Page 8 - 200710 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - October 2007

8 8 Happy 50th Sputnik Happy 50th Sputnik The Start Of An Era.50 “imperialist” and “decadent” NATO forces had spacecraft in the letter sent to the International The Start Of An Era.50 ears From Sputnik Y Years From Sputnik already “planted” bombardiers very closely to Aviation Federation. Since the “omerta” rules the USSR borders. were so strict, the Aviation Sport Commission After considering four most desolate Launch locations it could find on USSR’s immense of the Central Aero-club of the USSR found the Launch “escape route” of using an ambiguous language, territory, the government commission made a naming “the Cosmodrome near Baikonur” by John Wolper choice, which horrified even war-burned (which in Kazakh means "the master with the officers at the Soviet Ministry of Defense. The light brown hair") as the launch site. And so it Human kind’s space endeavor debuted new test area for ranged missiles would be built remained, when the International Aviation in the Soviet Russia 50 years ago at the famous at the Tyuratam junction on the right bank of the Federation registered the record on July 18, Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, but Syr Darya River in Kazakhstan. True, no 1961. There’s also a cartographical argument don’t think that it was an easy lift-off for obstacles for the future missiles existed in this for this, besides the military one and the state Sputnik. barren steppe, but neither did any bare censorship: Baikonur was at that time the Few people now know that the creation essentials for the life of thousands of workers. closest town to Tyuratam and also the first of NASA is the result of Sputnik’s launch into At the construction teams’ arrival, in identifiable (and credible) location on the map, space on October 4, 1957. Although the Russian January 1955, the Tyuratam junction was only in range of the launch site. To give you an idea political administration was unconvinced of the “endowed” with a central railway station of how isolated the place was supposed to palpable results of a space program, one man’s (although in the middle of nowhere “central” remain, Russian scientist Arkady Ostashev, who obstinacy to achieve human kind’s dream of loses significance) and a few dozen inhabitants, was a member of the team involved in testing venturing into the outer space eventually led to struggling to live their lives in the scorching rockets that would carry Sputnik in space, the creation of the small, 58 cm in diameter and heats of the summer and the mind-boggling confessed that along with his colleagues he used weighing approximately 83.6 kg (about 184 lb) colds in the winter. The railway station would to catch scorpions, put them in glass jars and satellite we all know by the name of Sputnik soon become the point from where thousands of watch them fight to the death, just to see some (which, in a rough translation, means wagons loaded with people and materials action in that idle vastness… "something that is traveling with a traveler"). needed for excavations, drainage and carving Eventually, the Soviet press propagated That man’s name is Sergei Korolev, father of the would leave. The workers had to battle the name “the Baikonur Cosmodrome”, despite Soviet space program. inhumane working conditions for two years, the fact that the Western countries knew about Sputnik’s flight took place above the fighting the cold, the dazzling steppe heat, the Tyuratam (actually, a pre-World War 2 German Earth’s surface at a height of 500 miles, and its dust that would dwarf any Dust Bowl here in the map was so exact that it did mention the railway speed was astounding for that time: 18,000 US, the precarious and often capricious soils station’s ramification into the steppe) miles per hour, allowing it to circle our planet in and the ravaging effects of infectious diseases However, since old habits die hard, even only 96 minutes and to pass over the US seven characteristic for the dry area, only to achieve 20 years after Baikonur Cosmodrome’s times a day. Sputnik was only equipped with a the communist government goal of having a construction the Soviets were still reluctant in simple radio transmitter, which continuously secret test site for its R-7 ballistic missile. Many revealing the military nature of the facility. sent “beep…beep…beep” signals towards Earth of them died during the course of the agonizing Colossal propaganda masquerades were staged for 23 days, until October 1957, when the two years, unknown and unmentioned in any during Charles de Gaulle’s visit in order to battery died. However, Sputnik continued its official statistics, not only because we were conceal the technical difficulties or the military regular circling all the way until January 4, talking about a top-notch military facility with activities running in the background. The 1958, when the atmosphere re-entry caused it to sensitive technologies, but because the KGB masquerade went even further when US disintegrate. and the government had instituted a draconic officials from NASA arrived there in the mid- The era before Sputnik’s take off is as “code of silence” for everything that had to do 70s, to loosen up the tension of the Cold War interesting as the better known era that followed with Soviet internal affairs. and to establish the details of the first joint the tiny satellite’s launch. The Soviets had Tyuratam (later known as Baikonur) space mission, the Soyuz-Apollo docking. chosen Baikonur to build their cosmodrome involved lots of people but state censorship NASA’s officials were greeted by men dressed because of the properties of the place: although forbid each one of them to share their in casual clothes, but with shaved heads that it was "a terrible piece of barren steppe" (as experiences during the relocation to the clearly indicated their military appurtenance! Boris Chertok, the deputy director of the ICBM Kazakhstan steppe. Letters to soldiers and Veterans from the Soviet space era indicated project during the Soviet Russia, described it), it officers employed in the construction had to be that this type of behavior prolonged even until had remarkably low-gravity attributes that addressed to Moscow-400, or Leningrad-300 1988 at Tyuratam, when the Phobos mission would facilitate any space-shuttle’s take off. and in their communications with friends and debuted. Don’t be fooled by the “low-gravity” stuff; it relatives personnel was strictly prohibited to Anyway, it was at this agitated place that has to do with Earth’s rotation, which “flattens” give any details, which would hint about the Sputnik’s first and last space travel debuted, 50 it at the Poles: the centrifuge force which results location or the purpose of the site. In fact, even years ago on Thursday. The satellite’s launch from the rotation around the axis slightly high-ranking construction managers in surprised the Western civilization and even took compensates the gravitational force exerted by Tyuratam, have not been officially told what the Soviet officials by surprise, because they our planet, and this is why Earth is not perfectly they were building, and they were instructed not were simply not prepared for the huge media round. The more you get closer to the Equator, to ask any questions beyond their direct coverage that followed in the capitalist the more the gravitational attraction weakens responsibilities. In most cases the construction countries, and only later came to realize the and the centrifuge force starts to take over. personnel had access only to the facilities. potential propagandistic impact of the space- The Baikonur cosmodrome, which sits This is actually how the Tyuratam race. But the person who deserves the praises of in the Southern part of Kazakhstan in a region cosmodrome got its name: the Soviets didn’t future generations remains Sergei Korolev, of flat grasslands northeast of the Aral Sea at want the Americans or the Western countries to who, after seeing Sputnik’s achievement, said to 45.6° N, 63.4° E, was initially a place for know about the secret facility (although the US his colleagues: "Congratulations, the road to the missiles-testing and it wasn’t even known by had in the meantime sent its famous U-2 stars is now open…" that name until Russia’s space program debuted. reconnaissance aircrafts and were aware of the As it happens with technology in general, there isolated place) and “borrowed” for their state were military purposes that dictated the and international propaganda the name from a construction of Baikonur: the Soviet military town situated 300 km away from Tyuratam! was searching in the mid-50s for a place to test This has even an absurd component: long-range missiles that would carry nuclear when Yury Gagarin’s record of “first man to fly warheads. At that time, the post-Stalin Soviet in space” had to be registered, the authorities Russia was indeed in the possession of the were put in the impossible situation (from their nuclear bomb but had no means of transporting point of view) of naming the launch site (the it to “capitalist targets” like the US, while the Tyuratam facility of course) for the Vostok