Star Points for October, 2000; by Curtis Roelle
Peeking Behind Iron Curtain of Soviet Space Program 

It was 43 years ago this month that the Soviet Union launched the
first artificial space satellite known as Sputnik 1.  Although the
launch did not start the space race this milestone event was the
driving force behind the accelerated effort which resulted in the
first men landing on the moon 12 years later in 1969.

The race into space and the cold war arms race had much in common. 
For example there was propaganda and disinformation manufactured by
each side used for boasting their technological superiority over
the other.  Soviet propaganda featured inflated exaggerations of
achievements while the Americans regularly down played Soviet
accomplishments.

The Soviet Union had no shortage of impressive first in space. 
They were the first to orbit an artificial satellite around the
earth, the first to send a man into earth orbit, the first to send
a woman into space, the first to launch a multiple man crew, the
first to perform a walk in space, and the first to deploy a
permanently manned space station.  

In addition upon returning to the Earth Soviet spacecraft actually
landed whereas U.S. astronauts suffered the often nauseating
humiliation of splashing down in a salt sea.  The Russians simply
opened the spacecraft door and planted their feet on some proud
comrade farmer's field in mother Russia whereas American astronauts
had to wiggle out of their hatch and flop into a rubber dinghy in
the middle of an ocean halfway around the world.

Early in the space race Soviet Premier Khrushchev raised eyebrows
when he boasted his country was cranking out long range missiles
like sausages.  Ironically, soviet propaganda was used in America
for justifying an arms buildup in response to the perceived threat 
by the Soviets and lead to President John F. Kennedy's challenge of
putting an American on the moon before the end of the 1960's.

Outside of the iron curtain Soviet technology had its share of
critics and skeptics.  A book published by Science & Mechanics
Publishing Co. in 1966 entitled "Russia's Space Hoax" had a
subtitle declaring that the "Soviet space program has been faked!"

As evidence it presented photographs of a production Soviet luxury
car that was an apparent copy of a Cadillac including the gold "V"
on the grille as well as a photo of a wristwatch purchased by one
author in Moscow that both gained and lost time simultaneously.  A
graphic in a French technical magazine that heralded a computer
breakthrough by the Soviets was actually a "stolen illustration" of
the U.S. computer known as the "Univac".  

The book also claimed that the Soviets had fooled the world with a
faked manned space program.  As evidence photographs of space
walking cosmonauts were critiqued for shadow composition, shape of
face plates on helmets, shape of the floating umbilical tether, and
lack of any images showing the cosmonaut's full body, suggesting
that they may have been supported or propped up.  Indeed there was
one image purported to show a mysterious thin wire leading away
from a cosmonaut's back.

There were also criticisms based on the appearance of reflections
from the sun off the face plate leading one author to conclude that
the photographs were made in a studio.  Ironically, these same
types of claims were made later by skeptics hoping to prove that
the manned U.S. Moon landings were also faked.  Books published in
the intervening years have addressed these issues and the
photographic "evidence" of fakery have been discredited.

One thing that helped fuel suspicion of the Soviet space program
was the secrecy under which much of it was conducted. 
Announcements were frequently made only after completion of a
particular mission, not during.  Unlike the U.S. which routinely
televised on-going missions, the Soviets shrouded each mission in
secrecy until the mission was accomplished.

Such fervent secrecy failed to cover up some major disasters in
Soviet space history.  In 1967 the parachute of the Soyuz 1 became
entangled during re-entry causing the spacecraft to plunge four
miles before crashing and killing cosmonaut Vladmir Komarov.  Then
in 1971 after a three week stay in the Soviet space station Salyut
1 the crew was returning to earth in the Soyuz 9 spacecraft when it
lost cabin pressure killing Georgi Dobrovolsky, Fladislav Volkov,
and Viktor Patsayev.   

With the collapse of the Soviet Union more information about the
Soviet space program has leaked out.  In 1960 during development of
a booster rocket called the R-16 its designer Mitrofan Nedelin
visited the Tyuratam space port for a test launch.  The liquid
fueled rocket ran on nitric acid and hydrazine, a dangerous mixture
referred to by other rival leading Soviet rocket scientists as the
"devil's venom."

Nedelin, who wanted to assure a concerned Khrushchev by displaying
his own confidence, pulled a lawn chair up close to the rocket
where he sat while it was being serviced.  Quite a number of
intimidated underlings felt they had to join their boss and soon
the pad was peppered with sitting scientists and other brass.  Then
a signal sent to the rocket on a crossed wire caused the second
stage engine to ignite and the rocket exploded, destroying the
launch pad.  The resulting fireball and the resulting poisonous and
corrosive cloud resulted in over 100 persons being killed that day.

Any doubt that cosmonauts had been in space vanished in 1975 with
a joint U.S.-Soviet space mission.  This cooperation has continued
with several visits to the Soviet Mir space station by the space
shuttle.  Even now the international space station (ISS) is being
prepared for its first manned crew.  The space station is composed
of modules and parts manufactured by a number of cooperating
nations including Russia.