Failure To Launch

This series, we are doing a deep dive on Cosmos 954, the Soviet spy satellite carrying a nuclear reactor that deorbited and crashed into Canada's Northwest Territories. In Part 1, we focus on the satellite itself, how it failed, and how a little-known American government agency stepped up to tackle a nuclear disaster. Topics covered include: - Why the Soviets loaded a spy satellite with weapons-grade uranium - The horrible "failsafes" they designed into their satellites - How a nuclear prank in Boston scared the US into taking accidents seriously - How all of this is (tangentially) Korolev and Khrushchev's fault

This episode, we take a look at the history of Sputnik 2 as well as the the Soviet answer to Project Albert: the Canine Cosmonaut program. Topics covered include: - How Korolev designed, built, and launched a satellite in less than a month. - Why the Soviets only picked stray female mutts to fly on their rockets. - Why there was no reason for Laika to die except Khrushchev's ego. Show Notes: Red Moon Rising by Matthew Brzezinski Animals in Space by Colin Burgess and Chris Dubbs

This episode, we finish our three-part series on Sputnik 1 and the people, politics, and egos that launched the Space Race. Topics covered include: - The decisions that made Sputnik 1 the perfect propaganda tool and worthless as a scientific instrument - Khrushchev chopping up the Red Army and purging its top general - How media and politicians in the West fanned the flames of Sputnik Panic - How a beeping ball made the Soviet Union into a true superpower

In this episode, we continue our investigation into Sputnik 1, its troubled development, and the politics that went into world's first satellite. Topics covered include: - Khrushchev being so sold on rockets he slashes the Red Army by a third - Rival engineers who got each other sent to the gulag - Building a rocket site in the most inhospitable place on Earth - Two revolutions, one coup d'état, and the least-bloody purge in Soviet history

Back from an extended hiatus, we take a look at the cult that developed around Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. Topics covered include: - Gagarin's folk tale-worthy landing and the subsequent cover-up - Gagarin's father being demoted to his uncle by state propaganda - Yuri's unlikely role as the first Soviet sex symbol - How the Kremlin exploited (and continues to exploit) Gagarin's legacy Show Notes Suggestion & Question Email: LaunchFailurePodcast@gmail.com Podcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/launch_failure Episode Notes Source for Gagarin Cult History: The Cosmonaut Who Couldn't Stop Smiling: The Life and Legend of Yuri Gagarin by Andrew L. Jenks, 2012   Source for Propaganda Posters: https://russiatrek.org/blog/art/propaganda-posters-of-soviet-space-program-1958-1963/ Source for Putin Quotes: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/68180

Between super-heavy lifters, centrifuges throwing shells into space, or hypersonic warheads, this is a time of Sputnik Moments - moments in history that represent a great leap in science. But what about the first Sputnik Moment? What about the satellite that was so influential that it set the bar for every scientific breakthrough since and kicked off the greatest (peaceful) competition in human history? In this set of episodes, Quinn, Chris, and Other-Chris will take a deep dive into the horrible reasons that made Sputnik happen, the development of objectively the worst satellite ever made, and the way a small chrome ball turned the geopolitical world on its head. In part one, we talk about the US general, competing scientists, and brutal rebellion that made Sputnik happen.

No better way to start off than to dive into the wonderful world of animal experimentation. In Episode Zero, Quinn and Chris go over America's Project Albert, Nazi rockets cobbled together from spare parts, so many dead monkeys, and much more.