BBC4 Cosmonauts: How Russia won the space race
 

OK, its just been on BBC4, so you've missed it, but it is bound to be repeated.

Not Mil Aviation, but I'm sure many here would enjoy. It tells the story of the space race from the Russian side.

Interesting footage I've never seen before - lots of colour film, 2 N1 rockets in the same shot, and the cccp lunar lander tests - it had downward rockets to stop the bounce.

Worth a watch, no doubt on iPlayer.

LINK? URL?

BBC iPlayer - Cosmonauts: How Russia Won the Space Race

This is the link, but if you're outside the UK you'll need to hide/change your IP address to a UK one or it won't stream.

There are several free ways to do this. PM if you don't know how.

I live in the former Republic of Texas and cannot view this. So yes, I'm going to need some help.

Ken,

Is that the former Republic of Texas in the former offshoot of England? In that case, I'm sure we'll let you watch it on us! ;)

I enjoyed it. I read years ago that the CIA in Turkey was monitoring Soyuz One's descent with a failed parachute and heard Vladimir Komarov calmly say goodbye to his wife and then read off his instruments and offer some final in-flight impressions. The Soyuz 11 disaster was even more avoidable.

http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/s...unes-soyuz-11/

Al, NPR have this account - slightly more detail - and an interesting tale about Gagarin meeting Breshnev afterwards...

It doesn't bear thinking about. From that page, a slightly modified tale.

A Cosmonaut's Fiery Death Retold : Krulwich Wonders... : NPR

Intriguing.
What is it Churchill said about Russia - a mystery, wrapped in an enigma I think?

I only stumbled across the programme by accident last night - I thought it was a bit of a gem.

As the OP said it contained interesting stuff with lots of rarely/"never before seen" footage and interviews with the likes of Alexei Leonov and Michael Foale...so if you're a space geek or have a interest in the history of space flight space it is well worth trying to catch via t'internet or on TV if it's repeated.

It was certainly nice to see the Soviet/Russian space programme being given some credit for what it has achieved over the years.

Yes excellent programme, was going to put it on here when it started, but was so engrossing.
First rocket into space, first satellite, first dog, first man, first space walk.
Manned and futuristic orbitting space station.
The genius of Russian design and thinking applied with some very brave men.
Pretty shocking the bit with the 3 dead cosmonauts being given CPR though, maybe better leaving that out.

For anybody who is interested in this program I would very strongly recommended this series of on line NASA publications called 'Rockets and people' by Boris Chertok, who was a deputy chief designer at Korolyov's Experimental Design Bureau (the series editor of the English version, Asif Siddiqi, is on the BBC program). It covers almost the complete Soviet missile and space program from 1945 through to the mid 1980's. Chetok was involved in the design of rocket and spacecraft control systems and was involved the investigations of both the Soyuz 1 and 11 disasters. Chetok doesn't pull any punches on any of the failures including his own. All 4 volumes are linked below.

Vol 1 covers Chetok early life and his time in Germany hunting down V2 material and personnel. Link

Vol 2 covers the development of Soviet missiles from 1947 through to the R7 and the early lunar probes Link

Vol 3 covers the flight of Gagarin through to the Soyuz 1 and the death of Gagarin. Link

Vol 4 covers the Soviet Moon program and Space Stations up to Mir. Link

Thanks, JFZ90 ... that's written off the rest of this morning for me :D

Only just this morning...............

I thought the account of the first space walk was amazing when the suit expanded, gloves and boots started slipping off, too big to fit back into the hatch. No problem - just let some air out!:uhoh::ok:

MAINJAFAD - Thanks for the links. Very interesting reading.

Just watched this again as it is a repeat of a program shown a short while back on BBC 2. Seems this version has been almost chopped in half, as the BBC2 broadcast was 1 1/2 hours long and had a lot more on the selection of Gagarin over Titov for the first flight and Alexey Leonov covering of the problems that Voskhod 2 had after the space walk. Still a good program though.

MAINJAFAD

Thanks for those links....looks like that's my bedtime reading sorted out for the foreseeable future.

212man

I think both "sides" seriously underestimated how difficult working outside a spacecraft in a pressurised suit would really be. After Leonov's spacewalk almost all American Gemini astronauts, bar Ed White, had serious problems on their "space walks" indeed they really didn't have a problem free EVA until Buzz Aldrin's on the last Gemini flight, Gemini 12.

Being a space geek I'd really like to see it - if anyone notices it on youtube or similar site that can be accessed from this side of the pond, please let me know. I tried to access BBC stuff before and it simply doesn't work :(
Buzz Aldrin is largely credited with figuring out how to work in space - including training in a neutral buoyancy pool of water. I got to meet Buzz and Alexey Leonov (and a bunch of other astronauts and flight controllers) at a Museum of Flight event a couple years back. Definitely one of the highlights of my life.

tdracer, you lucky man. Somebody did put the 1 1/2 hour version on it up on youtube, but its been blocked. I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up as an episode of Nova on PBS.

Great links Mainjafad

I thought I was broadly aware of rockets & missile history, but this opened whole new chapters.