Small Scale Military Headquarters

Very cool site, Stug.
I love anything space.
That site has some really good pics and program overviews.
If Korolev had not died and their main heavy launcher hadn't blew up on the pad, the Russians might have beat us to the moon.

Razor17019 wrote:Very cool site, Stug.
I love anything space.
That site has some really good pics and program overviews.
If Korolev had not died and their main heavy launcher hadn't blew up on the pad, the Russians might have beat us to the moon.

I seem to recall that there was some B-Grade film from the 1960s or early 1970s where the Russians are about to beat the US to the moon. So, the US scrambles to send an astronaut, who essentially goes on a one-way trip in a modified Gemini capsule - and arrives to find that the Russians did reach the moon first, but that they had died. He then awaits the arrival of the Apollo astronauts, or something like that...

I could be totally off my rocker, but I recall seeing something like that one afternoon on TV a while back.

tmanthegreat wrote:

Razor17019 wrote:Very cool site, Stug.
I love anything space.
That site has some really good pics and program overviews.
If Korolev had not died and their main heavy launcher hadn't blew up on the pad, the Russians might have beat us to the moon.

I seem to recall that there was some B-Grade film from the 1960s or early 1970s where the Russians are about to beat the US to the moon. So, the US scrambles to send an astronaut, who essentially goes on a one-way trip in a modified Gemini capsule - and arrives to find that the Russians did reach the moon first, but that they had died. He then awaits the arrival of the Apollo astronauts, or something like that...

I could be totally off my rocker, but I recall seeing something like that one afternoon on TV a while back.

No you are not crazy. There was a film named COUNTDOWN in 1968 with James Caan.

OK, great! I'm not so crazy after all

Speaking of other Apollo-era films, did anyone ever see "Marooned"? It was made in 1969, starred Gregory Peck, and concerned an Apollo spacecraft that got stranded in Earth orbit after the retro rockets broke down. NASA frantically scrambles to put together a rescue mission in time to save the crew, but its the Russians that help save the day. As I recall, there was pretty good attention to detail in the film. Some elements even eerily predict the Apollo 13 scenario...

tmanthegreat wrote:OK, great! I'm not so crazy after all

Speaking of other Apollo-era films, did anyone ever see "Marooned"? It was made in 1969, starred Gregory Peck, and concerned an Apollo spacecraft that got stranded in Earth orbit after the retro rockets broke down. NASA frantically scrambles to put together a rescue mission in time to save the crew, but its the Russians that help save the day. As I recall, there was pretty good attention to detail in the film. Some elements even eerily predict the Apollo 13 scenario...

Good film. The scenario in the film and solution would not have saved the Apollo 13 crew. They were too far away from Earth to be saved in that manner.
Plans for outfitting an existing Apollo CSM into a rescue space vehicle date back to November 1970 when North American Rockwell technicians conceived the possibility of a rescue mission, as depicted in the 1969 film Marooned.
After Skylab 3 was launched, it developed a problem with two of the Command/Service Modules Reaction Control System thruster quads. They were leaking fuel, reducing the available quads to just two, the minimum for continuation of the mission. NASA monitored the situation, and at one point actually rolled Skylab Rescue out to LC-39B. If there had been a need for a rescue mission, NASA announced on August 4, 1973, the mission would have been flown by Skylab 3 and Skylab 4 backup crewmen Vance Brand and Don Lind.

Tman- here is the link to read more about this:
There is a cool pic of the reconfigured Apollo Command Module with 5 seats.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylab_Rescue

For anyone with an interest in the Soviet space and rocket program of the 1950's and 60's I would suggest the documentary DVD "The Red Stuff", it offers some fascinating insights into the Russian space program of the early cold war era, for example Sergei Korolev, who was by far the Soviet's most gifted rocket designer at the time, was sent to the Gulag for 6 years during Stalin's great purges of the late 30's. Stalin it seems, had a great distrust of such "mysterious" high technology as rocketry, and felt intimidated by highly talented and gifted people such as Korolev, and the Vozhd (Stalin) usually just had such people shot. At any rate, Korolev was eventually released from the "white death" of Kolyma, and allowed to continue his work, much to the Russians benefit.

The Red Stuff: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0230688/

Stalin it seems along with Hitler hampered their country's technology with their stubborness and paranoia. They were their own worst enemies.