Say hello to the Voskhod Spacecraft “Globus” IMP navigation instrument. This beautiful mechanical computer that would be right at home on the control panel of your favorite pulp sci fi hero’s rocketship has aided many a cosmonaut in finding his or her location in space.
Much more information here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voskhod_Spacecraft_%22Globus%22_IMP_navigation_instrument
Russian matchbox art with a stylized depiction of the Soviet Union’s Luna 1 mission.
First Earthling in space: Laika the dog.
Laika’s ship, Sputnik 2, had no capability to return to Earth. Her 1957 space flight to establish whether or not living beings could survive travel through space was a one-way mission.
It had been planned to euthanize Laika with poisoned food during her flight. She instead died from excessive heat on her fourth orbit around the Earth. Five months later, the spaceship and its canine passenger’s remains burned up as the vehicle’s decaying orbit brought it into Earth’s atmosphere.
Oleg Gazenko, one of the scientists who worked on the mission, would later say, “Work with animals is a source of suffering to all of us. We treat them like babies who cannot speak. The more time passes, the more I’m sorry about it. We shouldn’t have done it … We did not learn enough from this mission to justify the death of the dog.”
Laika’s mission went on to become a touchstone in debates about the ethics of animal testing.
Laika appears on the Monument to the Conquerors of Space in Moscow and has a monument of her own in Star City, Russia.
“Shall we play a game?”
“Comrade, we forgot to connect the tether before the spacewalk!”
Soviet-era matchbox cover.
The Galaxy Far, Far Away as viewed from behind the Iron Curtain.
Stamp commemorating the first space flight of Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
According to this 1960 issue of Tekhnika Molodezhi – “Technology for the Youth” – in the Soviet Retrofuture flying cars will get you to that long bread line in style, comrade.
The USSR only launched its 15,000 mile tall Gigantski rocket once due to complaints about mass extinction events in the Baltics and Alaska.
Tonight’s entertainment at Casa Old School Sci Fi is “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” (1954). Just kidding. It’s actually 1958’s British science fiction horror film “Fiend Without a Face”.
klappersacks