|
MORE
SPUTNIK SUCCESSES
Only
a month after its "October surprise," the Soviet Union
launched another satellite. Sputnik 2 was larger and carried a dog
called Laika. Sputnik 2 demonstrated a growing Soviet advantage
in launching heavy payloads and hinted that the Soviets might soon
put a human in space.
From
1958 through 1961, six more Earth-orbiting Sputniks were successfully
launched by the U.S.S.R., all much larger than the first. These
missions also improved reentry and recovery techniques for a human
flight.
Courtesy
of Art Dula
|
|
INSTRUCTIONS
FOR SPUTNIK RECOVERY
A
card accompanied Sputnik 5, which carried the dogs Belka and Strelka
into space in August 1960 on the Soviets' first successful capsule
recovery mission. In case the capsule landed outside the recovery
zone, the card and related instructions directed anyone finding
it to contact local officials immediately. The finder was also asked
not to open the capsule but to set it upright, and to leave it exactly
where it had landed.
Courtesy
of Emmet, Toni, and Tessa Stephenson
|
|
|
|
LUNA
3: FIRST FLIGHT AROUND THE MOON
On
October 4, 1959, exactly two years after the first Sputnik launch,
the Soviet Union sent the first spacecraft around the Moon. Luna
3 recorded images of the Moon's far side and broadcast them to Earth.
A month earlier, after five unsuccessful attempts, the Soviet Luna
2 spacecraft had hit the Moon.
Images Courtesy of RSC Energia
|
|
|
|
This
is one of the first images of the far side of the Moon. It is reproduced
from a book of Luna 3 images published in 1959 and presented by the
Chief Designer of the Soviet space program, Sergei Korolëv, to his
wife. Korolëv inscribed it "with good memories of the wonderful
accomplishments of Soviet science."
Courtesy
of The Perot Foundation
|
|
|
