Space Exploration

General history

Rocketry > ^31e0fe >>

-postwar, national security issues fuel rocket program
-in 1945, France able to send satellite into space, and it sends signal back (to everyone's amazement)
-national security concerns inspires British Isles, Germany, Russia, and the US to do the same over next 5 years
-French attempts to record earth surface from satellite ending up off inspire formation of theory of gravitational Invariance to explain it
-releases something akin to Vanguard to get measurements of atmosphere
-in 1949, France sends man into orbit in the Grande Hermine, inaugurating era of Space Exploration

-develops after France sends satellite into orbit
-in 1949, France sends man into orbit in Taranis IV, inaugurating era of space exploration

-also surveillance satellites rising in frequency

-with no crystal valve (Biodes and terodes > ^523202) yet, talk of space stations common to repair surveillance satellites and all that, resulting in more frantic pace of manned space flight

-also more deaths

-develops cheap pod akin to Soyuz, and expands it from there

-following successful docking in orbit in 1952, orbital laboratory crewed by 3 people sent up in 1954, and they do satellite repairs, retrieving film (not without deaths)

-series of space stations gets bigger (not without at least 1 catastrophic failure) and joined by others

-space station about to be decommissioned fucks up, and someone on board dies in atmosphere with it

-nevertheless, Y-shaped space station established, with rotation for 0.2 Gs of gravity and room for 24 people in 1964

-following development of crystal valve in 1960s less likely to break, no need for huge risky space crews

-with public aghast at several deaths France reduces manned spaceflight before microchips make it viable again with much fewer deaths in 70s

-but nevertheless does keep a manned presence in a gradually updated Y-shaped station, with talk of making an O-shaped station never becoming a big thing till much later

-US sends a man to the Solar system > Moon in 1980s successfully in grand achievement for American ingenuity

Rockets

Taranis programme

-over the 1940s the French push their wartime rocket program from French Wars > Sixth French War (1937-41) forwards

-program is named after Gaulish god of thunder

-as part of this effort the French government builds a celedrome [spaceport] in Macapa
-which is one of the few parts of the French colonial empire that France keeps

Taranis I

-in 1945, France successfully sends a satellite into space

-and it's able to send a message back

-becomes iconic moment in brewing space race
-massive achievement that puts it ahead of the world in the brand-new space race

Taranis II

-includes a stray dog on it

-dies horrifically but data from it proves to be very informative

-dog is iconic and well-remembered

-even if death remains a punchline and humiliation for France forever

Taranis III

-includes a stray dog who successfully returns home alive

Taranis IV

-after success launching a satellite into space it launches tests and pushes towards manned space programs
-in 1949, France successfully sends a man into space


-pod itself is called the Grande Hermine

-bullet-shaped capsule, riveted like a submarine

-1.8 tonnes

-heat shield is a thick ablative ceramic, designed from artillery/chemistry, atop a steel baseplate

-analog controls, very little electronics save just enough to transmit voice block back to earth

-navigation by sextant

-pilot has to act like analyzer, keeping system in line

Taranis V

-space pod with two men in 1950
-capsule depressurizes on third orbit and everyone dies

-final transmission is the pilots repeating C'est la vie until they go down - very disturbing

Taranis VI

-space pod with three men in 1951
-succeeds

Taranis VII

-in 1952 does docking in space successfully

-opens path for putting space station up there

Taranis VIII

-in 1954 places upwards Announe I into orbit

Taranis IX

-reshuffling to Announe I

Taranis X

Taranis XI

-failure, explodes in orbit and takes Announe I with it

Taranis XII

-placing Space Exploration > Announe II into orbit

Wodan programme

-German, to combat the French

Manned satellites

-becomes more important here because of crystal terodes are still far away

-so they need to service pods for communication

-by the time crystal terodes make it less necessary it

Announe programme

Announe I

-French space station which opens in 1954
-not much other than a platform from which to do repairs of pod for geopositioning
-fails in 1957, disastrous

-attempt to bolt on space telescope goes very badly

Announe II

-French space station which opens in 1958
-becomes quite successful despite early failures

-despite fears of zero gravity failing

-serves as both a test site as well as for servicing space stations
-due to thermex valves constantly breaking

-but slowly considered unsatisfactory due to zero gravity
-attempts to spin it cause nausea

-and does successfully attach space telescope

Announe III

-French space station which is shaped like a Y

-spins to provide 0.25 G

-opens in 1964
-sees further buildup in circle around it

Walhalla programme

Walhalla I

-German space station which opens in 1961

Prosperia programme

Prosperia I

-British space station which opens in 1959

Firsts in Space

First Person in Space

-first man in space is Stéphane Boguski
-born in 1917
-was a daring rocket enthusiast in the 1930s
-served in the French Wars > Sixth French War (1937-41) as a bomber pilot

-got shot down in 1938 over Westphalia, crawled his way to Cologne over 3 days

-transferred to rocketry division afterwards, flying dangerous rocket phores

-in 1940s was on experimental rockets
-known for calmness under pressure and even repairing one rocket flyer in air

-also repairing another when its engine broke apart, landing it successfully

-after brutal conditioning where he passed with flying colors assigned to first team in space

-after Grande Hermine he is French national hero
-makes many appearances and appears on Vitascopy

-refused when said he wants to go again

-afterwards does private rocket stunts till near-miss in 1964 forces him to retire

-dies in 1975