50 YA- Yuri Gagarin: First in Space

Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

Fifty Years Ago, the people of the world were stunned to hear the announcement that the Soviets had launched the first man into space. Senior Lieutenant Gagarin of the Soviet Air Force rode the Vostok 1 into orbit around the Earth. The flight last 108 minutes. Just as he was completing the first orbit, he re-entered the atmosphere to land on Soviet territory. The first capsule he rode did not allow for the pilot to remain inside as it landed; for safety's sake he jumped from the capsule as it descended and floated down on his own parachute.

Instant Hero of the Soviet Union, and the World.

The news spread quickly around the world. The Soviets used this momentous occasion to belittle the United States space program and aggrandize their own. To be honest, they were ahead of the United States in one way: They had the rocket capable of lifting the heaviest payload into space. In the coming days, I'll examine why the US lost the race to be the first to put a human pilot into space.

Vostok 1 Control Panel.

Gagarin was more of a passenger than a pilot for this flight. The Soviet military had only sent up dogs before this flight, and were not entirely sure that a human would remain coherent during weightlessness. Mission Control on the ground kept control of most of the flight, with Gagarin providing commentary and observations. He was 27 at the time. Sadly, because of his hero status, he was not permitted to fly in space again. Tragically, he died in an aircraft accident in 1968.

Soyuz 26 Docks with ISS

Soyuz 26 on approach to ISS.

At 5:09 p.m. Mountain, on Wednesday Apr 6th, the TMA21 (Soyuz 26 "Gagarin") docked successfully to the Russian Poisk module on the International Space Station. Three hours later, after the craft had been shut down, pressures equalized and all systems readied, the hatch opened and Expedition 27 received its three new members.

They are expected to remain on board the ISS until September. Halfway through their time in space, in May, this group of three will become the new Expedition 28 crew when the first half of their team leaves the station for a landing on Earth.

Soyuz launches from Baikonaur

NASA TV covers launch of Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft.

At about 4:18 Mountain time, the second half of the Expedition 27 crew blasted off from the Russian space center in Kazakhstan. While preparing for the launch, astronaut Ron Garan used his Twitter account to describe the step by step process. His last "tweet": "LIFTOFF!" He expects to keep contact with his twitter fans throughout the stay aboard ISS.

The spacecraft is planned to dock with ISS after 5 p.m. MDT on Wednesday. Like most ISS crewmembers, the crew expects to stay on ISS for approximately six months. Each Expedition of 6 is divided into two sections, which alternate between expeditions so that one half goes home as a new half of the crew comes up to the station. It can get confusing sometimes about which expedition is currently in operation! The first half of the Expedition 27 crew arrived on ISS in December.

The current plans for flights to ISS have been altered. Due to the need to launch a Progress resupply vessel before the next shuttle visit, the flight of STS 134 has been postponed until April 29th. Currently, the ISS crew performs maintenance on station systems, microgravity and space experiments, and preparations for the arrival of the shuttle.

ISS Update - Soyuz to launch today.

Ron Garan, Alexander Samokutyaev, and Andrey Borisenko.

Reinforcements for Expedition 27 are coming. The Soyuz 26 capsule will be launched today from Baikonur to deliver the three new members of Expedition 27. The launch is expected to be around 4:18 p.m. MDT.

The current three members of Expedition 27 are Paulo Nespoli, Cady Coleman, and Commander Dmitry Kondratyev. They have been busy performing maintenance of station equipment and preparing the Quest airlock for upcoming spacewalks.

There was an expected maneuver of the ISS during the sleep portion of the day. Using thrusters from the ATV2 (European robotic cargo capsule), Zvesda (ISS module), and the Progress 41P (Russian supply capsule) the station was moved slightly to avoid a piece of space debris. The danger was a piece of wreckage from the collision of two satellites back in 2009.

ESA's ATV2 (named Johannes Kepler) docked to the ISS. Handy for maneuvers.

Besides the new members of Expedition 27, the ISS will also this month receive a visit from one of the last shuttle missions. STS134 is scheduled to launch on April 19th, bringing with it the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and needed supplies.

50 YA - X-15 Flight w/Joe Walker

X-15 rocket on wing pylon of the B-52 bomber.

Fifty years ago, on March 30, NASA was still learning everything they could about how to control a craft at high altitude, and effectively, the beginnings of outer space. NASA pilot Joe Walker, a test pilot flew the X-15 to an altitude of 169,000 feet while speeding along at Mach 3.95! It was the highest any man had flown at the time, and included two minutes of weightlessness at the apogee of the climb before heading back down to the ground.

Test Pilot Joe Walker.

When most people interested in X-planes and space history think of the X-15, we usually think of Scott Crossfield and Neil Armstrong, the two more popular pilots among the dozen that flew the rocket. Joe was in fact the first to fly the X-15, although Scott Crossfield became the first regular pilot for the craft. Joe was named second to be a regular X-15 pilot.

Back in the day... Joe Walker with the Bell X-1E, an early rocket test plane.

I don't feel I've given the X-15 pilots their due in this blog, so from time to time I'll try to cover some of their activities. The X-15 program was vital to our preparations for building manned spacecraft and the early flights into space. Kids and adults of all ages who are interested in airplanes know about the X-15, and many model airplane builders have a model X-15 in their collection. Joe would go on to some pretty impressive test flights, which we'll cover as we reach them. Eventually, he would be involved in one of the most controversial test plane incidents of all time. More on that in five years.

HTV2 Farewell

JAXA illustration of HTV2 burn up in atmosphere.

On Monday the crew of ISS detached the H-2 Transfer Vehicle (Japan) from its docking berth. Using the Robotic arm, the crew placed the robotic craft, nicknamed Kounotori 2, as far as it could reach from the station. After releasing the pod, the arm was retracted and mission controllers in Japan maneuvered the HTV2 away from the station.

Having fulfilled its job of bringing up needed supplies and more experiments for the station's Japanese Science module, the empty space in the craft has been filled with non-recyclable waste and other garbage. Now, mission control has sent the craft lower in orbit so that it will eventually burn up in the upper atmosphere. This event is scheduled to take place later this week.

According to Spaceflight.com, the crew of ISS folded several paper cranes and placed them in the pod as a show of respect for all those who were lost in the recent Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

50 YA - Mercury-Redstone and Explorer X

Blast off from Cape Canaveral.

Fifty years ago on March 24th, NASA performed a successful test of the Mercury Capsule launched on top of the Redstone rocket. The capsule was a boiler-plate model; that is, a mock-up of the capsule with scientific measuring equipment on board. Problems that had been encountered during the launch of the chimpanzee Ham in January led Dr. Von Braun to design another test mission before he dared to place an astronaut on board. The rocket took off from Launch Complex 5 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Remember that the Cape was not called Cape Kennedy yet.

Camera view from the capsule.

As a suborbital launch, the top altitude recorded was just over 113 miles up and it travelled about 300 miles downrange. The test launch confirmed that the changes made to the rocket after the previous flights were successful, and that NASA was nearly ready to launch an astronaut. The capsule did not separate from the rocket, and the rocket ended up in the Atlantic ocean, sinking to the bottom and detonating a Sofar bomb, used to send locating signals through the water to fix a location.

Mercury insignia.

Meanwhile, of course, the astronauts trained and prepared for their future flights. NASA continued to do tests on equipment, still holding off on confirming a launch date for the first manned flight. Outside of the Mercury program, of course, other space programs were under way.

Thor-Delta rocket combo on the pad.

On March 25th, 1961, Explorer X was launched from the Cape on board a Thor-Delta 3 stage rocket. The satellite was placed in a strange, elliptical orbit that reached out as far as 148,000 miles (more than halfway to the Moon!) and as close as 100 miles (VERY low orbit). On board was a special magnetometer and other instruments to study the boundary of Earth's magnetic field, and the particles and magnetic fields found there.

And of course, don't forget that the Soviets were very busy as well. On March 25th, they launched "Spacecraft 5" which contained a capsule inhabited by a little dog named "Lucky Star."