not happened, and if that were the case, 666 00:38:32,719 --> 00:38:35,760 Speaker 1: it could have been a terrible, terrible tragedy. But in fact, 667 00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:39,359 Speaker 1: the retrorockets had jettisoned off. It's just the indicator light 668 00:38:39,760 --> 00:38:43,560 Speaker 1: was not showing that having happened. But NASA was able 669 00:38:43,600 --> 00:38:46,520 Speaker 1: to verify that in fact, it did happen, and everything 670 00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:49,520 Speaker 1: turned out to be okay. According to Shepherd, landing in 671 00:38:49,560 --> 00:38:53,200 Speaker 1: the ocean wasn't that different from feeling like landing a 672 00:38:53,280 --> 00:38:55,719 Speaker 1: jet on an aircraft carrier is about the same kind 673 00:38:55,719 --> 00:38:58,880 Speaker 1: of bumpy ride. It wasn't the smoothest experience, but it 674 00:38:58,920 --> 00:39:03,000 Speaker 1: was tolerable, so his mission was a success. It probably 675 00:39:03,080 --> 00:39:06,160 Speaker 1: would have been met with an enormous amount of enthusiasm 676 00:39:06,200 --> 00:39:08,040 Speaker 1: if it were not for the fact that the Soviet 677 00:39:08,080 --> 00:39:10,160 Speaker 1: Union had just put a man into orbit just a 678 00:39:10,200 --> 00:39:13,440 Speaker 1: few weeks earlier. But it did solidify the US approach 679 00:39:13,480 --> 00:39:15,600 Speaker 1: to space travel, and it prepared the way for more 680 00:39:15,640 --> 00:39:20,040 Speaker 1: Mercury missions as well as the Gemini and Apollo missions. Now, 681 00:39:20,040 --> 00:39:24,000 Speaker 1: in our next episode, i'll talk more about the Doose missions, 682 00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:25,800 Speaker 1: as well as a little bit more about Voss Stock 683 00:39:26,040 --> 00:39:30,320 Speaker 1: and UH and mercury. Also, i'll talk about the spacecraft 684 00:39:30,360 --> 00:39:34,280 Speaker 1: that the Soviets built after the Vostok capsules. In the meantime, 685 00:39:34,320 --> 00:39:36,920 Speaker 1: if you guys have suggestions for future episodes of tech Stuff, 686 00:39:36,920 --> 00:39:39,239 Speaker 1: maybe it's a technology or a company or personality and 687 00:39:39,280 --> 00:39:42,480 Speaker 1: tech I should cover, send me a message. The email 688 00:39:42,520 --> 00:39:46,839 Speaker 1: address is text stuff at how stuff works dot com, 689 00:39:46,960 --> 00:39:49,000 Speaker 1: or drop me a line on Facebook or Twitter. The 690 00:39:49,040 --> 00:39:51,279 Speaker 1: handle for both of those is tech Stuff hs W. 691 00:39:51,760 --> 00:39:54,239 Speaker 1: Don't forget we have a merchandise store now. Go to 692 00:39:54,360 --> 00:39:58,200 Speaker 1: T public dot com slash tech Stuff. That's T e 693 00:39:58,239 --> 00:40:01,399 Speaker 1: e Public dot com slash tech stuff to check out 694 00:40:01,440 --> 00:40:03,600 Speaker 1: the merch It's pretty sweet stuff if I do say 695 00:40:03,600 --> 00:40:07,759 Speaker 1: so myself, and please follow us on Instagram. That's all 696 00:40:07,800 --> 00:40:11,080 Speaker 1: for me today. I'll talk to you again really soon 697 00:40:16,560 --> 00:40:18,960 Speaker 1: for more on this and thousands of other topics. Because 698 00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:30,160 Speaker 1: it how stuff works dot com.