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A brief history of space flight pioneers
Montgolfier Brothers ( 1782 )
It has only been since 1782 that we've managed
to get our feet off the ground literally. This was made possible by the French inventor brothers 'Joseph Michel
Montgolfier' and 'Jacques tienne Montgolfier' who launched the worlds first hot air balloon. It was nearly a year
later that the first flight of a human took part after having persuaded the King to allow it.
Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin
Zeppelins apart from terrorising Britain during the first world war were also used in peace time. His story is that
he was born in 1838 and grew up in Germany. Before building Zeppelins, he fought in the American Civil War on the
side of the Union. His first experiments were whilst in the U.S. before returning to Germany to start building his
own. His first successful airship flew in 1900 and were used mainly for peaceful purposes. He managed to persuade
the German military to use Zeppelins as bombers up until he died in 1917.
Wright Brothers
The first flight of an aircraft took place at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on 17th December 1903. This was the first
time that gas wasn't the main fuel used to get the vehicle off the ground. They employed a variety of scientific
and mathematical methods to succeed in their aim.
General Walter Dornberger and Wernher von Braun
Two Germans who helped in the design and development of the V2 missle. When the war ended, von Braun handed himself into the Americans and got spirited away to the US as part of Operation
Paperclip. He played an
important part in the future US space project. Dornberger is less certain, he was either also spirited away from German by the Americans or moved over there after being released by the British.
Both men escaped being tried
and found either guilty of being a war criminal or innocent by just doing their job. Whether they got into the country through the Americans going through the proper channels through vetting or smuggled
in is unclear.
Yuri Gagarin
Yuri was the first man into space after scientists had managed to send a dog into space called 'Laika'. His
journey was brief and he didn't control the ship. The scientists were worried that he might loose control whilst
up there and do the wrong thing. He proved that it was possible to get man up to space and back.
Lieutenant Valentina Tereshkova
Valentina was the first female into space and the fifth Russian Cosmonaut to venture up . Her journey happened on 16th
June 1963. It wasn't for another nineteeen years before another female went into space.
Neil Armstrong
America's most famous astronaut, his achievement was to become the first man on the moon, beating the Russians
for the first time. They had put the first satiellite, dog, man and woman into space. The Russians had sent
a lunar lander (Luna 15) to land on the moon, get samples and return to Earth first. It was their attempt to upstage the Americans, however Luna 15 crashed. To this date, only Americans
have landed on the moon.
Helen Sharman
It was not until 1991 that a Briton finally got into space. She didn't plan to go into space like Sir Michael
Foale who had set his sights on doing since he was yound. She only went up in space after competing against other people wanting to be the first Briton in space. The organisers of the competition
was a coalition of British Industries.
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| | Admin | August 21, 2007, 10:12 pm | I've corrected a few points according to what Stuart has said. However, Helen competed against other people who wanted to be the first Briton in space in a competition financed by British Industry. In respect to the Gemini project, in what areas had the US outstripped the Russians?
von Braun handed himself into the Americans, escaping any chances of being tried by moving to the US as part of Operation Paperclip or Overcast. Dornberger was captured by the British but then released then moved across to America. This is the first time I've seen they they were vetted by the FBI, haven't seen any other references to the vetting anywhere else. |
| | Stuart Heal | August 7, 2007, 8:41 am | | There are several things wrong with this article.
First, Valentina Tereshkova was not the fifth person in space, only the fifth Soviet. The Americans were flying their Mercury astronauts at the same time as the Vostok programme was running.
Second, the section on Neil Armstrong states that Apollo 11 was the first occasion when the USA beat the USSR in space. In fact, not only had the Gemini programme outstripped the Soviets in several key areas, but the Americans had done two manned circumlunar flights prior to Apollo 11 and had the world's larges operational space booster (the Saturn V). Also the Luna 15 probe that crashed on the Lunar surface was unmanned, being an attempt at an automated soil retreval mission.
Third, Helen Sharman did not go into space as a result of a competition. This story has been circulating on the internet for years, but it is a complete fabrication as well as an insult to an intelligent and hard-working woman. As you yourself hint in the article that is linked to, Dr Sharman passed a rigorous selection process, which is detailed in her book "Sieze the Moment". It might also be worth mentioning that Sharman was the first non-Soviet, non-American woman in space.
Finally, the bit about von Braun and Dornberger is highly controversial and I think this fact should be acknowledged instead of just asserting that they were war criminals as if this is a proven fact. There was certainly a lot of slave labour used in the big underground V2 factories which were basically administered by the SS, but it's unlikely that von Braun and Dornberger would have had any influence over that, as they were involved more in design than production. It could also be argued that von Braun saved lives, by selecting qualified concentration camp inmates to work on his design team. Von Braun himself was under arrest at one point as the SS suspected him of diverting resources away from the military side and towards space research. And certainly both men were vetted by the FBI, who came to the conclusion that neither of them were enthusiastic Nazis. |
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