THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF
SPACE
EXPLORATION
AND DISASTERS
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Constable & Robinson Ltd
3 The Lanchesters
162 Fulham Palace Road
London W69ER
www.constablerobinson.com
First published in the UK by Robinson,
an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd 2005
Collection and editorial material
copyright © Richard Russell Lawrence 2005
All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in
Publication Data is available from the British Library
ISBN 1-84119-963-X
eISBN 978-1-78033-366-3
Printed and bound in the EU
Contents
List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
Chapter 1 – At Heaven’s Door – Testing the Limits
Introduction: From the Wright brothers to the X-1
Breaking the sound barrier
Eugene F. May tests the Skyrocket
Scott Crossfield’s engine explodes
Chapter 2 – Rockets Away – Escape from Earth
From the Second World War to the space race
Which way to the moon?
Project Mercury
The first US manned space flight
Gus Grissom’s mishap
Glenn’s orbital flight
Malfunctions aboard Scott Carpenter’s orbital flight
Chapter 3 – Man in Space – The Glory Days
Project Gemini
Project Gemini and the bush telegraph
Soviet test disasters
Voskhod 2: the first space walk
Gemini III: Grissom in trouble again
Gemini IV: the first US space walk
Gemini VIII has to abort
Gemini IX and the angry alligator
Gemini XI: asleep in a vacuum
Gemini XII: Aldrin space walks on his first flight
The Apollo 1 disaster
The Soyuz 1 disaster
The Apollo program is revised
NASA’s plans are threatened
Armstrong crashes in training
Apollo 8 flies around the moon
Apollo 9: an “all-up” test
Apollo 10: the full-scale rehearsal
Apollo 11: the eagle has landed
Apollo 12 is struck by lightning
Apollo 13’s problem – 11–17 April 1970
Scares on Apollo 14
Apollo 15: a scientific and technical peak
Apollo 16’s cliff-hanger
Apollo 17: last man on the moon
Skylab in deep trouble
Soviets’ 20G return to Earth
Apollo-Soyuz shaking hands
Chapter 4 – Retreat to Earth – Cancellations Galore
Skylab plunges to Earth
Salyut 7 is revived
Report on the Challenger accident
Mir: introduction
Dangerous, emergency EVA aboard Mir
Hubble’s troubles
The depressed astronaut
Mir’s Kurs system fails
The fire aboard Mir
The near miss
Linenger’s EVA “just out there dangling”
An unmanned Progress supply vessel crashes into Mir
Mir loses all its power
Cosmonaut experiences a leak in his spacesuit
John Glenn’s shuttle flight
The end of Mir
First hearing on the Shuttle Columbia accident
Chapter 5 – New Horizons – The Ongoing Quest
Life on Mars
Martian space race
Smart 1: the Star Trek propulsion system
Storm of stardust threatens satellites
Goodbye Galileo
Heinlein Prize
Alt.Space
SpaceShipOne
Hubble: the Next Generation Space Telescope
China joins the space race
2014: the Rosetta space odyssey
The oldest stars ever seen
Appendix – Space, Fact and Fiction
Bibliography & Sources
Illustrations
Soviet Semyorka boosters
Which way to the moon?: lunar landing techniques
Mercury capsule and escape tower
Angles for orbit, retro-firing and re-entry
Three orbit paths, tracking and communications stations of Project Mercury
Sections of
the Gemini capsule
Comparative sizes of NASA spacecraft
Comparative sizes of NASA launchers for manned space flight
Apollo 13’s journey 11–17 April 1970
Repairs to Skylab
The Mir space station
Mir: an unmanned Progress supply vessel crashes into Mir (25 June 1997)
The European Space Agency’s Smart 1
Smart 1’s elliptical orbits
Cross-section of Smart 1’s ion engine
Timeline of the Galileo probe (1610–2003)
Geocentric theory of the universe
High-altitude man-carrying rocket as conceived by Arthur C. Clarkein 1951
Abbreviations
Chapter 1
A-4 Aggregate 4, the prototype German rocket
LOX Liquid Oxygen
NACA National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics
NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration
V-2 Vergeltungswaffe 2 (Vengeance weapon 2)
Chapter 2
ASCS Automatic Stabilization and Control System
EOR Earth Orbit Rendezvous
G Gravity, normal gravity on earth is IG
ICBM Intercontinental Ballistic Missile
JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory
LOR Lunar Orbit Rendezvous
LOS Loss Of Signal
LOX Liquid Oxygen
MA Mercury-Atlas
MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MPT Mercury Procedures Trainer
M-R Mercury Redstone
Q Aerodynamic stress
SARAH Search and Rescue and Homing
SECO Sustainer Engine Cutoff
V-1 Vergeltungswaffe 1 (Vengeance weapon 1)
VfR Verein fuer Raumschiffahrt (Space Travel Association)
USSR Union of Socialist Soviet Republics
Chapter 3
ALSEP Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package
AM Airlock Module
AMU Astronaut Manoeuvring Unit
ATDA Augmented Target Docking Adapter
Capcom Capsule communicator
CONTROL Lunar Module flight control officer
CSM Command Service Module
DOI Descent orbit insertion
DSKY Display & Keyboard
EECOM Electrical & Environmental command officer
EGIL Flight Controller for electrical and environmental systems at the launch
EST Eastern Standard Time
EVA Extra Vehicular Activity or spacewalking
FDI powered descent initiation
FIDO Flight dynamics officer
GET Ground Elapsed Time
GNC Guidance, Navigation and Control
GUIDO Guidance officer
INCO Instrument & Communications Officer
J-2 engine of the Saturn booster S-IVB third stage
LEM Lunar Excursion Module
LLRV Lunar Landing Research Vehicle
LM Lunar Module
LOI Lunar orbit insertion
LRL Lunar Receiving Laboratory
MDA Multiple Docking Adapter
MET Modularised Equipment Transporter
PC+2 Two hours after Perycynthion (the closest point to the far side of the moon)
PLS S portable life support system
PTC Passive Thermal Control
RETRO Retrofire officer
S1C a variant of the Saturn booster (first stage)
SII Saturn booster (second stage)
S-IVB a variant of the Saturn booster (third stage)
S-WB the Saturn stage which contained the LEM
SCE Signal Condition Equipment
SM JETT Service Module Jettison (switch)
SPS Service Propulsion System (the CSM’s engine)
SWS Saturn Workshop (Skylab)
TEI TransEarth Injection
TELMU Telemetry, electrical, EVA, mobility unit officer
Chapter 4
BPS Automatic docking equipment on board MIR’s unmanned supply vessels
CCD Charged Coupled Detectors
COSTAR Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement
DSD a Depressurization Sensor
FA First Aid
HST Hubble Space Telescope
ISS International Space Station
IVA Intra Vehicular Activity (a spacewalk inside a depressurized space craft)
KURS A radar/guidance system used when docking spaceships to space stations
LiOH solid cylinders of Lithium hydroxide which filter CO2 out of the air
MOD Missions Operations Directive
NCS NICMOS Cooling System
OMS Orbital Maneuvering System
OPM Optical Properties Monitor
PS Payload Specialist
SAMS calibration device aboard MIR, used to study vibrations and structural stress
SEP calibration of power levels remaining in MIR’s batteries
SFOG Solid Fuel Oxygen Generator
SUD MIR’s motion-control system
TDRS Tracking and Data Relay Satellite
TORU A remote control system for docking unmanned spaceships
TsUP Soviet then Russian Mission Control
WFPC Wide Field and Planetary Camera
Chapter 5
ESA European Space Agency
MER Mars Exploration Rover
SMART Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology
Introduction
The quest to conquer space is packed with stories of triumph and disaster. The Mammoth Book of Space Exploration and Disasters presents over 50 of the most remarkable first-hand accounts of sub-orbital, orbital and deep space adventure, from the development of the rocket to the present day.
The accounts tell exactly what it was like to be “a man in a can” – in the astronauts’ and the cosmonauts’ own words. Share Alan Shepard’s exhilaration at being the first astronaut in space. Ride with Scott Carpenter as he describes how he had to correct instrument malfunctions which would have prevented his re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.
The collection is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1, entitled “At Heaven’s Door – Testing the Limits”, covers the development of jet and rocket propulsion from the end of the Second World War to the penetration of the upper atmosphere. These early accounts include Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier with a broken arm, and the test pilots’ own explanations of the dangerous new technology of rocket-propelled craft.
Chapter 2 is called “Rockets Away – Escape from Earth”. It relives the early days of space flight, including the US Mercury program, with the astronauts revealing just how much they had to do. Among their accounts, John Glenn’s first American orbital flight stands out for its memorable description of “Zero G and I feel fine”.
Chapter 3 (“Man in Space – The Glory Days”) spans the period from 1963 until 1974, including the US Gemini and Apollo and the Soviet Soyuz programs. The vivid descriptions here include Alexei Leonov’s fight for his life as the first man to space walk when he found himself unable to get back into the spacecraft without taking the risk of deflating his space suit. Later he and his fellow cosmonaut crash-landed and had to spend the night sheltering from wild wolves.
The triumph of Apollo 11 is followed by the mishap of Apollo 12 and the famous “problem” of Apollo 13. You can only admire the resourcefulness of the ground team who brought them home safely. The chapter concludes with the memorable moment of “Apollo-Soyuz shaking hands” during the final Apollo mission.
Chapter 4 is entitled “Retreat to Earth – Cancellations Galore”. Its accounts record the cancellations and setbacks during the period after 1974, including the Shuttle disasters (1986 and 2003) plus the endless crises aboard the space station Mir in 1997. The US-Russian crew suffered from depression, a near miss, fire, loss of power and a collision. In addition, they had to make a succession of perilous space walks; not all of them went back for more.
Chapter 5, entitled “New Horizons – The Ongoing Q
uest”, continues the story up to the present day. It brings home the trials and tribulations of scientists involved in the search for life and the origins of the universe. In 2003 several new competitors joined the space race and “the Star Trek propulsion drive” began driving the European Space Agency’s Smart 1 probe to the moon. Despite the human cost over the decades, it is clear the urge to explore space remains undiminished.
As Wernher von Braun, rocket scientist, put it, “I have learned to use the word ‘impossible’ with the greatest caution . . . Don’t tell me that man doesn’t belong out there. Man belongs wherever he wants to go.”
Chapter 1
At Heaven’s Door – Testing the Limits
Introduction: from the Wright brothers to the X-1
The first successful powered flight took place in the United States. On 17 December 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright made the first sustained, controlled flight in a powered aircraft, but by 1915 the US government realised that the United States had fallen behind Europe in terms of military aircraft development and set up the National Advisory Council on Aeronautics (NACA). From 1917 NACA produced technical reports on aircraft and engine development and by 1939 it was investigating rotary wing aircraft. In 1941 the Chairman of NACA appointed a Special Committee on Jet Propulsion. Germany had flown turbojets, and her researchers were working intensively on the development of an operational jet-propelled interceptor. In Britain the propulsion scientist Frank Whittle had designed and built a gas-turbine engine and had flown a turbojet-powered aircraft.
By the end of the Second World War the United States had a considerable advantage in terms of long-range strategic bombers. The superiority of the B-29 Superfortress was not challenged in combat until the Korean War (1950–3) but by 1945 Germany had developed jet fighters and rocket-powered interceptors that could fly at 590 miles per hour and climb to 40,000 feet in two and a half minutes. The German jets and rocket planes came into the Second World War too late to have any effect on its outcome, although the new aircraft caused consternation among American aeronautical scientists and military planners. As the rivalry between the former Allies increased, the United States naturally concentrated on developing jet and rocket engines.
Neville Duke was a British test pilot who in 1953 set the record for highest speed in level flight of 727.6 m.p.h. In 1954 he described rocket propulsion: