Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Space Race - The Untold Story National Geographic & Discovery HD Channel (Official)

Have you reached the HO-HUM stage on watching YouTube videos about the Apollo missions?

As mentioned before, the general public wasn't seeing much on TV as the Apollo missions continued to unfold.  By the time they were getting to stay a few days and get more science the funding was being cut back.

Leading up to Apollo it was politics that were involved in the funding of what kind of mission would be flown and by what government organization. Who would, could achieve some sort of military advantage. There were launch failures and poor policy judgment calls.

It seems to me much like a classroom of kids all raising their hands to go buy ice cream. Me, see me, no me. And then the one picked dropped the cone. :-(

Now we see that similar events were taking part in Russia as well.

Having looked at some of the videos, Gene Nelson found some more.  Some I used on the previous post and I would like to pass on one more.
It spells out the story leading up to the Apollo missions. 

The video is from the National Geographic & Discovery channel and I tend not to watch the Discovery channel as I feel they present a number of topics just to garner TV ratings.

I like science fiction but tend to bite my lip when I see it presented a fact. I would go to it for the interesting titles and find really weird stuff that seem to be made to just entertain and hard to believe.  Aliens, past possible, maybe, civilizations, science fiction Von Daniken stories told as true facts.

That said, I found the hour and a half video interesting. Maybe some rockets portrayed not exact versions but you don't need to nit-pick if you want to be entertained while being enlightened.

If you choose to watch, take note of the politics on both sides of the space race.
It is still politics that governs what gets funded. (or not funded)
- LRK -
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8URGdG9RXnc
Space Race - The Untold Story National Geographic & Discovery HD Channel (Official) 1:31:15
National Geographic & Discovery HD Channel (Official)·37 videos
Published on Jun 8, 2014
The Cold War superpowers' race for space unfolds in the story of two men: charismatic ex-Nazi Wernher von Braun on the American team and the enigmatic Sergei Korolev, the Soviet project leader.

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If you want to read a history of the Soviet - American Space Race, I would recommend the two volume set by ASIF A. SIDDIQI.

You can read on-line and down load the pdf files or buy the books. 

I bought them from Amazon.com used books. "SPUTNIK AND THE SOVIET SPACE CHALLENGE & THE SOVIET SPACE RACE WITH APOLLO" by Asif A. Siddiqi. 

At NASA History  PDF http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4408pt1.pdf -10.5 MB & http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4408pt2.pdf - 9.5 MB.  

Like so many of the books I buy, I have not completed reading them. (about 500 page each) 
(So much to learn, so little time. :-)

CHALLENGE TO APOLLO:
THE SOVIET UNION AND THE
SPACE RACE, 1945- 1974

[starts at page 500]
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At a slower pace you can also read about what flew us to the Moon.
Cover with link to Table of Contents. http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4205/cover.html

You may remember that the canceled Constellation mission was going to use technology learned from both the Apollo Saturn era and
 the Space Shuttle era and today there is an on going debate about the use Russian RD 180 engines for the Atlas V.
Rocket engines blow up, so watch or read carefully.
- LRK -

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Once again for reference, the links to the NASA History Publications.
- LRK -
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http://history.nasa.gov/series95.html
NASA History Series Publications

NASA Links about Apollo

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Back to the books and let the tablet recharge. :-)

Thanks for looking up with me.
- LRK -
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  • WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -
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