Animals In Space (2)

Laika's mission on board Sputnik 2 stunned the world.  Sputnik I, the world's first satellite, had been launched less than one month before. 

TV image of Laika from the capsule, courtesy Alexander Chernov, had been a stray.  IT was a metal sphere weighing about 40 lbs and was far heavier than anything the United States was contemplating launching.

An astonished world witnessed the launch of Sptunik 2 weighing 250 lbs and carrying the first living thing to go into orbit-the dog Laika.

The animal had been a stray wandering the streets of Moscow when she was captured and prepared for a space mission.

Shortly later launch the Soviets said that Laika was not destined to return alive and would die in space.  The statement caused outrage to many observers. 

Racing Pulse

Dr. Malashenkov has now revealed several new details about Laika's mission, such as her food being in jelly form and that she was chained to prevent her from turning around.

There was a carbon dioxide absorbing device in the cabin to prevent the accumulation of this toxic gas, as well as an oxygen generator.

A fan was automatically activated to keep the dog cool when the capsule's temperature exceeded 15 deg Celsius.

According to Dr. Malashenkov, a great deal of work had to be done to adapt a group of dogs to the conditions in the tight cabin of Sputnik 2.  They were kept in gradually smaller cages for periods up to 15-20 days.

Three dogs were trained for the Sputnik 2 flight: Albina, Laika and Mushka.  Albina was the first "backup," having flown twice on a high-altitude rocket.  Mushka was used to test instrumentation and life support.

Sputnik and the Dawn of the Space Age (1)

History changed in October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I.  The world's first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball (58 centimeters or 22.8 inches in diameter), weighed only 83.6 kg. or 183.9 lbs., an took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path.  The Sputnik launch brought in political, military, technological, and scientific developments.  While the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S.S.R space race.

The story begins in 1952, when the International Council of Scientific Unions decided to establish July 1, 1957 to December 31, 1958, as the INternational Geophysical Year (IGY) because the scientists knew that the cycles of solar activity would be ata high point by then.  In October 1954, the council adopted a resolution.  This resolution called for artifical satellites to be launched during the IGY to map the Earth's surface. 

In July 1955, the White House announced plans to launch an Earth-orbiting satellite, for the IGY.  The White house solicited proposals from various Government research agencies, whih were to undertake development.  In September 1955, the Naval Research Laboratory's Vanguard proposal was chosen to represent the U.S. during the IGY.

The Sputnik launch changed everything.  As a technical achievement, Sputnik caught the world's attention and the American public of-guard.  Its size was more impressive than Vanguard's intended 3.5 pound payload.  In addition, the public feared that the SOviets's ability to launch satellites also translated into the capability to launch ballistic missiles, which could carry nuclear weapons from Europe to the U.S.  Then the Soviets struck again; on November 3, Sputnik II was launched, carrying a much heavier payload, including a dog named Laika.  

Immediately after the Sputnik I launch in October, the U.S. Defense Department responded to the political furor by approving funding for another U.S> satellite project.  As a simulatenous alternative to Vanguard, Wernher von Braun and his Army Redstone Arsenal team began work on the Explorer project.

On January 31,1958, the tide changed, when the United States successfully launched Explorer I.  This satellite carried a small scientific payload that eventually discovered the magnetic radiation belts around the Earth, named after principal investigator James Van Allen.  The Explorer program continued as a successful ongoing series of lightweight, scientifically useful spacecraft.

The Sputnik launch also led directly to the creation of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).  In July 1958, Congress passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act (commonly called the "Space Act"), which created NASA as of October 1, 1958 from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and other government agencies.

Updated October 10, 2007

Stever Garber, Nasa History Web Curator.

http:://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/

Introduction

Have you ever wandered how NASA was created? Or why are the Olympics so important to the whole world?  What people do not know is that there is more to the Olympics than a gold medal. Join us as we relive the journey of  "Sputnik and the Dawn of the Space Age,"and on to "Van Cliburn."

Music

  

               Van Cliburn won international fame as the winner of the First International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition during the height of the cold war and space race, following the successful Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1958.   Hailed as a hero and ambassador of American culture, 23-year-old Cliburn won at the competition that was given in Moscow to prove the superiority of the Soviet culture. America's confidence, shaken by the success of Sputnik allowed for an indirect American vindication by the triumph. His performances of   Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 earned him an eight minute standing ovation. The judges consulted Premier Nikita Khrushchev to ask if the award could go to an American.  The premier asked, "Is he the best? Then give him the prize!" Upon his return home to America, Cliburn was showered with a tickertape parade in New York City, the first ever given for a musician.  Cliburn was featured on the cover of Time magazine, which was entitled, "The Texan who captured Russia."

Borin in 1934 as Harvey Lavan Cliburn, Jr., in Shreveport, La., Cliburn moved to Kilgore, Texas with his parents at the age of 6.  Cliburn's mother, Rildia Bee O'Bryan taught him the piano at the age of 3.  His mother was taught  by Arthur Friedheim, pupil of world renounced composer Franz Liszt who was considered at that time "the best organist in the world."

Following 17 years of learning under his mother as his only teacher, he was admitted to the Julliard School of music. There he studied under Rosina Lhévinne, who trained him in the tradition of romantic Russian music.  Following the win in Moscow, Cliburn was signed to an RCA recording contract that became the first platinum selling classical album, leading in classical sells world-wide for more than ten years, eventually becoming a triple-platinum seller.

In 1978 Cliburn took a hiatus from public life following the death of his father and manager.  He reentered public life in 1987 to entertain Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, who was a guest of President Regan.  Nancy Regan invited Cliburn to sing and play "Moscow Nights", which broke the diplomatic ice, even causing the Russian president and his wife to break out in song. As history now shows, the two presidents developed a working relationship due to talks and negotiations.

During an interview given to Scott Simon on National Public Radio at his home outside of Fort Worth, Texas, Van Cliburn was introduced as "the big-eared kid from the South that shook up the world with the way he played music."  Cliburn granted the interview on the  50^th anniversary of his win in Moscow.  During the era of the space race and the cold war, Van Cliburn was able to create internation commonality and warmth with the universal language of  his music.

"Biography of Van Cliburn." The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. 24 Apr. 2009. <http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showIndividual&entitY_id=3707&source_type=A>

Timeline

 

The Cold War was one of the longest wars America had seen lasting more than four decades. The Cold War began on February 4, 1945 with the Yalta Conference. Shortly after the conference on April 12, 1945 Franklin Roosevelt died from a stroke, which passed the leadership of the nation on to Harry Truman. The United States moved quickly in the war, Truman gave permission for the first atomic bomb, August 6, 1945, to be used in war. A couple of days later he gave permission for the second atomic bomb to be used. This was the last time the United States used the atomic bomb. After years of fighting twelve countries got together to form NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) on April 4, 1949. The United States helps form NATO to secure its supremacy in the world affairs. During the Cold War, both the United States and the Soviet Union endeavored to demonstrate their power. The space race served as an opportunity for the two nations to showcase their scientific and technological capabilities. The first space flights planned were in the form of unmanned satellite launches. The Soviet Union threw down the gauntlet when on October 4, 1957, Sputnik I was launched into space as the first orbiting satellite. A month later, on November 3, the Soviet Union set another record when it

launched Sputnik II with the first living creature in space: a dog named Laika. On April 12, 1963, the United States took the upper hand, by having the first human being in space. Yuri Alekseyvich Gagarin became the first human in space when he completed one orbit in a 108-minute space flight aboard Vostok I.  During that same year President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. The United States made another great accomplishment with the July 1969 Apollo Moon landing, which we were the first to do. As four decades of fighting takes place, a great defeat begins to take place as communist rule falls in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Rumania and the Soviet empire ends in 1989. When Boris Yeltsin was elected president of Russia the Soviet Union began to fall. It met its final resting place in August of 1991.

 

 

Works Cited

Jones, Jacqueline., et al. Created Equal: A Social and Political History of the United

States. New York: Pearson Education, 2008.

 

US History Timeline: Cold War. University of Washington: Department of History. 14 April

2009 <http://74.6.239.67/search/cache?ei=UTF8&p=timeline+of+cold+ war&fr=slv8-

tyc7&u=faculty.washington.edu/qtaylor/a_us_history/cold_war

_timeline.htm&w=timeline+timelines+cold+war&d=NkIkNkxISkBn&icp=1&.intl=us>.

 

Olympic Competitions

 

In the arms race, the one with the best weapons would be viewed as the best country.  They also believed that if their athletes were the strongest, then their country would be viewed as the strongest.  As the Soviet gymnasts Natasha Kuchinskaya said during an interviw on a PBS special "because sport was considered the prestige of the government, if sport was storng, government was stron."  They entered the 1952 Helsinki Games as one of 67 nations.  When they left, they took 69 medals with them.  The US Team won only seven more (76).  Now that the world knew of the USSR Team, a new race would begin.  The arms race between the US an the Soviet Union started in 1949, to prove themselves social system superior through sports, the US would fight back strong to prove that they were the stronger nation.

By 1956, the USSR had become the world's leading medal winer-in both the summer and winter games.  The 1960 Olympics went on without many political issues.  In 1962 the world watched as the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred.  After the Cuban Missile Crisis "Moscow vowed to strain every nerve to catch up with the United States so as never to suffer another such humiliation"  The Soviets renwed their vow to "race" with the American's; not only in weapons and technology but in athletics too.

In 1972 a victory of the Soviet Men's Basketball Team over the US Team was highly unexpected.  Between 1936 and 1972 the US Team hadn't lost one of its matches.  During the 1972 game, competition was intense in the final game but the Soviet Team came through in the end to upset the Americans.  This kind of upset was exactly what Stalin envisioned when he sent his first Olympic Team to Helsinki to compete: to come out as the victor in the capitalist's own game.  But less than 10 years later, in 1980, the inexperienced American hockey team defeated the well-prepared Soviet team in the Winter Olympics. Stalin may not have been so happy about that.

Because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, over 60 nations boycotted the 1980 Olympics-which were to be held in Moscow.  The Soviets retaliated and did not attend the Summer Games of 1984-which were held in Los Angeles.

The Cold War shaped the history of the Olympic Games.  Perhaps, if the competition was not so intense, then the victory would not be so sweet.  The Olympic competitions during the COld War instilled a sense of rivalry and pride that still exists today.

"How the Cold War Affected the Olympic Movement."  Google.  25 April 2009

Chess Matches

Chess matches during the Cold War were a symbol of dominance. Everything had  become a competition between America and the Soviets. Both countries tried to be the  first in space and the first to walk on the moon. We battled in the Olympics and we  battled on the chess board.  The Soviets had dominated the game of chess since 1948 and their reign of terror had no  end in sight, until a young American chess prodigy burst onto the scene. His name was  Bobby Fischer and he was about to take the world by storm. By 1972 Bobby Fischer was at his pinnacle. His play was flawless and he was tearing  through the competition on the way to the world title game. His opponent would be the  Soviet grandmaster, Boris Spassky. Spassky was viewed as being unbeatable by many  chess experts. The showdown was set, West vs. East, a battle for control and worldwide  bragging rights.  On July 11th, 1972, the “Match of the Century” was underway. Fisher struggled through  the first two rounds but would eventually fight back to become the 11th World Chess  Champion. The Soviets had been defeated and the Americans stood victorious. Many  believe that this single event marked the beginning of the end for the Cold War. The  United States had proved that they could beat Russia at their own game and the two  countries would never be the same.