Yuri Gagarin’s cause of death made public

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin died in mysterious circumstances in March 1968, but the cause of the first man in space’s death has finally been revealed.

For more than 20 years, according to Russia Today, Gagarin’s colleague and the first man to conduct a spacewalk Aleksey Leonov, has been attempting to gain permission to disclose details about what happened. He has now finally be allowed.

The official report at the time concluded that Gagarin and his instructor, Vladimir Seryogin, attempted to avoid an object in the air — geese or a hot air balloon — by perming a manoeuvre that led to a tailspin and collision with the ground.

However, Leonov says things weren’t quite that simple. Another jet was flying dangerously close to Gagarin’s craft, in extremely bad weather. The jet’s passage pushed Gagarin’s plane into a tailspin forcing it to crash.

It’s unknown who was piloting the other jet — that information has been kept confidential as the individual is still alive, albeit in poor health. “I was asked not to disclose the pilot’s name. He is a good test pilot. It will fix nothing,” Leonov said.

The full story can be found over at Russia Today.

Credit: Duncan Geere

via spaceplasma

How do rockets move in space?

If space is basically a vacuum and void of atmosphere, how do rockets alter the direction and speed of space craft? In other words, how do they “push off” against nothing?

This is a very good question. Isaac Newton worked out the solution and published it in 1687 in his Principia Mathematica. It is phrased as Newton’s 3rd law. I’ll include all 3 below just in case!

1st: A body will remain at rest or at motion with a uniform speed unless it is acted on my an external force. 2nd: The acceleration of a body with a force acting on it is that force divided by the mass of the body (F=ma) 3rd: Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

So the third law basically says that if you shoot out stuff in one direction you will move in the other direction. This is how rockets work in a vacuum. They have a source of fuel which is heated up so that it expands and is pushed out of the rocket. In order to change direction in space rockets have to have little ‘thrusters’ on all sides (you need 6 in total to maneuver completely in 3 dimensions).

Newton’s 3rd law seems contrary to our intuition because on Earth there are lots of sources of friction - providing much easier methods of propulsion, however you might have seen it in action if you have ever blown up a balloon and then let go of it before tying it up. What pushes the balloon all around the room is the air you blew into in escaping.

(via kenobi-wan-obi)

Atlas V’s Upper Stage Passes Milestone Toward Flying Astronauts

United Launch Alliance (ULA) has successfully completed a Preliminary Design Review (PDR) to prepare the Colorado-based company’s Atlas V rocket for use to send astronauts to orbit in commercially developed and built spacecraft. This review dealt with the initial development testing of the Dual Engine Centaur (DEC) upper stage that is being developed as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew integrated Capability or CCiCap. The announcement that the PDR had been completed was posted on ULA’s website on Wednesday, June 12.

via asonlynasacan

Science and Space Posters by Ron Guyatt

Part of a series for spacevidcast.com to help inspire and spread the Good Word of Science! Prints available at etsy.

Artist: Tumblr / Website / Facebook

via ianbrooks

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Wernher von Braun | Rocket Pioneer

“I am convinced that before the year 2000 is over, the first child will have been born on the moon.” — Taped TV Interview, broadcast on WMAL Washington, Jan. 7, 1972

Well-known as the leader of the American rocket team, which sought the launch astronauts into space, Wernher von Braun initially designed rockets for his native country of Germany during World War II. What led him to the United States, and why was he able to provide the boost necessary for sending men to the moon?

Early life
Wernher von Braun was born in Wirsitz, Germany, on March 23, 1912. The son of a Prussian baron, von Braun was the second of three sons of an aristocratic family. Young von Braun took an interest in the science fiction of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, but it wasn’t until he read the writings of the father of German rocketry, Hermann Oberth, that he applied himself to physics and mathematics, subjects he had previously struggled with in school.

He enrolled at the Berlin Institute of Technology, where he would go on to earn a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering. As a student, he joined the German Society for Space Travel, and worked with Oberth on liquid-fueled rocket tests. Von Braun went on to attend the University of Berlin, where he attained his doctorate in physics in 1934.

By that time, his group had successfully launched two rockets that reached heights of over 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers). When the German government forbade rocket tests, the only way for von Braun to continue working with rockets was through the military.

“There is just one thing I can promise you about the outer-space program: your tax dollar will go farther.” — Reader’s Digest, 1961

A military career
In the late 1930s, von Braun began working as the technical director at the rocket research station at Peenemunde, in northeastern Germany. Studying the rocket designs of the American father of rocketry, Robert Goddard, von Braun’s team developed the V-2 rocket.

He later recalled for a NASA history report that “[Goddard’s] rockets … may have been rather crude by present-day standards, but they blazed the trail and incorporated many features used in our most modern rockets and space vehicles.”

Able to reach speeds of more than 3,500 mph (5,633 kph), the 46-foot, 27,000-pound (14 meters, 12,250 kilograms) V-2 rocket could carry warheads 500 miles (805 km). First used in September 1944, more than 5,000 were aimed at Britain. Of these, only 1,100 arrived on target, but they killed almost 3,000 people and injured thousands more. D-Day allowed the Allies to capture the launch sites of the rockets, ending the bombardment.

In 1944, von Braun was arrested by his government on charges of delaying or sabotaging the weapons program. He was eventually released after convincing them that he had been putting his efforts into the further development of rockets as weapons.

At the close of WWII, von Braun and his rocket team, including his brother, surrendered to the U.S. Army.

Von Braun’s involvement with the Nazi party, and the atrocities that occurred in Germany, are still being debated. After his surrender, he issued several statements that his role in the National Socialist Party was undertaken only because to refuse would have ended his career.

Similarly, rocket-building facilities in Germany utilized concentration camp prisoners to assemble the weapons. Statements by von Braun indicate that he knew about the horrible conditions but felt any attempts to improve them would be futile, possibly putting himself in danger.

“Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Changing sides
After coming to the United States, von Braun worked with the Army on the development of ballistic missiles. He became the technical director of the Army’s Ballistic Missile Agency in Alabama in 1952, where he aided in the production and launching of the Redstone, Juno, Jupiter-C, and Pershing rockets. The Redstone rocket eventually carried Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom into space for the first and second American suborbital flights.

In 1947, von Braun returned to Germany to marry Maria Luise von Quistorp, and to bring her and his parents back to America. The couple had three children. In 1955, von Braun became a U.S. citizen.

After the 1957 launch of the Russian satellite Sputnik, the first manmade object to enter space, von Braun and his team assembled and launched the first American satellite, Explorer 1, on Jan. 31, 1958.

In 1960, von Braun and his team left the employ of the Army to join the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Serving as director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, von Braun oversaw the development of the Saturn I, IB, and V. The Saturn V rocket lifted all of the Apollo lunar missions into space.

Von Braun served as NASA’s deputy associate administrator for planning from 1970 until he resigned in 1972. He served as vice president of the aerospace company, Fairchild Industries, and founded the National Space Institute, a private industry seeking to gain support and understanding of space industries.

Von Braun died on June 16, 1977, at the age of 65.

“I have learned to use the word ‘impossible’ with the greatest caution.”

via space.com

(Source: facebook.com)

Sky Rockets in Flight

Here’s a look at what I did for SPACE! A Gallery Show at Gallery 1988, opening 21st June, organised and curated by my bud Mike Mitchell.

Look closely! It’s an isometric pixel drawing of iconic space rockets and their occupants. I was careful to do it to scale to give you an impression of how big each one would have been. I love space!

via aledknowsbest

(via project-argus)

“As [human beings] develop the tools and capabilities to extend [their] reach farther and farther, there is no doubt [they] will feel compelled to go as far as [they] are capable of going.”

“Buzz” Aldrin

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(Source: asonlynasacan)

Creating A Spacfaring Civilization with Peter Diamandis | bigthink

Peter H. Diamandis is an American engineer and Intel entrepreneur best known for being the founder and chairman of the X PRIZE Foundation, the co-founder and chairman of Singularity University and the co-author of the New York Times bestseller ‘Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think’. He is also the former CEO and co-founder of the Zero-Gravity Corporation, the co-founder and vice chairman of Space Adventures Ltd., the founder and chairman of the Rocket Racing League, the co-founder of the International Space University, the co-founder of Planetary Resources, and founder of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space. (Wikipedia)

Why you should listen to him (as if you need any more reasons):
Peter Diamandis is the founder and chair of the X Prize Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is simply “to bring about radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity.” By offering a big cash prize for a specific accomplishment, the X Prize stimulates competition and excitement around some of the planet’s most important goals. Diamandis is also co-founder and chairman of Singularity University which runs Exponential Technologies Executive and Graduate Student Programs.

Diamandis’ background is in space exploration — before the X Prize, he ran a company that studied low-cost launching technologies and Zero-G which offers the public the chance to train like an astronaut and experience weightlessness. But though the X Prize’s first $10 million went to a space-themed challenge, Diamandis’ goal now is to extend the prize into health care, social policy, education and many other fields that could use a dose of competitive innovation.

TED Talks: Stephen Hawking in Zero G | Our Next Giant Leap | Abundance Is Our Future

Planetary Resources: ARKYD Kickstarter Project | Facebook

Gagarin: The First in Space.
Russian biopic on the first human in space Yuri Gagarin. 

I really need to see this movie; from what I’ve heard, it’s more factual than it is fictional. I’m going to see if I can find a copy with English subtitles.

The trailer is here.

via for-all-mankind

(via knowledgethroughscience)

BREAKING: “First In Space”: Major Film About Yuri Gagarin Released in Moscow

The first major film about the first man in space is being released tomorrow. Called “First in Space,” it tells the story of Soviet hero Yuri Gagarin’s historic trip into orbit. Prime Time’s Roman Kosarev caught up with some of the people behind the film, to found out how to bring a larger than life figure back to life.

This is absolutely incredible. I can’t wait for this to be released with English subtitles. The trailer for the film is obviously in Russian, as it was recently released on June 6th; however, the visuals are stunning. This is long overdue. You can view the trailer below:

Gagarin: First In Space | (Russian) Movie Trailer

And if that’s not awesome and spacey enough for you, the documentary film “First Orbit” was recently released which recreates Yuri Gagarin’s journey above the Earth’s atmosphere on humankind’s first trip to space. Details below:

First Orbit | The Movie
Now available in 30 languages on BluRay and DVD from www.firstorbit.org - this real time recreation of Yuri Gagarin’s pioneering first orbit, was shot entirely in space from on board the International Space Station. The film combines this new footage with Gagarin’s original mission audio and a new musical score by composer Philip Sheppard.

Rare Photos Of The Soviet Space Program From Gagarin To Intercosmos

via scanzen

Sometimes, I forget how huge the ISS really is.

Source

via supraspectra: “>supraspectra

(Source: supraspectra)

(Source: asonlynasacan)

15 years ago today at 6:06 pm Space Shuttle Discovery launched from Kennedy Space Center on the 9th and final mission to dock with the Mir Space Station. STS-91 also carried the first space-born test of the Alpha-Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS). AMS-2 is now on the International Space Station. (via NASA History)