‘Kaputnik’: America’s Largely Forgotten Disastrous First Attempt to Launch a Satellite

[@TodayIFoundOut]

Thanks to CuriosityStream for sponsoring today’s video. Go to curiositystream.thld.co/brainfoodjune and use code BRAINFOOD to save 25% off today, that’s only $14.99 a year.

[@Psittac20]

Love this channel! Sold me on Curiosity Stream quite a while ago, I don't watch it a whole lot because I prefer short format for what little time I have, but I keep the subscription for when I have the itch and even with watching it here and there the subscription is more than worth it.

[@extradimension7356]

Great coverage of a tricky story and set of events - please - pretty please maybe slightly refrain from smearing a fly paper like "digital-composite/chroma-key brown textured contact STAIN" over the historic images and art-work" ? The patina idea is a good one but in reality the original artwork still exists and much of the original photos / footage is in reasonable and good condition and chroma. Will check out CuriosityStream :-)

[@Psittac20]

@@extradimension7356 ​ Sorry man but that's a very niche requirement. What you are focusing on is simply a passing thing which most give little thought to. I appreciate that you have this viewpoint but don't expect a channel to change it's entire artistic approach. Remember this is a you thing and if the world doesn't cater to your needs it's because you are too focused on something that doesn't matter to most. We can all have thing's we don't enjoy and thing's we would prefer, but that's a tall stretch.

[@extradimension7356]

@@Psittac20 My father worked at Marshall Space Flight Centre as an illustrator and worked closely with Werner Von Braun during the exact period that this video covers. So I KNOW what the original artwork looks like; I have worked as a conservator and materials scientist at the National Air and Space Museum and KNOW what the condition of the original materials also are. So to make everything look like its smeared in sh*t IMO is not a good 'Artistic" "Choice" , ALSO as a designer and artist in my own right so as constructive criticism stuff that looks like it's smeared in sh*t tends to resemble sh*t. The chroma-key texture is not the work of Egon Schiele or the like. I'm not demanding they change anything at all - other than they should realize that to use imagery derived from original artworks to make them look like sh*t is disappointing to those that actually made those artworks and imagery in the first place ~ Obviously.

[@atlasshrugged9093]

@@extradimension7356 Bro, chill…

[@AlexanderTzalumen]

"I aimed for the stars, but i kept hitting London" - Werner von Braun (allegedly)

[@JohnVKaravitis]

Wrong.

[@a2broslol]

that

[@Diogenesthedog0]

_Luftwaffe raids Intensifies_

[@jaymevosburgh3660]

I'm pretty sure they meant to hit London. ...unless I am just slow as fvck and missed a joke lol

[@otrab1080]

"Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down. That's not my department." - Werner von Braun (allegedly)

[@jecelassumpcaojr890]

My father attended a talk by Von Braun at the University of Indiana in the late 1950s. He explained the government's choice by saying most congressmen were farmers and were very impressed by the colorful slides presented by the Navy while his own black and white slides full of numbers just bored them.

[@MandleRoss]

Presentation goes a long way.

[@-xnnybimb-9398]

Lmao “Boooring, nerd.”

[@thatterenceguy95]

R.I.P. Laika, a good dog. The Soviets may never have planned to bring you back alive, but you'll always live on in our hearts and minds...and in pop culture references

[@prudencepineapple9448]

I thought Laika died a few hours after launch due to a fault in the heating system. Essentially, Laika died due to no heating and stress from the launch. The Russians never had any intention of bringing Laika back home. The US learnt from the USSR mistake and launched Chimpanzees that were returned home. Much better publicity for the US too in 'bringing them back alive' rather than let them die in space.

[@K1NKYG4M3R]

Bow wow, little friend. Bow wow.

[@lindaeasley5606]

No one seems to remember NASA putting monkeys Miss Baker and Able up in space in 1958 Both came back alive and Miss Baker lived untill 1984

[@BenTajer89]

The soviets also sent tortoises around the moon in the mid-sixties - the first live animals to travel so far from earth. The Soviet Space tortoises survived their mission, but instead of being hailed as proletarian tortoise heroes, they were promptly euthanized and dissected to study the effects of deep space on physiology...

[@drgunnwilliams8239]

Stalin: Send that bitch off the planet

[@dougstubbs9637]

A friend of mine, an Aero Elec specialist, was invited to Indonesia some years back, to evaluate why so many of their Soviet Mig 27 were not deployable. First thing, he was stunned by the use of Vacuum Tubes in much of the avionics. He at first believed he was being set up, a modern fighter with Vacuum Tubes? Turns out, export versions were so fitted. So, tropical temperatures and humidity, hard landings, even wind sheer events caused failures. The only fix could be a full upgrade to the avionics, but much stressing, corrosion and other problems with the airframe led to much retirement. Incredible how Motorola managed to make Vacuum Tubes work in the Walkie Talkie.

[@michaelputnam2532]

Vanallen used to give a lecture about the belts. He'd start the lecture wearing a buttoned up sports coat and ask the students if they're like to see the vanallen belts. He'd then open the jacket displaying the multiple belts he was wearing under the jacket

[@goawayihavecommentstomake1488]

Was he a Dad at the time??

[@roberttalada5196]

Ew

[@shipofthesun]

15:36 Vacuum tubes work just fine in space without an atmosphere. The reason they went to transistors was size, cost, MUCH lower power needs, and lack of waste heat. The pressurized nitrogen was for heat dissipation using a small fan. Sputnik 1 and 2 both used vacuum tubes for their radio/telemetry transmitters that worked quite well.

[@oliverdbhowells]

I feel like Business Blaze - Simon is slowly seeping into all of Simon’s other channels, and I am absolutely loving it

[@toof987]

i'm not

[@kevinm6691]

Now we need an episode of Business blaze based on countries throwing shade at others. Offering the US aid from a fund for under-developed countries is hilarious.

[@briandufty5081]

@@toof987 I am.

[@briandufty5081]

@@kevinm6691 yea. Throwing a country at each other sounds good. O wate. Ball sports..

[@beebopbaloobop]

I love it as well.

[@bitset3741]

Vanguard actually was pretty average as far as booster development was concerned, many others failed, although not usually as publicly. It also launched 2 other satellites before being discontinued. Also, the individual components of the Vanguard were very well designed. The third stage was used as an upper stage for several other rockets. The 2nd stage renamed "Able" was used on several rockets, and its AJ-10 engine was used in quite a few - variants served as the main engine of the Apollo CSM and as the OMS engines on the Shuttle for example. The first stage engine was also used elsewhere can't remember where right off though. I'll look it up.

[@bazzingabomb]

‘Kaputnik’ whom ever coined that is a Genius.

[@jaymudd2817]

Also called Flopnik.

[@fredrickbeondo8695]

Simon bloopers give me life LOL I know lately they've been left in for the most part, but a 15 or 20 minute long cavalcade of malapropisms, cursing, and other flubbery would be quite entertaining, to me at least...;)

[@nickstav08]

Watch business blaze!!

[@Sparrow420]

This is literally what business blaze is.

[@Ixidora]

Going to sound like a broken record but if you want that stuff just watch Business Blaze because that's just the whole show. Fact boi gives us facts and his wacky opinions while Sam gives us glorious vintage memes and Danny has at this point crafted an entire world of fake stories to deal with him and Sam's alleged imprisonment in the Blazement..... I may have said too much but I allegedly have enough cocaine to buy my freedom.

[@laurendoe168]

This is exactly why I unsubbed the Blaze - far too much nonsense left in (with annoying background music to boot)

[@erictaylor5462]

Sputnik was more than just an aluminum basketball with a radio transmitter inside. It was designed to test the upper atmosphere to measure precisely how dense the upper atmosphere actually was. This data was later used to know how long the Vostok spacecraft needed to last to keep the pilot alive in case the retro rocket system failed. The Vostok missions were launched so that the craft would come back down eventually incase of a failure. They would not be stuck in space until their life support ran out.

[@kirbymarchbarcena]

"American components, Russian components...all made in Taiwan!" -Lev Andropov

[@lifedelay]

Whats wrong with Taiwan? Lol

[@FIRE_STORMFOX-3692]

@@lifedelay Google

[@Amethyst_Dragon_]

Armageddon..." Im a Russian hero" Lev Andropov

[@antiisocial]

Concusive maintenance. It's a thing.

[@krealyesitisbeta5642]

CCP: "That place is China."

[@craigkdillon]

As I recall, the Vanguard project was done by the Navy, while the Redstone project was done by the Army. The Vanguard attempt was first, but it blew up on the pad. The Redstone project, atop the Jupiter C, launched America's first satellite into space. NASA was formed soon after, and all space rocketry was done by it afterwards. The military still did combat rockets & missiles.

[@barrydysert2974]

As an old Cold War survivor, i find these 21st century balanced retellings most refreshing! Thank you Simon& Co. 🖖

[@JacobAAllen]

The dog, Laika has become famous in Syfy pop culture. With multiple appearances in shows such as Guardians of the Galaxy and Space Dandy.

[@georgemcintyre3508]

You mean Cosmo??

[@Shinobubu]

Space Dandy episode was very sad :(

[@Iskelderon]

Simon, while you're at it, consider making an episode about that time an F-15 shot down a freaking satellite!

[@lifedelay]

Already done one

[@dickJohnsonpeter]

I. Grandpa ma'am? Mr. Carfenharghen will be 5 mineral late sir

[@compilerofvideos]

He does not read or respond to comments. He will never see this

[@jctoad]

Explorer 1 reentered March 1917? It was launched February 1, 1958, so neat trick. It actually reentered March 31, 1970

[@sproctor1958]

The video from 11:35 to 11:58 is not of the launch being described in the commentary. In the actual video of that Vanguard failure, the rocket barely got off the pad (2 seconds as Simon stated), then largely collapsed into a fireball as is shown in the 11:58 still shot. It is still an interesting video of an early failure that I don't recall having seen before, and it provides a path for Simon's excellent narrative, so it is still enjoyable... but... (And, not having read the comments before typing this, I'm probably being redundant, but what the heck...) It took me awhile to find and watch this video after seeing it mentioned in a more recent production, but it was worth the wait! Thanks again, Simon!

[@frankwu4747]

Nikita Kreuchev: “LOL that grape fruit satellite”! Also Nikita Kreuchev: “Spitnik I”!

[@Mr.Ekshin]

While Sputnik beat Americans to orbit, it wasn't in a stable orbit and burned up in the atmosphere a few months later. Vanguard 1 was launched by America about six months later, and is STILL in orbit more than 60 years later... making it Earth’s longest-orbiting artificial satellite, as well as the oldest human-made object still in space.

[@leonardoglesby1730]

There was the old joke that they were renaming Vanguard "Civil Service" because they can't fire it, or get it to work. Yet after the very public failures it went on to play a big part in the space program. I guess you don't advance without a bit of development pain.

[@maxstr]

Just look at how many times SpaceX failed before getting anywhere. Apparently rocket science is hard 😅

[@louisgiokas2206]

In the late 60s I was in a shop class. The teacher was out sick and the substitute ran a film for us of launch failures. I can still remember that film.

[@dereinzigwahreRichi]

Fun fact: we use the term "Kaputnik" in Germany to describe a (positively) crazy or scatty person. :-D

[@Melooka]

Noch nie gehört

[@SKPetel]

Kaputnik is used in Israel for unrecoverable destruction, basically if your car was totaled, it's kaputnik

[@dk50b]

When I saw the title, instantly thought of Mad Magazine's Roger Kuputnik, who began appearing in 1961 as Dave Berg's alter-ego in his "Lighter Side Of" series.

[@dereinzigwahreRichi]

@@SKPetel Yes, I'm from Saxony and we have several words taken from Jiddish like meschugge, meaning crazy or dumb.

[@ChrisNorwood3]

Now they just make us wait for 50-60 years before they...delay the next manned mission yet again.

[@chrissinclair4442]

I heard sputnik worked on the same frequency as a lot of garage door openers. It would open a lot of these early automatic garage doors.

[@johnstevenson9956]

I'm just old enough to remember when every time a slow plane would fly over, people would run outside to see the "satellite". I guess people still do that when the space station goes over.

[@padawanmage71]

You didn’t mention the Soviets sending the first women, Valentina Tereshkova, something that NASA didn’t match until 20 years later.

[@Ass_of_Amalek]

same as women's sports, nobody cares...

[@padawanmage71]

@@Ass_of_Amalek The Soviets did, hence why they did it twice. And now with talks that the first person to set foot on Mars might be a woman, I guess we can say 'we care' now. ;)

[@padawanmage71]

@Roger Clemens The Soviets thought so, when they did it twice. We commemorate Sally Ride's first flight every year, so it must've meant something then as well. There're even studies that women might be better suited to space than men. Plus the first person to go back to the moon, or the first person to step on Mars might be a woman. Go Vaginas! =P

[@mnichols1979]

They were just giving a few examples. The video wasn't on the complete history of the Soviet space program so quit being so butt hurt and enjoy the fucking video or shit the fuck up unless you have something relevant to say

[@padawanmage71]

@@mnichols1979 😄 Apologies for triggering you, kid. 😘. Might want to work on your interpersonal skills there…and given how i did contribute a factoid to the show, while you act like a brat, you might want to go sit in a corner and rethink 3 times before typing anything.

[@John_the_Paul]

“Expected to remain in orbit for another thousand years” Orbital debris: I’m about to ruin this mans whole career

[@Dustinielson]

I think Roger Kaputnik was the bespectacled guy n Mad Magazine's "The Lighter Side Of.." comic strip.

[@kelvyquayo]

You can stand a few inches from the first Vanguard1A (the one that started transmitting from crash site) at the Air and Space Museum in DC.

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

If anyone knows 'Dave Berg Dept.' in _MAD_ magazine, you'll remember Roger Kaputnik.

[@ttun100]

Yep, "The Lighter Side." Kaputnik was Berg's alter ego.

[@KathrynLiz1]

I remember it well.... I was a teenager at the time. Even then, there was covert news of Soviet failures, some of which cost lives both on the ground and in space, but were never officially reported or admitted. The American efforts were all very public though..... and of course there was the political element holding things up. If they had gone with the Redstone rockets from the start they would have stayed ahead of the USSR all through, but complacency made them look a bit silly for a while.

[@JoshSweetvale]

17:00 Cute, but they did get every single 'first' until the moon landings.

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

The USSR had a number of firsts up until the mid-60s. Not after that.

[@BoydXplorer]

Nice contents. Interesting and informative. Thanks for sharing 👍😊

[@liberatetheforks]

In about 6 years I expect your beard to be out of frame. It's awesome!

[@marsgal42]

At work we nerdily observed the 50th anniversary of the space age to the minute, 1928 UTC 4 October 2007. Since that was late in the day in Moscow and the Soviets never announced anything until it was a done deal, Pravda for 4 October 1957 didn't say much. The next morning, 5 October 1957, was another matter entirely.

[@burtdurger847]

OK, the thumbnail mislead me. This is not Blaze lol. Oh well, love TIFO so here we go

[@Rgoid]

“Soviet missiles (whoosh) Venus! American missiles (sput sput) Miami Beach!” - Otto Ludwig Piffl, One,Two,Three (1961)

[@dinoschachten]

Very impressive how incredibly stable Vanguard's orbit is, and how quickly the Sputnik orbits deteriorated.

[@Yikeo]

Of course the first attempt would suck That's how these things work Trial and error

[@archibaldlarid3587]

My mom grew up in Cocoa Beach a stones throw from the Launch Complex, she used to joke that they went to the launches to watch them blow up, like it was so common they were actually shocked when one worked in the first 3 years she was there.

[@Diogenesthedog0]

Funnily enough - Kaput(कपूत) in Hindi means Unworthy son or Unworthy in general. Saput(सपुत) in Hindi means Deserving Son Sputnik(Спутник) in Russian translates to Fellow traveller.. I don't how that can help but here some Information

[@Johnnycdrums]

That is cartoonish imagery of an R7 launch.

[@prudencepineapple9448]

Wait, I just spent a few minutes cleaning my comp screen. Then I realized it's a filter that's been used to show photos etc. I'll take my 'walk of shame' now!

[@darinsmith9468]

Armstrong's actual quote was "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Source: Armstrong himself. His Ohio accent made the "for a" slurred, resulting in most not hearing the article 'a'--including Walter Cronkite, who repeated Armstrong's quote as "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." If you think about it, it only makes sense if the article is included--he was contrasting the action of an individual (himself, jumping off the ladder onto the surface of the moon) with what it represented to mankind as a whole. This has been studied by Ohio State and Michigan State with inconclusive results, but results that nevertheless bolster Armstrong's claim.

[@aceundead4750]

Dont remember what channel it was, but one of your channels got me to get Curiosity Stream. Thank you Simon, you made it so i can actually enjoy watching shows on a television again

[@rnedlo9909]

I remember the social shock of Sputnik, how it was the center of discussion for weeks and the impact it had on our focus as a nation.

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

Yeager and co. working on actual space FLIGHT were boggled why the USA freaked out over Gagarin's flight.

[@jamesh1017]

Focus on smoke and mirrors, your focus on an illusion. If backward and broke USSR was able to get safely to be first in space , considering how high a regard those defecting German and Russian scientists to the USA were held the vast sums of tax payers money pumped into the egomaniac supposedly onesided race as the yanks got all the money, talent, brains and the babes, makes the achievements by the Russians as pretty amazing or maybe they had brains still left in their country to manage a war a lot of people died all over the world not so many in the US or did they 55 million before Columbus arrived within a hundred years 5 million remaining among other statistics. Of the hundreds and thousands of words in the scriptures competition is not to be found there The word competition is not in there.

[@Strike_Raid]

The actual Vanguard satellite, although small, was a good bit larger than the 'grapefruit' test satellite that was part of TV-3 and was fairly sophisticated.

[@Drw-zw4gp]

Lol rarely do I follow the sponsor of the videos I watch but curiosity stream is right up my alley lol thanks for the offer code. Love your videos man. Keep it going!

[@sportscardprofessor]

A bit off topic, but what would happen to Australia's flag if Scotland left the UK? Assuming the Union Jack would change with the loss of the north, would that change be reflected Down Under as well?

[@MandleRoss]

Doubtful, as the Union Jacks on the Australian and New Zealand flags are already relics of the history of those two countries thus modern changes to the Union Jack shouldn't affect them. That's my conclusion at least.

[@owenshebbeare2999]

Who knows? Any attempt to change our flag tends to get linked to the Australian republican movement, though it is technically a separate issue and could occur while we remain a Constitutional Monarchy. Originally the Red Ensign (red background) was more common, especially on land, and the Blue Ensign popular today was considered Naval. and there are at least two others (a White Ensign (Navy, contemporary), an aquamarine Ensign for the RAAF and some others have seen use too. The Commonwealth Star originally had six points, gaining the seventh in 1908. Personally I don't get too invested in this, though have some concerns about what design might be chosen if the national flag were changed, and hope it is something inclusive, not exclusive/divisive. Same with the separate, if often linked, debate about becoming a republic. Still, time will tell.

[@Elainerulesutube]

I remember when Sputnik flew over Sydney, Australia, in 1957.

[@liberatetheforks]

So that's why they called it they stayputnik in KSP...

[@blasterelforg7276]

Minor error here. Explorer 1 was launched on January 31st, not March 17th. I remembered this date since high school.

[@JoshuaR.Collins]

1:17 technically he said “…step for A man…” but the a was lost in transmission

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

Armstrong's Ohio accent understates vowels.

[@chrislong3938]

Technically he was supposed to say it and the transmission did not get garbled until the second part which was still easy to understand. Armstrong always said that he did say it correctly, but later acknowledged that he couldn't have. It is very loud and clear with no loss of transmission.

[@ganjaman59650]

Yoou know there was an official study that costed million just to be sure of that? They listened to the audio again and again, made reports on it, and after millions of tax money spend they were "not sure", they also never bothered to actually just ask Neil Amstrong.

[@chrislong3938]

@@ganjaman59650 They were busy reconstructing Tricky Dicky's Oval Office Tapes!!! ;-)

[@Musikur]

Really good and thorough episode

[@gjjk84]

Hey! Love your channels. Do a mega project on the F-14 Tomcat! Please. 😁

[@nugboy420]

12:08 and that laugh after I had to rewind to check if I heard you right hahahaha

[@nathanfisher6925]

Regardless of the rest of the video, you got my thumbs-up at "kaputnik". (and I'm amazed you were able to pull that entire statement off before finally cracking up)

[@JPMadden]

FYI: There is an excellent 2005 BBC mini-series called "Space Race" that covers the German V-2 rocket and the early days of the U.S. and Soviet space programs. The four parts are available on KZbin, at least in the U.S.

[@good_king_guitarman1334]

Simon your beard has really grown and now has a personality of its own!

[@newman977]

The late and great Neil Armstrong actually said "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for Mankind" . The 'a' is almost impossible to hear, but if you are expecting it, it's there.

[@maxcorey8144]

In response to Sputnik, US orbited Echo, a silver mylar balloon. I remember the whole city of Denver standing out doors from our houses and apartments looking up one night as we could all see the tiny white dot that was Echo pass over head. We were all smiling, wrapped up in what that meant. I was seven but remember it well..

[@ABadassDragon]

TIFO video, BB thumbnail. The blaze will spread everywhere

[@leolyon2373]

Thank you Simon. From the Bronx..

[@StarShadowPrimal]

It's important to watch this to the end... the discussion of the public perceptions of the successes and failures of the US vs Soviet programs is critical. In the US, almost everything done by NASA was publicized, including failures, while the Soviets hid their projects until they had successful results. Not to mention that even the craziset conspiracy theories like fake missions were legal in the US, while any Soviet citizen even questioning the narrative disappeared. In a free society, it is well known that most successes have had to overcome a number of failures, but in control (Marxist) societies, successes appear easy because a multitude of failures have been hidden on pain of death.

[@uuzd4s]

I remember much of this story very well along w/ the "Air Raid" sirens that taught us to dive under our tables at school and cover our heads. The "Cold War" era Did serve as motivation to excell near the end of the "Technological Revolution" and put the United States on the map as the Superpower Nation where Free Speech and the "Pursuit of Happiness" had more appeal than the alternative. The Soviets put a Satellite over Everyone's heads and had there been no response, we might all be seeing an entirely different version of this on KZbinski.

[@bobbyboyd4737]

My Dad gave me a nickname after Sputnick. He called me "Boop" until the day he died. You could pick up the boop sound on AM radio.

[@warman1944]

11:50 Damn he's trying so hard not to laugh. I'm an American, and I simply bust out laughing at that.

[@awsumaustin7650]

"does stress/work cause hair loss?" show idea

[@zch7491]

With ‘keeps’ as a sponsor?

[@jessn.2665]

Lol yes it can. I site my personal experience.

[@therealunicornselene]

*savage*

[@Sir_Uncle_Ned]

That offer of aid from the soviets is the most intense diplomatic burn I have ever heard. I can see how it’s hard to keep a straight face.

[@Philip271828]

"We have patents for that, pay up." The estate of Robert Goddard, probably.

[@altergreenhorn]

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky pikachu face

[@Sara.T90]

Me and the fly on my wall (one of the walls, I do have several. Not to brag of course) enjoyed this video. The fly has now flown away, presumably to tell its fly friends about what they have just learned. As for me well I'm gonna watch another video but before I do, I already have "Curiosity Stream" which I can highly recommend!

[@aceundead4750]

You are far kinder to flies than i

[@Sara.T90]

@@aceundead4750 I used to kill them but now my mindset have changed. So yes, they can be annoying but at the end of they so can humans and we don't walk around hitting humans with newspapers or anything else you might use (for the most part anyway). But spiders can fu** off.

[@aceundead4750]

@@Sara.T90 i'll kill flies, but leave most spiders alone. If i kill a spider it's because it wasnt doing a good enough job of catching insects. I just realized i shouldnt be in charge of a company

[@joeyr7294]

Good lord Simon and Co. Just lit up my notification feed

[@elkvis]

He said "one small step for *a* man..." it's difficult to hear clearly in the recording, but Armstrong clarified later.

[@kirkmorrison6131]

It is right at the beep so it is all but covered up but it is there

[@ExperimentIV]

there was a really fascinating study done of people from the same area as him with the same accent, and a lot of them pronounced “for a man” in a way where you could almost not hear the a. so yeah, pretty sure he did say it, but his idiolect made it pretty hard to hear it

[@MandleRoss]

I seem to remember he said in a rare interview that he didn't remember if he said the "a" or not as he was pretty nervous at the time. I don't know though if the "a" has been recovered with modern audio technology since then or not.

[@kirkmorrison6131]

@@ExperimentIV I heard a tape digitized, and if you listened carefully you can hear a very soft "a" They digitized the analog tape split the results into layers and removed the beep. In the final results you can hear a very soft "a" I had a friend from the Dayton area and they spoke the same way. If you listen closely on the analog tape you can start of a syllable and almost immediately the communication beep.

[@ExperimentIV]

@@kirkmorrison6131 makes sense that it would be a combo of the way he spoke and the most imperfectly timed comms beep

[@jsl151850b]

11:23 Why didn't you use the color, daytime film of the Vanguard blowing up on the launchpad?

[@meetoo594]

I wondered about that, he even has a picture of the detonation in the background. The footage he showed was of a different launch and failure.

[@boxerfortyfour1153]

Explorer One was launched on Jan 31,1958 not in March of that year.

[@Miklos82]

You are correct. It was my 8th birthday and I remember thinking, 'what a great birthday present!'

[@WildBillCox13]

Nah . . The best Sputnik poem is as follows: "Happy little Sputnik friend, Has the Space Race reached its end? Is there room up in your hullnik, For Ike* and Dick, and Foster Dullnik?" -Anon *Ike Eisenhower (President of the USA), Dick Nixon (Vice President), and Foster Dulles (Secretary of State)

[@frankowalker4662]

The soviets also had the first female astronaut, Valentina Tereshkova.

[@jrt818]

First planetary flyby was Mariner 2 at Venus in 1962.

[@human_bot_]

This is only "almost forgotten" to people under 40. Everyone else knows about this lol

[@tonikotinurmi9012]

yt bump, yup

[@penzlic]

hardly forgotten for anyone even remotely interested in airspace history. Not mentioned like some other failures, but not forgotten

[@jo-annebotha9609]

Serious Simon with glittering eyes trying not to burst out laughing - and failing.....🤣

[@thomasmuller1931]

@Simon My heartfelt condolences to the death of your barber. He is dearly missed. May he RIP.

[@chummychum706]

So like...is the Brain food show still a thing? Would love to listen to another one of those at some point.

[@ChozoSR388]

"Kaputnik" lmao I should not be laughing this hard at that.

[@BackstageChief]

1:15 one small step for A man... I'm surprised they got that wrong lmao

[@peterjones596]

Simon suddenly discovers the Soviets had a sense of humour! Oh man, their "PR team" were often brilliant, and sometimes brilliantly hilarious, long before social media. Probably worth a video, get a researcher on it and you'll see what I mean.. And none of this stuff was lost in translation, either, it was delivered in English... Although there's also some hilarious or scary, bad subtitling, I seem to remember.

[@sIxpackde]

The rocket in 1956 did reach an altitude of 107km, above the Karman line but well below 1000km :)

[@frankchase9297]

Excellent! Thank you.

[@nigeldepledge3790]

There were only three Sputnik launches. Or, more properly, Prosteyshiy Sputnik ("elementary satellite"). What Western observers have called Sputnik 4 etc. were more properly named Korabl-Sputnik 1 to 5. The Korabl-Sputnik programme did indeed include the recovery of the dogs Belka and Strelka on Korabl-Sputnik 2, along with forty mice and two rats. The occupants of Korabl-Sputnik 3, Pcholka and Mishka, were the last dogs to be killed in the Soviet space programme. Their de-orbit burn did not shut off as planned, and the capsule self-destruct was triggered to avoid the technology falling into the hands of foreigners. Korabl-Sputnik 4 and 5 also involved the successful recovery of dogs after having orbited the earth (respectively, Chernushka and Zvezdochka). The Korabl capsule was later renamed Vostok when it carried Yuri Gagarin to fame in April 1961. However, the USA arguably won the space race in 1958, with the creation of NASA. Whereas the Soviet programme was delivered by several different research bureaux, each with responsibility for different technical areas, NASA was able to coordinate different fields and proposals and prioritise tasks to achieve the goal set by Kennedy in 1961. By contrast, the rivalry and lack of coordination in the Soviet space programme (held together only by Sergei Korolyev's dogged determination), fostered by inadequate funding and a culture of blame, meant that the more technologically difficult the goal, the less likely they were to achieve it. It's also arguable that the Gemini and Apollo programmes only received adequate funding because of Kennedy's death in 1963. Gemini and Apollo became a legacy of America's visionary president for the rest of the 1960s.

[@erikthorsen328]

I remember as a kid watching the ECHO satellite pass overhead at night while living in Portland Oregon.

[@1ndragunawan]

12:05 so that's where Probodobodyne Stayputnik comes from.

[@rdxdxb6780]

Man I watched the video in 0.75 speed and now I understood everything he told. Inner peace

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

It's a real problem. Commercial TV required perfect modulation from its trained, professional presenters.

[@ChristmasLore]

Simon's channels are the only ones I have to use that speed

[@rdxdxb6780]

@@ChristmasLore ikr

[@mrbyamile6973]

The funny thing is I frequently watch videos on 1.5x and when first playing his video I thought I had left the playback speed at that speed😅

[@Trekyhunter]

Woo, lunch time vid time!

[@LordZordid]

Always bring a strong lasso when rounding up and herding Germans.

[@donwilliamson7733]

In The Shadow Government We Trust

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

You get a Dumb Comment Award too.

[@shabmaster7128]

Love we're still using the code for the seemingly defunct podcast.

[@iKvetch558]

The only reasons the US did not launch a satellite first are 1) Eisenhower wanted the Soviets to go first because then they would establish the Freedom of Space and 2) Eisenhower did not want the first US satellite to be launched by a former Nazi. Von Braun's team at ABMA absolutely could have beaten the Soviets, had they been given permission to do so. I am glad that Simon basically said both of these things, though he seems to think that the USSR establishing the Freedom of Space was some kind of "silver lining" as opposed to a specific intent of not racing the Soviets to orbit.

[@lyleslaton3086]

Ah, the past was the worst. Hail to the Soviet Cremudgen.

[@archerer98]

Kaputnik is hilariously underrated.

[@jamesricker3997]

Explorer 1 was ready to go before Sputnik They just couldn't get anyone to give them a booster After the Vanguard 1 disaster the higher-ups found that out and they were not happy