WEBVTT - From Voskhod to Gemini 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:07.120 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:13.440 stuff Works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:15.880 I'm your host Jothan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:19.200 how Stuff Works in love all Things Tech. And in 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:21.480 my last episode, I talked about the early efforts to 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:25.279 put a human being into Earth orbit to the moon, actually, no, 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:27.880 just to the orbit. We covered how the Soviet Union 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:31.920 did it first with a cosmonaut named Yuri and inside 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:35.400 a Vostok one spacecraft actually as a Vostok three K, 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:38.080 a spacecraft that was named the Vostok one. And I 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:41.599 also talked about how US astronaut Alan Shepherd flew a 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:46.080 suborbital mission in the Freedom seven Mercury space capsule. But 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:48.320 I had not quite reached the point where a U. 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:51.239 S astronaut completed an orbit of the Earth or what 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:54.000 came next. So in today's episode, we're gonna look more 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:58.280 at those missions and the spacecraft that followed those early examples. 0:00:58.680 --> 0:01:02.040 So both the Vostok and the Mercury spacecraft went on 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:07.080 six missions, not not the same spacecraft, but those models, uh, 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:10.800 they both went on six different missions from nineteen sixty 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:15.640 one to nineteen sixty three. So they were closely in 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:20.800 competition with one another. The Soviet missions included Valentina Tereshkova. 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:24.520 She was the first woman in space. The US missions 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:28.080 had two suborbital missions, the first in the Freedom seven 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:31.080 that I mentioned earlier with Alan Shepard. The second was 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:34.679 in a spacecraft named the Liberty Bell seven. That one 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:39.560 was piloted by Virgil Ivan Gus Grissom. Gus would also 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:42.640 play a very important role in the development of the 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:45.600 Gemini spacecraft, which I'll talk about later in this episode. 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:49.160 And starting with the third Mercury mission, which was in 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:52.640 the Friendship seven and was piloted by John Glenn, the 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:55.680 US began to send astronauts into orbits, so John Glenn 0:01:55.760 --> 0:01:58.880 was the first US astronaut to go into orbit. I'll 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:01.400 cover that one more in just a second, because that 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:04.080 was a big deal for the US. The Mercury missions 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:08.919 had two designations. These suborbital flights were classified under the 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:13.720 name Mercury Redstone. The four orbital missions were called Mercury 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:18.440 Atlas missions. So along with Shephard, Grissom, and Glenn, you 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:24.040 had the astronauts Leroy Gordon, Gordy Cooper Jr. Walter Marty, 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:29.160 Wally Skira Jr. Malcolm Scott Carpenter who didn't get a 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:33.640 fun nickname, I guess, and Donald Kent Deek Slayton, the 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:36.120 only one of the seven who did not pilot a 0:02:36.160 --> 0:02:38.760 Mercury mission. Because I remember there were six Mercury missions, 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:42.880 they were one man capsules, seven astronauts. Someone gets left out. 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:46.720 The one left out was Donald Kent Deek Slayton. He 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:50.040 was grounded after medical exams found he had an irregularity 0:02:50.040 --> 0:02:52.600 with his heartbeat, and just to be on the safe side, 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:56.280 they decided not to send him up into space, although 0:02:56.400 --> 0:03:00.200 everyone kept saying he'd probably be okay, but we don't 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:03.240 want to take the chance. Slayton, however, would eventually regain 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:06.560 his flight status in the nineteen seventies and would ultimately 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:09.280 get to travel to space as part of an Apollo 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:12.800 Soyu's mission, which I'll talk about in the next episode. 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:15.560 That was a collaborative effort between the United States and 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:18.679 the Soviet space programs. So he did finally get to 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:21.560 go up into space, but it was a decade later 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:25.000 than what he had planned. John Glenn's historic flight on 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:28.640 February twenty, nineteen sixty two, some orbit the Earth three 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:32.360 times the mission took nearly five hours from launch to touchdown, 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:36.320 and Cooper's mission on May fifteenth, nineteen sixty three, on 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:40.000 the Faith seven took nearly a day and a half. 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:44.080 This was the final Mercury mission. So why did it 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:47.000 take so long, Well, it's because Cooper orbited the Earth 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:51.760 twenty two times. To prepare for these orbital missions, astronauts 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:54.760 would train for two years and one month out from 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:58.040 the mission launch date. Two astronauts would get the nod 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:00.560 as being the picks for that mission. You would have 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:03.160 an astronaut and you would have an alternate. That way, 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:05.839 if the primary pick had an issue on launch day, 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:08.440 like a medical condition that could threaten the safety of 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:11.280 the astronaut or the mission, there was already an alternate. 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:15.040 So let's say it's launched day. Everyone wakes up. Turns 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:18.000 out your primary pick for your mission has come down 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:20.159 with a terrible case of food poisoning. Well, you can't 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:22.680 send that person up in a spacecraft. You have to 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:27.240 go with your alternate. Three days before launch, the astronauts 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:29.920 who had been picked for that mission would be switched 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:33.279 to a special diet that would help reduce the possibility 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:36.120 that said astronaut would need to go poop during the mission. 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:38.680 I said that in a way to honor my former 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:41.080 co host Chris Palette, who I think would have said 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:44.359 it the same way. Chris, if you're listening, let me know. 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:47.840 The astronauts would get suited up and put on a 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:51.000 mask to breathe pure oxygen to prep for the conditions 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:54.440 of being inside the capsule a few hours before they 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:57.880 actually would get in. Two hours before launch they would 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:01.080 go and get into them are cury capsule, so they 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:03.560 still have two hours to go. And the last episode 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:06.080 I mentioned the dimensions of this capsule. It was big 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:08.440 enough for a single astronaut seated in kind of a 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:12.039 reclined position, so they're essentially laying on their backs in 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:16.880 a seated position, staring up at the sky. Outside the capsule, 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:21.200 mechanics would bolt on the hatch to seal the astronaut inside. 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:24.400 Ground control would go forward with the countdown, checking all 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:27.120 the launch systems and the weather conditions to make sure 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:30.240 everything was good to go. Delays would just mean that 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:33.760 the astronaut would be laying down there for a really 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:37.760 long time. There's a great story about Alan Shepherd and 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:41.440 a delay and his roop need to make use of 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:44.480 the facilities, and there are no facilities aboard the Mercury, 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:48.320 at least not that first one. I'll leave it at that. 0:05:48.440 --> 0:05:50.000 You can read up on it if you really want 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:54.560 to know more. Anyway, four seconds before liftoff, the rocket 0:05:54.560 --> 0:05:58.240 engines would come to life and they would ignite. Clamps 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:00.839 would hold the launch vehicle down on the pad, essentially 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:04.000 holding the rocket in place until enough thrust had been 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:06.560 built up for liftoff. At that point, the clamps would 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:10.200 release and the rocket would lift off the launch pad, 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:13.680 and a couple of minutes after launch to booster, rocket 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:17.920 engines would turn off and jettison off the vehicle. A 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:21.640 central thruster would continue to fire and give enough thrust 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:24.480 to do sort of the final push to get up 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:28.160 into orbit. That would continue until they reached the proper 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:31.719 orbital altitude, and then they would the capsule could re 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:34.640 orient itself into a position that was horizontal with respect 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:37.200 to the Earth, then the engine would shut off. At 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:41.080 that point, the spacecraft would jettison the launch engines and 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:43.800 continue its orbit until it was time to reorient again 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:47.920 and fire the retro rockets, which would slow down the 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:52.080 spacecraft enough for it to re enter the Earth's atmosphere. 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:55.760 That repositioning for re entry was really the only maneuvering 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:58.760 the capsule could do in space, and it took just 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:01.000 a bit less than an hour and a half to 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:04.160 make a full orbit of the Earth, around eighty eight 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:06.800 minutes or so to do one full orbit. I talked 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:09.240 about the reentry process in the last episode, so I'm 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:11.360 not going to go over it again here, because it 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:13.520 was the same for each of the Mercury missions. To 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:17.560 slow down enough so that the parachutes would deploy once 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:19.680 you hit certain altitudes, and then you would land in 0:07:19.680 --> 0:07:21.520 the water and wait to get picked up. Now, it's 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:24.600 basically it. The first of the six man Mercury flights 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:27.560 happened on May five, nineteen sixty one. The final one 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:31.160 happened on May fifteenth, nineteen sixty three. During that time, 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:34.280 what was happening over at the Soviet Union. Well, in 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:37.000 the last episode, I talked about the Vostok one mission 0:07:37.240 --> 0:07:40.680 with Uri, which was again that first space mission to 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:43.679 put a human into orbit, that happened in April nineteen 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:47.560 sixty one, a month before the first manned Mercury mission. 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:51.080 Then the Americans held their first suborbital manned flight, which 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:53.880 was partially piloted by the astronaut inside the spacecraft. So 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:55.480 that was a little bit of a one up on 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:59.720 the Soviets in that respect, because Uri didn't control the 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:02.720 space craft of the Vostok one that was completely under 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:06.920 automatic control. On August six, nineteen sixty one, a few 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:11.160 months later, the Vostok two launched into space with the 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:15.640 then twenty five year old cosmonaut Garman Titov. He spent 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:18.800 more than a day orbiting the Earth. He was out 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:21.720 in space orbiting the Earth for more than twenty four hours. 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:24.640 That was something that the Americans would not be able 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:29.280 to match. For nearly two years, his spacecraft orbited the 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.480 Earth seventeen times during the amount of time he was 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:35.920 out in space. And like Uri, Titov was inside a 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:39.760 Vostok three k A spacecraft. It was called the Vostok two, 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:42.840 but its classification was Vostok three k A. The crew 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:45.959 compartment was essentially a sphere. It is the same as 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:49.960 as Uri Gagarin's. This connected to an equipment module that 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:52.360 was more conical in shape. I mentioned that in the 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:55.520 previous episode two that in turn connected to the rocket engines. 0:08:56.080 --> 0:08:58.439 The length of the mission was a matter of hot 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:01.240 scientific debate before the launch of the law stuck to 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:05.120 how long should this mission be. The Russians had experimented 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:08.200 with dogs aboard a spacecraft that had made six orbits 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:12.120 of the Earth, and during those experiments the dogs had 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:17.120 experienced convulsions, so those Soviets weren't sure. Maybe if you 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:21.160 stayed in space for more than just a few orbits 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:26.880 you might start having severe health issues. So the dogs 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:29.640 had returned to Earth alive, but it left the scientists 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:33.439 worried that a human might encounter similar problems after extended 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:37.360 periods of weightlessness. There was also a concern about where 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:39.880 the spacecraft was going to land, because each time it 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:43.840 orbited the Earth, it would actually shift the landing position 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:47.360 for the the spacecraft. It would shift a little bit 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:50.480 to the west. So if you orbited a few times, 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:52.840 you would still be in Russia Russia is a really 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:55.680 big country, but a few more than that and suddenly 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:59.400 you're in Europe, and then you'd be out over the ocean, etcetera. 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:02.040 And so you have to keep orbiting the Earth until 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:07.560 you had done essentially a twenty four hour stint in 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:12.319 space before you were over Russia again. So the choices 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:14.640 seemed to be either go up for a very short 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:16.679 amount of time, which was similar to what they had 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:19.440 already done, or grow up for a longer time, not 0:10:19.600 --> 0:10:22.079 knowing what the effects were going to be, but you 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:25.599 would be able to land the spacecraft back in Russia. 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:28.200 So ultimately they decided to go with the longer mission. 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:31.840 Titov was given manual control of his spacecraft during the mission, 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:34.679 so while he was in orbit he was able to 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:39.440 take control of this Vostok to spacecraft. Ground controls still 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:42.000 maintained control of the spacecraft for most of its operation. 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:45.200 The mission did have a couple of issues. One of 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:50.320 the was the first known instance of space sickness. This 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:54.720 is a kind of a disoriented nausea that can set 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:59.600 upon an astronaut or a cosmonaut. Titov became nauseated shortly 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:03.160 after the first few orbits had passed. He fell asleep 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:07.360 after his spacecraft had made seven orbits. This was planned. 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:09.880 He was actually going to bed, and he slept for 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:12.040 more than eight hours, but when he woke up he 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:14.920 reported that he still wasn't feeling great. It was only 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:19.920 after twelve orbits that the nausea passed. Also, like the 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:24.040 Vostok one, the Vostok to experienced problems upon re entry. 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:26.280 If you listen to my last episode, you heard about that. 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:29.560 In fact, it was exactly the same issue. The equipment module, 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:33.120 that conical section that's connected to the sphere that's the 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:37.080 re entry module, did not detach properly at the beginning 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:40.080 of re entry. It's supposed to jettison off, but it 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:42.840 failed to do that completely. It was still kind of 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:46.720 tethered to the spherical re entry module. That threw off 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:50.320 the Vostech two's orientation. You suddenly had this loose weight 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:52.800 that was connected to your re entry module, and it 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:57.439 made it spin and gyrate and shake like crazy. Eventually, 0:11:58.080 --> 0:12:01.720 the heat and the various gyrations of this spacecraft made 0:12:01.960 --> 0:12:05.800 that tether break, and then the re entry module was 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:09.320 all by itself and it continued down as it had 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:13.439 been intended, and it uh there were no other issues 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:17.080 and uh and Titov was able to eject at the 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:21.319 seven kilometer mark and float down safely on his parachute. 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:25.199 Now I've got more to say about the Vostok commissions, 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:27.200 but before I get into that, let's take a quick 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:37.360 break to thank our sponsor. A year After the Vostok 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:40.440 two mission, the Soviet Union held a pair of launches. 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:47.040 On August eleven, n andre Nikkarayev launched into space on 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:49.840 the Vostok three, and he would end up spending almost 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:54.160 four full days in orbit, making sixty four orbits around 0:12:54.160 --> 0:12:57.959 the Earth. This was still a year before Gordie Cooper 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:01.160 would break the amer I Can record by orbiting the 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:04.439 Earth twenty two times in the Faith seven Mercury Capsule, 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:08.640 So the Soviet Union was really setting records in endurance 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:13.480 in orbit, and records that wouldn't be broke until NASA 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:16.880 would have their Gemini project later on the day after 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:21.160 the Vostok three launched, the Soviet Union launched the Vostok four. 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:25.520 This one carried Pavel Popovich on board. That made the 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:27.920 Soviet Union the first country in the world to have 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:31.920 two manned spacecraft in orbit at the same time. The 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:34.800 two ships were actually able to establish ship to ship 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:37.840 radio communication when they got close enough to each other, 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:40.960 and by close enough, I mean they were still kilometers apart, 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:43.440 like six and a half kilometers apart when they established 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:45.640 radio communications, so they weren't like they were right next 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:49.280 to each other. The USSR would then repeat that feat 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:52.920 with the Vostok five and six capsules. Remember, Vostok six 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:56.120 was also the one that had Valentina Tereshkova, the first 0:13:56.160 --> 0:14:00.520 woman in space aboarded. Those spacecraft launched in June nineteen 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:05.200 sixty three. The Vostok five made eighty two orbits. The 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:10.720 Vostok six, with Valentina aboard, made forty eight orbits. Like 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:14.360 the Vostok one and two spacecraft, the Vostok five experienced 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:18.080 those same problems with that separation from the equipment module 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:21.000 upon re entry. And at this point it's amazing to 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:23.800 me that none of these Soviet missions resulted in a 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:27.880 catastrophic failure upon re entry. Now, there are conspiracy theories 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:31.520 that alleged the Soviet Union space program resulted in numerous 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:35.680 unreported cosmonaut fatalities. I should add that most of those 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:39.440 conspiracy theories don't rely on very convincing evidence. It's a 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:44.680 lot of circumstantial stuff and a lot of just wild speculation. 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:48.800 Now that does not mean that the theories are wrong necessarily, 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:52.600 but I wouldn't put stock into them without more actual 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:56.560 evidence in proof of the matter. Did it happen, maybe, 0:14:56.600 --> 0:14:59.320 but I haven't seen the evidence to convince me. Yet, 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:02.800 both the Archy and Vostok programs had those six manned 0:15:02.840 --> 0:15:05.520 missions and both saw the final missions launch in nineteen 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:09.280 sixty three, and both the USA and the USSR would 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:13.160 go on to different designs for their next spacecraft, although 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:17.560 they were both very similar to the previous generation of spacecraft. 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:21.520 So for the Soviets, that was the Voshkod project, And 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:23.800 I have no idea if I'm saying that correctly. I 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:26.000 could be completely butchering it, but I'm going with it. 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:29.600 So the vosh Cood space vehicles started off essentially as 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:32.760 Vostok spacecraft, but they had a couple of different designs 0:15:32.760 --> 0:15:36.400 to it. One, they had an additional solid fuel retro 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:39.440 rocket mounted on the re entry module. Remember the first 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:44.160 Vostok spacecraft had one retro rocket, and if it failed 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:46.680 then the cosmonauta board would just have to wait for 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:49.600 ten days for the orbit to decay enough for the 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:53.640 spacecraft to re enter the Earth's atmosphere. However, the Vashkad 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:56.880 could not take this luxury, if you can call it that, 0:15:57.400 --> 0:15:59.760 because it was going to be placed in a higher orbit, 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:02.160 so it would take much longer for its orbit to 0:16:02.280 --> 0:16:05.160 decay and it would put the cosmonauts life in danger, 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:08.480 so just in case one of the retro rockets were 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:11.000 the main retro rocket, if it were to fail, there 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:14.360 was a backup. The Vashkad also had a projection on 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:18.280 it that was a place it was a ring where 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:21.920 inside the ring there was an inflatable airlock system inside 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:23.920 of it, which would be used on the second vash 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:27.000 Cod mission. It wasn't used in the first one, but 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:29.480 it would be used in the second one, and that 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:32.840 gave the vosh God spacecraft a little bit of a 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:37.160 knobby look to it compared to the Vostok one. But 0:16:37.240 --> 0:16:40.360 the Vashkad also lacked an important feature that the Vostok had, 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:43.560 which was a launch escape system. The Vostok had a 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:48.480 limited escape system if an emergency happened during launch, assuming 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:50.720 it wasn't too early in the launch or too late 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:54.680 in the launch, you could actually use the escape system 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:58.120 to pull the cosmonaut away to safety. The vash Cod 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:01.240 did not have this, so if there had been a 0:17:01.280 --> 0:17:04.679 failure during launch, there would be no escape for the cosmonauts, 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:08.320 which is pretty terrifying. It was designed to land with 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:11.280 the crew still inside the spacecraft, which again set it 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:14.520 apart from the Vostok. With Vostok, once you hit seven 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:18.040 kilometers upon descent, you would eject out of the spacecraft 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:20.200 and you would parachute by yourself down to the ground. 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:24.000 The vash God was meant to parachute with the cosmonauts 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:29.639 still inside the capsule. And that that bit about the 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:32.040 crew being inside the capsule and saying like everyone would 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:34.960 still be inside, that's a clue to the other big advancement. 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:38.240 The vash God could carry more than one cosmonaut. Now 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:42.880 it was meant to carry two, but political pressure from 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:46.919 the Soviet government that really was determined to show up 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:51.080 the United States demanded that the first manned vosh Good 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:55.359 mission would actually have three crew members, and that was 0:17:56.160 --> 0:18:00.160 more or less a political requirement, not a technologic goal 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:03.919 requirement a scientific one. It was politically motivated, and the 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:06.000 engineers had to figure out how to make this work 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:08.639 in a spacecraft that was really meant to carry just 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:12.199 two people in space suits. So that meant that the 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:16.040 three people inside the Vashkod could not wear space suits. 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:19.639 They had to wear normal jumpsuits but not space suits, 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:22.199 which was again terrifying because if anything went wrong, there 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:25.440 was no pressurized space suit that could save their lives. 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:28.359 They would just die in that capsule. And America was 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:31.000 already at work of the Gemini project. So this had 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:37.480 created a real um motivation for Russia to move forward 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:43.200 and get multiple cosmonauts aboard one space vehicle. It would 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:46.520 set another world's first, to be the world's first spacecraft 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:49.240 to carry more than one person. That three person crew 0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:53.479 came with some other hefty drawbacks. Uh, it wasn't just 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:55.560 the space suits. I mean, there was hardly any room 0:18:55.600 --> 0:18:59.560 for anyone to move, and there was a real concern 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:05.760 that the the close proximity and the limited maneuverability was 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:08.920 going to require them to cut the mission short. The 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:12.639 vash Cod one launched on October twelve, nineteen sixty four, 0:19:12.880 --> 0:19:16.200 and they completed sixteen orbits around the Earth and returned 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:19.520 a little more than twenty four hours after launch. The 0:19:19.600 --> 0:19:23.280 Vashkod also had a breaking rocket, as in hit the 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:27.119 brakes that would help slow down the spacecraft's descent and 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:30.840 help reduce the impact of landing on solid ground. Because 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:33.960 the vosh Cod, unlike the Mercury or the Gemini where 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:36.800 the Apollo as it were, wasn't designed to land in 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:39.959 the water. It was designed to land on firm ground 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:44.000 for the cosmonauts aboard the vosh God. The world changed 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:49.760 significantly during their mission because when they went up into space, 0:19:50.440 --> 0:19:54.840 the Soviet premiere was Nikita Khrushchev. When they landed a 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:58.960 day later, Krishtchev had been removed from power and replaced 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:03.399 by Alexey caused Gin and Leonid Brezhnev, which is a 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:06.240 heck of a twenty four hours when the leadership of 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:10.600 your country has changed in essentially a coup. Since you 0:20:11.119 --> 0:20:13.000 went up into space, it came back down. That's a 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:15.880 big deal, especially when you consider it's the government that's 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:20.000 funding everything. The vash good To mission would launch in 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:23.040 March nineteen sixty five. Now, this was a two man 0:20:23.119 --> 0:20:26.479 mission with both cosmonauts wearing space suits. This was supposed 0:20:26.520 --> 0:20:28.960 to be more along the lines of what the engineers 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:32.280 had intended from the beginning. This was also a necessity 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:35.480 they had to wear space suits because this was the 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:39.600 first space flight to have a space walk, meaning one 0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:41.960 of the two cosmonauts was going to have to leave 0:20:42.080 --> 0:20:45.359 the spacecraft and go out into outer space, so both 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:48.840 of them had to have space suits. Alexei Leonov, the 0:20:48.920 --> 0:20:53.000 pilot of the craft conducted a twelve minute spacewalk during 0:20:53.040 --> 0:20:55.800 this mission, and the whole mission lasted a little more 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:59.119 than twenty four hours and the craft made seventeen orbits 0:20:59.119 --> 0:21:02.960 of the Earth. The Vashkod deployed in inflatable exterior airlock 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:06.879 in order to allow for this mission that that airlock, 0:21:06.960 --> 0:21:08.800 like I said, was on sort of a ring on 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:14.720 the outer side of the spherical reentry module, and after use, 0:21:14.920 --> 0:21:18.280 after Leonov had come back into the capsule, they would 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:21.679 jettison the airlock into space, so it was not a 0:21:21.680 --> 0:21:26.480 permanent part of the spacecraft itself. The airlock required seven 0:21:26.520 --> 0:21:29.880 minutes to inflate. It had forty channels into which air 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:33.120 would flow, and those channels were all grouped into three 0:21:33.160 --> 0:21:36.720 big clusters and that would hold the shape of the airlock. 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:42.440 The airlock kept the spacecraft pressurized while it was first deployed, 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:47.439 so Leonov would inflate this airlock, open up the hatch, 0:21:47.880 --> 0:21:52.320 climb into the airlock, and his commander, Pavo Beliyev would 0:21:52.359 --> 0:21:56.639 seal the hatch behind Leonov, and then the airlock would 0:21:56.640 --> 0:22:01.440 be depressurized. That would allow Leonov to exit the spacecraft 0:22:01.480 --> 0:22:04.840 into space, and according to Leonov, he was given a 0:22:04.960 --> 0:22:08.440 special a special thing just in case there were any 0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:11.560 problems of him getting back into the spacecraft. Because there 0:22:11.600 --> 0:22:12.919 was no guarantee he was going to be able to 0:22:12.920 --> 0:22:15.200 get back in once he went out. They tried very 0:22:15.240 --> 0:22:17.639 hard to design a system so that Leonov would be 0:22:17.680 --> 0:22:19.760 able to return to the spacecraft, but no one was 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:21.800 really sure how it was going to turn out. So 0:22:22.800 --> 0:22:26.600 just in case, he had a suicide capsule that he 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:29.639 could bite into in case he would be unable to 0:22:29.680 --> 0:22:31.840 go back into the spacecraft, so that he could end 0:22:31.880 --> 0:22:35.000 his life on his own terms, which is pretty heavy 0:22:35.040 --> 0:22:38.560 stuff even in a waitless environment. Leonov actually did have 0:22:38.640 --> 0:22:42.200 some problems getting back into the spacecraft. It fortunately did 0:22:42.200 --> 0:22:46.320 not necessitate suicide, but he was having some issues. He 0:22:46.520 --> 0:22:50.320 was getting finding difficulty moving through the airlock. His space 0:22:50.320 --> 0:22:53.920 suited sort of inflated and it made squeezing through the 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:57.600 airlock very difficult. So in order to move through the airlock, 0:22:57.640 --> 0:23:00.560 he was forced to release some air m his suit 0:23:00.640 --> 0:23:03.879 to release pressure from his suit out into space and 0:23:03.920 --> 0:23:07.720 give him enough flexibility to move through the airlock and 0:23:07.760 --> 0:23:11.159 get back inside the spacecraft. Once he was in, it 0:23:11.200 --> 0:23:14.399 took him and his crewmate more time to seal the spacecraft. 0:23:14.400 --> 0:23:17.159 They were having issues making sure that the seal was 0:23:17.200 --> 0:23:21.680 actually proper and then justicing the the airlock, and then 0:23:22.040 --> 0:23:25.719