"Space Race" on Wikipedia

I haven't seen anyone at sci.space post a reference to this "Space
Race" article from Wikipedia, so here it is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_race


I will be interested to see any constructive feedback you may have.


~ CT

"Stuf4" wrote in message
ups.com...
I haven't seen anyone at sci.space post a reference to this "Space
Race" article from Wikipedia, so here it is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_race

I will be interested to see any constructive feedback you may have.

~ CT


It is a bit uneven over some of the important details (the authors of some
references made same error). Article seems to try to highlight milestones
in the "Space Race" -- and attempts to treat the subject from a serial
viewpoint - when in fact the true events (ICBM development, military usage
of space, science discoveries, manned exploration) were parallel events with
different end visions or goals.

1957-1958 IGY (July 1, 1957 to December 31, 1958)

The launch of Sputnik is widely regarded as the beginning of "The Space
Race", but planning for the IGY started in Silver Springs, Maryland on April
5, 1950 at James Van Allen's house. 1957-1958 was selected due to the
period of maximum solar activity

The nice feature of wikipedia is that it is open for additional
contributions (written and photos). Some timeline events comments or those
missing:

1. No mention of Apollo 8 first lunar orbital achievements
2. Gemini program only mentioned for orbital rendezvous - and failed to
recognize the first docking in space with Gemini VIII
3. Date of Korolev's death (although mentioned elsewhere in article) was a
critical turning point for the Soviet manned program
4. While Explorer I is mentioned for the significance of Van Allen belt
detection -- the Explorer III launch data was also used for verification.
5. No mention of ECHO or Telstar in early 1960s


gb

Not a bad article. Sputnik I, however, did not cause widespread fear
among the American public, and the article implies there was. There
is one glaring error: there were not "a number of embarrassing
failures" in the US program between Sputnik I and Explorer 1. There
was only one failure, the December 1957 Vanguard TV-3 launch.

Matt Bille
author, The First Space Race.
www.mattwriter.com

Matt wrote:
Not a bad article. Sputnik I, however, did not cause widespread fear
among the American public, and the article implies there was. There
is one glaring error: there were not "a number of embarrassing
failures" in the US program between Sputnik I and Explorer 1. There
was only one failure, the December 1957 Vanguard TV-3 launch.

Matt Bille
author, The First Space Race.
www.mattwriter.com


Here is a NASA document from 1963, that contains short quotes from
various media sources from 1957 through 1963, regarding the public,
government and media perception of Sputnik at that time.

================================================== =====

"The Impact of Sputnik I - Case-Study of American Public Opinion at the
Break of the Space Age October 4, 1957"

George, M. W.
NASA Center for AeroSpace Information (CASI)
NASA-TM-X-54994 , 19630715; Jul 15, 1963

Accession ID: 65N81877
Document ID: 19650069476
View PDF File

37 pages

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/ca...1965069476.pdf

================================================== =====

- Rusty

Am 19 Nov 2005 17:53:04 -0800 schrieb "Matt":

Not a bad article. Sputnik I, however, did not cause widespread fear
among the American public, and the article implies there was. There
is one glaring error: there were not "a number of embarrassing
failures" in the US program between Sputnik I and Explorer 1. There
was only one failure, the December 1957 Vanguard TV-3 launch.

Hi Matt,
what about Thor, Jupiter, Atlas, Titan IRBM/ICBM development test
launches in that time frame, even if they didn't attempt to reach
space and so don't belong directly to the space race? Weren't there
any between Sputnik and Explorer? There must have been some, and I
guess there were a couple of blow-ups, too...

cu, ZiLi aka HKZL (Heinrich Zinndorf-Linker)
--
"Abusus non tollit usum" - Latin: Abuse is no argument against proper use.

mailto: http://zili.de

Heinrich Zinndorf-Linker (zili@home) wrote:
Am 19 Nov 2005 17:53:04 -0800 schrieb "Matt":

Not a bad article. Sputnik I, however, did not cause widespread fear
among the American public, and the article implies there was. There
is one glaring error: there were not "a number of embarrassing
failures" in the US program between Sputnik I and Explorer 1. There
was only one failure, the December 1957 Vanguard TV-3 launch.

Hi Matt,
what about Thor, Jupiter, Atlas, Titan IRBM/ICBM development test
launches in that time frame, even if they didn't attempt to reach
space and so don't belong directly to the space race? Weren't there
any between Sputnik and Explorer? There must have been some, and I
guess there were a couple of blow-ups, too...

cu, ZiLi aka HKZL (Heinrich Zinndorf-Linker)
--
"Abusus non tollit usum" - Latin: Abuse is no argument against proper use.

mailto: http://zili.de


10/11/57 Thor-DM18 (R/D-1 #7) test failure from ETR LC-17B
10/31/57 Jupiter A (Redstone) test failure from ETR LC-6
11/27/57 Jupiter IRBM (AM-3A) test failure from ETR LC-26B
12/6/57 Vanguard launch failure
12/19/57 Jupiter IRBM (AM-4) test failure from ETR LC-26B
1/28/58 Thor-DM18 test failure


- Rusty

Am 20 Nov 2005 01:03:18 -0800 schrieb "Rusty":

Not a bad article. Sputnik I, however, did not cause widespread fear
among the American public, and the article implies there was. There
is one glaring error: there were not "a number of embarrassing
failures" in the US program between Sputnik I and Explorer 1. There
was only one failure, the December 1957 Vanguard TV-3 launch.

what about Thor, Jupiter, Atlas, Titan IRBM/ICBM development test
launches in that time frame, even if they didn't attempt to reach
space and so don't belong directly to the space race? Weren't there
any between Sputnik and Explorer? There must have been some, and I
guess there were a couple of blow-ups, too...

10/11/57 Thor-DM18 (R/D-1 #7) test failure from ETR LC-17B
10/31/57 Jupiter A (Redstone) test failure from ETR LC-6
11/27/57 Jupiter IRBM (AM-3A) test failure from ETR LC-26B
12/6/57 Vanguard launch failure
12/19/57 Jupiter IRBM (AM-4) test failure from ETR LC-26B
1/28/58 Thor-DM18 test failure

Just out of curiosity, I looked up the Atlas launch log - and just in
that mentioned time frame there were two Atlas-A launches that were
counted as successes. But just before that the first two Atlas launch
attempts ended in failure and the three launch attempts thereafter (5,
6, 7) ended in failure as well and surely added to the image of
lacking success of American launcher development. Another exemplary
string of misfortune was in the whole first half of 1959, when all
eight Atlas launch attempts (flight 18 to 25) ended in failure, too...

cu, ZiLi aka HKZL (Heinrich Zinndorf-Linker)
--
"Abusus non tollit usum" - Latin: Abuse is no argument against proper use.

mailto: http://zili.de

Matt wrote:

Not a bad article. Sputnik I, however, did not cause widespread fear
among the American public, and the article implies there was. There
is one glaring error: there were not "a number of embarrassing
failures" in the US program between Sputnik I and Explorer 1. There
was only one failure, the December 1957 Vanguard TV-3 launch.


I haven't used Wikipedia much at all, especially since I've been reading
about how the thing is edited and QC'ed; there've been a lot of
interesting reports about it in The Register, especially one to the
effect that Wikipedia's a helluva resource if you're researching Star
Trek trivia.

Still, it's _real_ space history I'm after, and between Encyclopaedia
Astronautica and the ALSJ, I get more than I can handle, and not a word
of it in Klingonese.

--

..

"Though I could not caution all, I yet may warn a few:
Don't lend your hand to raise no flag atop no ship of fools!"

--grateful dead.
__________________________________________________ _____________
Mike Flugennock, flugennock at sinkers dot org
"Mikey'zine": dubya dubya dubya dot sinkers dot org

"Matt" wrote There
is one glaring error: there were not "a number of embarrassing
failures" in the US program between Sputnik I and Explorer 1. There
was only one failure, the December 1957 Vanguard TV-3 launch.

There was an earlier Vanguard non-orbit attempt failure, that was on front
pages too -- the second stage falling horizontally trailing fire from one
end.

On Sun, 20 Nov 2005 16:51:35 GMT, "Jim Oberg"
wrote:


"Matt" wrote There
is one glaring error: there were not "a number of embarrassing
failures" in the US program between Sputnik I and Explorer 1. There
was only one failure, the December 1957 Vanguard TV-3 launch.

There was an earlier Vanguard non-orbit attempt failure, that was on front
pages too -- the second stage falling horizontally trailing fire from one
end.


According to "Vanguard: A History" there were two Vanguard flights
between Oct 3 57 (Sputnik 1) and Jan 31 58 (Explorer 1).

Vanguard TV-2, 23 Oct 57. Test objectives met. Inert Stage 2 and 3.
Vanguard TV-3, 6 Dec 57. Failed at T+1 sec.

You're probably thinking of TV-3BU, which pitched out of control and
broke up, but that was after Explorer 1 (5 Feb 58).


Brian