Conference 7.286::space

    I watched the PBS special "The Satellite Sky" last night.  It was
    a veritable treasure trove of information about how the early space
    program was perceived, and brought back a lot of memories (I was
    nine years old, being driven to school in my mother's DeSoto (!)
    and listening to the car radio describing Al Shepard's Mercury space-
    craft being "held" (*again*) at the pad.......)
    
    Some highlights (and low lights!):
    
    *The film titles fronted a clip of an Atlas test.  The missile launches
     normally, begins yawing gently, then wildly, explodes - and the
     camera is STILL running, following the hulk of the sustainer stage
     all the way to the ground.
    
    *An Air Force film with a motorcade of Atlas missiles.
    
    *Some "Red scare" propoganda...the hammer-and-sickle on the moon...the
     Sputnik 8 "comsat" beaming to your TV Soviet commercials for "Laika"-
     brand cigarettes (Honest, I'm not making this up!)
    
    *Space program comments during the Nixon-vs-Kennedy TV debates.
    
    *Willy Ley describing his "space station" proposal.
    
    *A Soviet film showing Yuri Gagarin's actual Vostok spacecraft.
    [Possible rathole: as a stamp collector, I've always been somewhat
    amused that the Soviet stamps portray their spaccraft as slender,
    needlenosed Flash Gordon-ish vehicles, instead of the bulky spheres
    they actually are.....:)....]
    
    *A *young* John Glenn showing some of the mail (boxes!) he'd received
     after his flight, and apologizing for not answering it right away....
    
    There's more, I just can't recall it right now (*brain fade*)
    
    Definitely an eye-opener .... see it!
    
    						--Eric--

    Re:.1
    
    	There is an interesting story about the appearance of the Vostok
    spacecraft. The Soviets wanted to display the Vostok but were still
    quite secretive (and paranoid). It was decided that the Vostok would be
    displayed with its protective shroud still in place (thus concealing
    most of the spacecraft). Quite apart from this, it was decided to move
    the Vostok display model slung underneath a helicopter. Since the
    Vostok and its shroud alone were somewhat aerodynamicly unstable a set
    of stubby fins and a ring were added to the base of the shroud. Well,
    one thing led to another and a picture of this was released by the
    Soviets with little or no explanation other than this was a Vostok
    spacecraft. From there on out every depiction of the Vostok made use of
    this "design" even by the Soviets. It is this "design" we see on the
    early space stamps from many countries all over the world. It wasn't
    until the mid 1960s that the Soviets finally displayed an unaltered
    Vostok (without the shroud) in the West (I think it was at the Paris
    Air Show in 1965 or there abouts).
    
    				Drew
    

    Yes, I enjoyed it a lot, particularly for the background info via media
    coverage.
    
    I just wish the for once they (docu makers in general) would use
    chronologically correct footage of rockets. There is obviously a lot of
    test footage in storage somewhere, but these people usually drag out
    the same set of launch failures. Seems a pity after they went to the
    effort to dredge up other old footage.
    
    Oh well, enough of my standard complaint about space doc's.
    
    gary

    There was lots of film footage in "The Satellite Sky" that I had never
    seen before.  I was especially interested in what appeared to be film
    taken when Titov landed.  (What do you call the Soviet equivalent of a
    "splashdown"?  A "thumpdown"?  :-)  I couldn't tell if it was film of
    the actual event or a recreation, but it showed Titov in a flightsuit
    reeling in his parachute.  The cosmonauts of the early vostoks didn't
    stay inside until the thing landed; they had to jump out while the
    thing was still high in the sky and land using their own parachute.

    Was it really 30 years ago?  Makes me feel old...

	This is for UK people. (write up from Sunday Observer)
	  - note three part documentary.

	On BBC2, Friday the 7th December 9.30 - 10.30.	(strange time !)

	HORIZON Special	'Red Star in Orbit'

	A great story, well told in three parts - the history of the Soviet
	 space programme from the very earliest days when Yuri Gagarin became
	 the first man in space.
	The Russians great achievements were largely due to one man -
	 Sergie Korolov - whose name was kept secret. Only after his death
	 was his identity revealed. The catastrophes were kept secret too,
	 as were the bitter politics.

    'Horizon' programs often turn up on PBS under different guises (e.g.
    Nova, Frontline). Sounds like its worth looking out for.
    
    gary

Re: .5, .6

The series was "Produced in association with WGBH Boston", so I suppose you
will see it in the US on PBS.  The series consists of 3 1-hour programs. 

The first program covers the period from the 1930s up to Valentina
Tereshkova's flight - which was more a political stunt than anything.

The second program will be about the abandoned plan to land men on the
moon.  According to one newspaper it will also look at how political
pressure to produce results resulted in safety being compromised.

No details yet as to what the third program deals with.

jb

    Moved by moderator -
    
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Note 690.0         3 part documentary on Russian space program        No replies
MARVIN::MCCABE                                       11 lines  21-DEC-1990 21:02
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    Hi there,
    	I've just been watching the 3rd and final part of the Horizon
    special on the russian space program. I was most impressed with the
    footage presented. A lot of material that I hadn't seen before.
    I noticed that the program was a co-production with WGBH. Has anyone
    in the US seen this 3 part documentary on the russian space program?
    Any comments on the accuracy or slant of the presentation?
    
    Terry
    

    In the current 'Air & Space', Oberg makes a passing reference to "a
    project on the Soviet space program for PBS' Nova" that will air in the
    US in Feb 91. The article in 'Air & Space' is about the Nedelin
    disaster, btw.
    
    gary

From: [email protected] (Adam R. Brody)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle,sci.space
Subject: The Russian Right Stuff - NOVA
Date: 12 Feb 91 21:31:17 GMT
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, California
 
      The Russian Right Stuff will appear on NOVA on PBS Feb 26-28.  The 
    one-hour programs will have segments on "The Invisible space Man" 
    profiling Sergei Korolyvov.  The second segment, "The Dark Side of 
    the Moon" will describe their failed attempt to get to the Moon.  
    "The Mission" will cover long duration habitability in Mir.
 
      Thought you would like to know.

        ##########################################################

        The following is from the February Space Views bulletin of
    the Boston NSS via the New Hampshire NSS:  Bill Lane will talk about 
    the Soviet space program on March 19 at 7 p.m. at the Nashua Public 
    Library, Chandler Conf. Room.  Contact Don Doughty (603-362-6020) for 
    more info.

    Its also on WENH Ch 11 next week, with all episodes on one night
    (Tuesday I think, but check the guide). Its pledge month, so they'll
    probably run grovel breaks between the episodes.
    
    gary

    I watched a one hour program on cable this Wednesday evening on
    The Learning Channel. The program is a regular series called
    Science Frontiers. The Wednesday program was titled, "Riding
    The Space Shuttle". It was a one hour long special with some
    footage I hadn't seen before. It was mostly video from the
    STS-51 flight. I think some of the footage was filmed in one
    of the shuttle simulators, but was intended to fool the tv
    viewer into thinking it was footage shot from the STS-51 flight
    deck. Did anyone else see this special this past Wednesday and
    had the same impression?
    Earlier in January, there was a special on the same "Science Frontiers", 
    which was an hour long special on the Hubble Space Telescope repair 
    mission. I didn't get to see the whole program and didn't get to tape 
    it either. This Learning Channel special on the Hubble mission did 
    include some shared footage from the special that the Discovery Channel 
    did back in the fall, but included some additional footage I didn't see 
    on the Discovery Ch program.
    
    Bob

RE: <<< Note 661.12 by NETCAD::BATTERSBY >>>

I hapenned to be visiting the Atlanta GA area Wednesday, and was flipping
through the Hotel's cable channels in the evening, and caught the last 40
minutes or so of this program. It was nice to see some unusual footage, such as
of the ET separating and floating away, and of the Shuttle from the SPAS on-
board camera as the SPAS was maneuvered on the RMS arm around the orbiter, and
of views out the window during re-entry (plus the ground-view of the re-entry;
boy, would I LOVE to see that in person). 

There was some footage of close-ups of a crew-member's helmetted head during
launch. I was surprised at this, as I didn't expect there to be cameras
recording such info. The crew member must have been a payload specialist or
mission specialist with no launch duties (during the filmed portion) because
his head didn't move much at all.
						-- Tom

    For those who may be interested, the Discovery Channel is
    re-airing the 2 hour special they showed late last fall on the
    Space Shuttle. It will be aired twice this coming Saturday
    evening, at 8:00est and 11:00est. So if you didn't get to see
    it, or tape it, now's your chance.
    
    Bob

    For those interested, tonight on the Learning Channel at 8:00pm est
    on a regular series called "Extreme Machines", a show on Rockets,
    which if it is the same show I caught the last 20 minutes of a couple 
    of weeks ago had some awsome footage of the Shuttle, and the SSME
    engines etc.
    
    Bob