October 4, 1957 was a significant date for all mankind. A small shiny ball with four antennas, launched from Earth into space, marked the beginning of the space age. For the Soviet Union - and it was launched by Soviet scientists - this was not only a scientific victory. The confrontation between the USSR and the USA, called the Cold War, primarily affected space exploration. For many Americans, convinced by propaganda that the Soviet Union was a backward agrarian power, it was an unpleasant surprise that the first satellite was launched by the Russians.
According to the precepts of Tsiolkovsky
The idea of space exploration belonged to the great Russian scientist K. E. Tsiolkovsky. And although he predicted the possibility of its implementation in no less than 100 years, and in reality it happened in 50 years, the path from the idea to its implementation was very tortuous. The group of Friedrich Zander, an ethnic German, in which he began hisThe activities of the young Korolev initially took a different path: its founder proposed to explore space with the help of a spaceship, and not a rocket. But G. Oberth, the German "father of astronautics", just shared the idea of Tsiolkovsky. He even corresponded with Konstantin Eduardovich for some time, namely, before Hitler came to power.
At the end of the war, Korolev, who led the Zander group after his death, was appointed chief of the commission to analyze the missile heritage of the Third Reich. Analyzing the drawings, he became convinced that Tsiolkovsky was still right, and further developments began to be based on German achievements in rocket science. So, the idea of one Russian scientist, having begun to be realized on German soil, was again returned to their homeland by other scientists decades later.
From German V-2 to Russian R-7
Starting to master captured equipment, Korolev first produced an almost exact copy of the German V-2 rocket. However, it has already undergone significant improvements. The R-1 was equipped with a detachable reentry vehicle and had a flight range twice that of the V-2. The R-5 rocket has already become intercontinental. Interestingly, the idea of this apparatus came to Korolev's mind even before the release of the R-1 model. But the beginning of the space age of mankind was laid by R-7. Its modification is still actively used in several versions of the Soyuz carrier. Then it was considered the simplest satellite - hence its name PS-1. Korolev decided not to wait for the development of a more complexapparatus and launch a carrier into orbit with a minimum amount of technical stuffing.
Development of PS-1
The first condition of the chief designer S. P. Korolev was the presence of a radio transmitter continuously operating on the satellite. It did not materialize right away. According to the recollections of eyewitnesses, Korolev rejected many options for the shape of the satellite - cone-shaped, diamond-shaped, square - which caused bewilderment of colleagues, because there is no air resistance in space, and therefore, the shape does not matter. But the chief designer strongly insisted that the satellite should be spherical. When the satellite was launched, colleagues were convinced that the brilliant scientist was right - the satellite was a prototype of the man-made Earth in space.
The beginning of the space age and the role of scientists in it
Initially, the customers of the development were the military. They saw the construction of carriers for a nuclear bomb as the main condition for victory in the Cold War. On August 21, 1957, a combat intercontinental missile was launched, after which a serious struggle broke out between scientists and the military. The military department insisted on continuing the defense program, and Korolev's people suggested using these carriers to put the satellite into orbit. In the end, peaceful goals won, the last point in this confrontation was put by the then head of state N. S. Khrushchev. He received information that the Americans were already ready to launch their satellite, and this was the decisive impetus that prompted him to lean towards the arguments of scientists.
The day the space age began
Starting Day of the Space Age - October 4, 1957. It was then that the R-7 intercontinental rocket was sent on a space journey from the Baikonur cosmodrome (this is its historical name, it was originally the Tyura-Tam test site). It was she who was the carrier of the first artificial satellite PS-1. In addition to it, there was also a head fairing that served as protection against atmospheric friction at the start, and the second stage of the rocket - the central engine. Witnesses of this significant event saw it from Earth, since all other parts were simply indistinguishable due to their small size.
As is often the case, the success of this landmark event for all mankind was hanging in the balance. During the launch, there were problems, each of which could disrupt the flight. For example, at the 16th second after leaving the Earth, the fuel supply system failed and an increased consumption of hot fuel began. As a result, the central engine turned off one second ahead of schedule. In addition, one of the engines was “late”, and exceeding the time to reach the mode could cancel the launch of the satellite. Despite all these technical obstacles, the rocket was able to reach the first space velocity of 7.8 km per second, but it did not reach the planned peak of the orbit by about 90 km. These and many other malfunctions were taken into account by scientists during the next launches, and October 4, 1957 today can be celebrated as the day the space age of mankind began.
Global resonance of an event that stunned the world
The beginning of the space age, laid down by Soviet scientists, could not be hidden by any means of information warfare. Signals from orbit could be picked up by all radio amateurs in the world. This event became a loud and undeniable refutation of the statements of Western politicians about the scientific failure of the Land of the Soviets, which caused serious damage to the authority of the United States. For a long time, even before the launch of the satellite by the Russians, the American press actively inspired its readers that the United States of America would soon send the first satellite into orbit. In fact, they managed to do this only on February 1, 1958, and its mass turned out to be 10 times less than the Russian pioneer. The fact that Soviet engineers took the podium before the Americans was a real shock for the latter.
Scientific data collected by the first satellite in space
What did people see and learn when they deciphered a series of "beeps" received from PS-1? The device spent 92 days in orbit, burning up in the atmosphere on January 4 of the following year. The satellite made 1440 orbits around the Earth - and this is about 60 million km. The data he collected helped scientists to find out the features of the passage of the radio signal through the upper atmosphere, the density of the remnants of the atmosphere at the corresponding height was clarified - it turned out to be higher than previously thought.
Effects of orbital flight
The beginning of the space age has made a whole revolution in astronomy. After the invention of the telescope by Galileo, this became the next most importantstep in the exploration of the universe. So-called extra-atmospheric astronomy arose, scientists discovered that interstellar space is permeated with cosmic rays. Black holes and gamma-ray bursts have only been discovered through space exploration. The launch of telescopes into orbit made it possible to significantly improve their resolution and to see what could not be seen from the Earth. In one fell swoop, the boundaries of the universe have expanded to an incredible size, what scientists may have implied or assumed has been clearly confirmed.
Portal H-Cosmos.ru: the beginning of the space age in the laboratory
Today, schools are increasingly using this type of activity as holding presentations on topics covered. For this, projectors, filmstrips, slides and other technical innovations are used to help display information on the screen, to make it visual in the truest sense of the word. If an entry appeared in your child’s diary: “Do research on the topic“The Beginning of the Space Age”- it means that it is time to thoroughly prepare for such an event. The expanses of the Internet give shelter to a huge amount of information, the main thing is to be able to choose a reliable and complete source. The H-Cosmos.ru portal will help you and your child prepare an interesting and comprehensive report. His concept is based on the idea that our entire biosphere is inextricably linked with outer space. There are also other sites connected by the same concept into a single alliance with the H-Cosmos portal. The beginning of the space age, thanks to acquaintance with these sources, again acquires its true, significantmeaning.
Our world is not limited to the reality around us. Above us - high above our heads, so high that it is not visible to the naked eye - lurks a huge breathing universe that influences our lives, even if we do not directly notice it. The beginning of the space age opened a window “upward” for humanity, revealing vast and unexplored expanses. No one still knows whether life is possible on Mars, but this assumption itself has made our consciousness more receptive to the most extraordinary discoveries of the future, and life - more interesting and richer. Take a look at the portal H-Cosmos.ru - the beginning of the space age will appear before you in all its glory.
