SPACE HBDJ MERCURY GEMINI APOLLO SKYLAB SOYUZ ARIANE SALYUT SPACE SHUTTLE MIR ISS

HARDBOUND BOOK with DUSTJACKET by ANDREW CHAIKIN  (250 PAGES)

FOREWORD BY CAPTAIN JAMES LOVELL OF APOLLO 8 & APOLLO 13

SPUTNIK, VANGUARD, X-15, COSMONAUTS, YURI GAGARIN, VALENTINA TERESHKOVA

LUNA & SURVEYOR

SOYUZ

PROJECT MERCURY (ALAN SHEPARD, VIRGIL “GUS” GRISSOM, WALLY SHIRRA, DEKE SLAYTON, JOHN GLENN, SCOTT CARPENTER, GORDON COOPER, MERCURY-REDSTONE, FREEDOM 7, LIBERTY BELL 7, FRIENDSHIP 7, MERCURY-ATLAS, AURORA 7, SIGMA 7, FAITH 7)

PROJECT GEMINI (GEMINI V, GEMINI VI, PETE CONRAD, JOHN YOUNG, EDWARD WHITE, JAMES McDIVITT, “MOLLY BROWN”, FLIGHT DIRECTOR CHRIS KRAFT, FRANK BORMAN, JIM LOVELL, THOMAS STAFFORD, DAVID SCOTT, AGENA TARGET VEHICLE, GEMINI IX, EUGENE CERNAN, GEMINI X, RICHARD GORDON, GEMINI XII, BUZZ ALDRIN)

PROJECT APOLLO (SATURN V BOOSTER, LUNAR MODULE, KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, APOLLO 1, ROGER CHAFFEE, APOLLO 7 SHIRRA, APOLLO 8 BORMAN LOVELL WILLIAM ANDERS, APOLLO 9 SCOTT McDIVITT SCHWEICKART, APOLLO 10 YOUNG CERNAN STAFFORD, APOLLO 11 MICHAEL COLLINS NEIL ARMSTRONG BUZZ ALDRIN, APOLLO 12 PETE CONRAD, ALAN BEAN RICHARD GORDON, APOLLO 13 LOVELL SWIGERT HAISE MATTINGLY, APOLLO 14 SHEPARD EDGAR MITCHELL STUART ROOSA, APOLLO 15 SCOTT ALFRED WORDEN, APOLLO 16 YOUNG MATTINGLY CHARLES DUKE, APOLLO 17 CERNAN HARRISON SCHMITT RONALD EVANS, APOLLO-SOYUZ, SKYLAB)

SALYUT & MIR SPACE STATIONS

RUSSIAN N-1 BOOSTER

BAIKONUR COSMODROME IN KAZAKHSTAN

VENERA LANDER

MARS VIKING LANDER

VOYAGER

SOVIET UNION SPACE SHUTTLE BURAN

SPACE SHUTTLE (ENTERPRISE, COLUMBIA, ENDEAVOR, DISCOVERY, CHALLENGER)

EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY ARIANE BOOSTER

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION “FREEDOM” ISS

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Additional Information from Internet Encyclopedia

Vostok (Russian Восток, translated as "East") was a family of rockets derived from the Soviet R-7 Semyorka ICBM designed for the human spaceflight programme. This family of rockets launched the first artificial satellite (Sputnik 1) and the first manned spacecraft (Vostok) in human history. It was a subset of the R-7 family of rockets.

On March 18, 1980 a Vostok-2M rocket exploded on its launch pad at Plesetsk during a fueling operation, killing 48 people. An investigation into a similar – but avoided – accident revealed that the substitution of lead-based for tin-based solder in hydrogen peroxide filters allowed the breakdown of the H2O2, thus causing the resultant explosion.

Vostok 1 (Russian: Восто́к-1, East 1 or Orient 1) was the first spaceflight of the Vostok programme and the first manned spaceflight in history. The Vostok 3KA space capsule was launched on April 12, 1961 from Baikonur Cosmodrome with Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, making him the first human to cross into outer space.

The orbital spaceflight consisted of a single orbit around Earth which skimmed the upper atmosphere at 169 kilometers (91 nautical miles) at its lowest point. The flight took 108 minutes from launch to landing. Gagarin parachuted to the ground separately from his capsule after ejecting at 7 km (23,000 ft) altitude.

The Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States, the two Cold War superpowers, began just before the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, in 1957. Both countries wanted to develop spaceflight technology quickly, particularly by launching the first successful human spaceflight. The Soviet Union secretly pursued the Vostok programme in competition with the United States Project Mercury. Vostok launched several precursor unmanned missions between May 1960 and March 1961, to test and develop the Vostok rocket family and space capsule. These missions had varied degrees of success, but the final two—Korabl-Sputnik 4 and Korabl-Sputnik 5—were complete successes, allowing the first manned flight.

The Vostok 1 capsule was designed to carry a single cosmonaut. Yuri Gagarin, 27, was chosen as the prime pilot of Vostok 1, with Gherman Titov and Grigori Nelyubov as backups. These assignments were formally made on April 8, four days before the mission, but Gagarin had been a favourite among the cosmonaut candidates for at least several months.

The final decision of who would fly the mission relied heavily on the opinion of the head of cosmonaut training, Nikolai Kamanin. In an April 5 diary entry, Kamanin wrote that he was still undecided between Gagarin and Titov. "The only thing that keeps me from picking [Titov] is the need to have the stronger person for the one day flight." Kamanin was referring to the second mission, Vostok 2, compared to the relatively short single-orbit mission of Vostok 1. When Gagarin and Titov were informed of the decision during a meeting on April 9, Gagarin was very happy, and Titov was disappointed. On April 10, this meeting was reenacted in front of television cameras, so there would be official footage of the event. This included an acceptance speech by Gagarin. As an indication of the level of secrecy involved, one of the other cosmonaut candidates, Alexei Leonov, later recalled that he did not know who was chosen for the mission until after the spaceflight had begun.

On Baikonur Cosmodrome on the morning of April 11, 1961, the Vostok-K rocket, together with the attached Vostok 3KA space capsule, were transported several kilometers to the launch pad, in a horizontal position. Once they arrived at the launch pad, a quick examination of the booster was conducted by technicians to make sure everything was in order. When no visible problems were found, the booster was erected on LC-1. At 10:00 (Moscow Time), Gagarin and Titov were given a final review of the flight plan. They were informed that launch was scheduled to occur the following day, at 09:07 Moscow Time. This time was chosen so that when the capsule started to fly over Africa, which was when the retrorockets would need to fire for reentry, the solar illumination would be ideal for the orientation system's sensors.

At 18:00, once various physiological readings had been taken, the doctors instructed the cosmonauts not to discuss the upcoming missions. That evening Gagarin and Titov relaxed by listening to music, playing pool, and chatting about their childhoods. At 21:50, both men were offered sleeping pills, to ensure a good night's sleep, but they both declined. Physicians had attached sensors to the cosmonauts, to monitor their condition throughout the night, and they believed that both had slept well. Gagarin's biographers Doran and Bizony say that neither Gagarin nor Titov slept that night. Korolev didn't sleep that night, due to anxiety caused by the imminent spaceflight.

At 05:30 Moscow time, on the morning of April 12, 1961, both Gagarin and his backup Titov were woken.[22] They were given breakfast, assisted into their spacesuits, and then were transported to the launch pad.[23] Gagarin entered the Vostok 1 spacecraft, and at 07:10 local time (04:10 UTC), the radio communication system was turned on.[23] Once Gagarin was in the spacecraft, his picture appeared on television screens in the launch control room from an onboard camera. Launch would not occur for another two hours, and during the time Gagarin chatted with the mission's main CapCom, as well as Chief Designer Sergei Korolev, Nikolai Kamanin, and a few others. Following a series of tests and checks, about forty minutes after Gagarin entered the spacecraft, its hatch was closed. Gagarin, however, reported that the hatch was not sealed properly, and technicians spent nearly an hour removing all the screws and sealing the hatch again. According to a 2014 obituary, Vostok's chief designer, Oleg Ivanovsky, personally helped rebolt the hatch. There is some disagreement over whether the hatch was in fact not sealed correctly, as a more recent account stated the indication was false.

During this time Gagarin requested some music to be played over the radio. Korolev was suffering from chest pains and close to a nervous breakdown. This was the 24th Soviet space launch and the 16th involving a Luna/Vostok booster. So far, 12 launches had failed, for a success rate of exactly 50%. Two Vostoks had failed to reach orbit due to launch vehicle malfunctions and another two malfunctioned in orbit. Korolev was given a pill to calm him down. Gagarin, on the other hand, was described as calm; about half an hour before launch his pulse was recorded at 64 beats per minute.

At 07:25 UT, the spacecraft's automatic systems brought it into the required attitude (orientation) for the retrorocket firing, and shortly afterwards, the liquid-fueled engine fired for about 42 seconds over the west coast of Africa, near Angola, about 8,000 kilometers (4,300 nautical miles) uprange of the landing point. The orbit's perigee and apogee had been selected to cause reentry due to orbital decay within 10 days (the limit of the life support system function) in the event of retrorocket malfunction. However, the actual orbit differed from the planned and would not have allowed descent until 20 days.

Ten seconds after retrofire, commands were sent to separate the Vostok service module from the reentry module (code name sharik, "little ball"), but the equipment module unexpectedly remained attached to the reentry module by a bundle of wires. At around 07:35 UT, the two parts of the spacecraft began reentry and went through strong gyrations as Vostok 1 neared Egypt. At this point the wires broke, the two modules separated, and the descent module settled into the proper reentry attitude. Gagarin telegraphed "Everything is OK" despite continuing gyrations; he later reported that he did not want to "make noise" as he had (correctly) reasoned that the gyrations did not endanger the mission (and were apparently caused by the spherical shape of the reentry module). As Gagarin continued his descent, he remained conscious as he experienced about 8 g during reentry. (Gagarin's own report states "over 10 g".)

At 07:55 UT, when Vostok 1 was still 7 km from the ground, the hatch of the spacecraft was released, and two seconds later Gagarin was ejected. At 2.5 km (8,200 ft) altitude, the main parachute was deployed from the Vostok spacecraft. Two schoolgirls witnessed the Vostok landing and described the scene: "It was a huge ball, about two or three meters high. It fell, then it bounced and then it fell again. There was a huge hole where it hit the first time."[citation needed]

Gagarin's parachute opened almost right away, and about ten minutes later, at 08:05 UT, Gagarin landed. Both he and the spacecraft landed via parachute 26 km (16 mi) south west of Engels, in the Saratov region It was 280 km to the west of the planned landing site (near Baikonur).

A farmer and her daughter observed the strange scene of a figure in a bright orange suit with a large white helmet landing near them by parachute. Gagarin later recalled, "When they saw me in my space suit and the parachute dragging alongside as I walked, they started to back away in fear. I told them, don't be afraid, I am a Soviet citizen like you, who has descended from space and I must find a telephone to call Moscow!"

Gagarin's flight was announced on the Soviet radio by Yuri Levitan, the speaker who had announced all major events in the Great Patriotic War (WW2). As with all previous and most subsequent Soviet rocket launches, the flight preparation was kept secret and the news was aired only post-factum. The flight was celebrated as a great triumph of the Soviet science and technology demonstrating the superiority of the socialist system over capitalism. Moscow and other cities in the USSR held mass demonstrations, the scale of which was comparable to World War II Victory Parades. Gagarin was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, the nation's highest honour. He also became an international celebrity with numerous honours and awards.

April 12 was declared Cosmonautics Day in the USSR, and is celebrated today in Russia as one of the official "Commemorative Dates of Russia." In 2011, it was declared the International Day of Human Space Flight by the United Nations.

Gagarin's informal reply poyekhali! became a historical phrase used to refer to the arrival of the Space Age in human history. Later it was included in the refrain of a Soviet patriotic song written by Alexandra Pakhmutova and Nikolai Dobronravov (He said "let's go!" He waved his hand).

The Soviet press later reported that, minutes before boarding the spacecraft, Gagarin made a speech: "Dear friends, you who are close to me, and you whom I do not know, fellow Russians, and people of all countries and all continents: in a few minutes a powerful space vehicle will carry me into the distant realm of space. What can I tell you in these last minutes before the launch? My whole life appears to me as one beautiful moment. All that I previously lived through and did, was lived through and done for the sake of this moment." According to historian Asif Siddiqi, Gagarin actually "was essentially forced to utter a stream of banalities prepared by anonymous speechwriters" taped much earlier in Moscow.