The Great War. The War To End All Wars. World War I. Whatever name it goes by, the conflict which waged in Europe between 1914 and 1918 will go down forever as one of the most pivotal events in human history, rivaled only in magnitude by its successor, World War II. On November 11th, 1918 …
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Tag:Soviet Union
50 Years Ago: The Flight Of Soyuz 3 – The Soviet Return To Space
The paralells between the American and Soviet space programs in 1967 to 1968 are quite strange. On January 27th 1967 America had the Apollo 1 Fire which resulted in the delay of the first manned flight of Apollo until October 1968 and the Apollo 7 Mission. The Soviet Union had a similarly bad situation with …
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The Chernobyl Disaster – Calls To The Pripyat Fire Dispatch
Today marks 32 years since the explosion at Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station in the Ukraine. While there isn’t too much to say today that I haven’t said in many previous articles on the disaster, I do have a few things to share. EDIT 6/13/2019: Wow, this entry is getting rather popular. …
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50 Years Ago: The Death Of Yuri Gagarin
On March 27th, 1968, Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, the first human in space, died in a plane crash during what would be otherwise a very routine training flight. This in an of itself would be, and is, a tragedy in the history of humanities achievements in space, but the events surrounding this crash, and Gagarin’s life …
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60 Years Ago, The Launch Of Sputnik 2 And Laika, The “Space Dog”
Today, November 3rd 2017 marks 60 years since the launch of Sputnik 2, the second satellite to orbit the Earth. Sputnik 2 was quite different from Sputnik 1, though, and not just in that it was much heavier – while Sputnik 1 just flew around and beeped, day in, day out, for about 3 week, …
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60 Years Ago, The World Entered The Space Age – Sputnik 1
60 years ago today, on October 4th, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the worlds first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, using a slightly converted intercontinental Ballistic Missile. This action shocked the United States – an enemy nation, the “backwards and primitive” Soviet Union, they had launched something into orbit before us? This, of course, couldn’t stand. …
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Chernobyl: 31 Years Later
It’s been 31 years since the Chernobyl Disaster, an event, alongside the 2011 Fukushimi Daiichi disaster, that ranks as the worst nuclear disaster in history. Last year, for the 30th anniversary, I covered the disaster in some detail. In the year since then, the Chernobyl remains have since, finally, been covered with a permanent shelter …
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Soyuz 1 – An Addendum
The Soyuz 1 mission, which I discussed in great detail yesterday, flew, amazingly, for just about 24 hours – it was a day after launch that Komarov finally made his landing attempt, which of course as we know ended in disaster, on April 24th. Something I forgot to mention is, had everything gone perfectly with …
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Television in the Soviet Union in 1986
Last week I was watching some videos receiving far-away TV transmission when this video was recommended by YouTube – it’s a 1986 American public access show which covers Soviet state TV recorded over 1985 and 1986 – this includes comedy programs, news (including an early Chernobyl report), game shows,special reports on their space program, and …
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25 Years Ago – The End of the Soviet Union
It’s by a strange coincidence that I would write a small article late yesterday about the city of Pripyat, Ukraine – the city where the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was located. It’s explosion is one of many events that is called “the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union” and while writing that article …
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Pripyat
Since hearing about the movement and successful installation of the Shelter Object at the remains of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, I’ve been in a weak version what I call a “Chernobyl” mood, where I’ve been hunting for information, photos, and videos of the subject off and on this past month. Nothing too out of …
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Those Damn Rocket Engines
No, I still can’t get past the insanity a few weeks ago on YouTube when I brought up the fact that the SpaceX booster has a large number of engines, and that increases the chance for something to go catastrophically wrong. To recap, not only did people get mad at me over even daring to …
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45 Years Ago, The Sad End Of The Worlds First Space Station: Salyut 1
On October 11th, 1971, the worlds first Space Station, Salyut 1, burned up on reentry over the Pacific ocean after just 175 days in orbit, and 2 crewed missions to the station. It was the first in a long series of Salyut Stations, a design heritage that would span all the way to the Mir …
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