Space is an amazing place, full of mystery and risk, and… um… awesomeness! [1]
Project Adam: American failed attempt to win the prize: "The first man in space is ours."
The bad autumn of 1957 taught President Eisenhower and the entire Republican administration a grave lesson.
On October 4, 1957, the first artificial Earth satellite was launched in the Soviet Union. Satellite code designation - PS-1 (Simplest Sputnik-1). The launch was carried out from the 5th research site of the USSR Ministry of Defense "Tyura-Tam" (which later received the open name of the Baikonur cosmodrome) on a carrier rocket created on the basis of the R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile
Americans have learned two important lessons:
- America is noticeably inferior to the Soviet Union in the field of rocketry and astronautics, because of which the defense capability of the Western world suffers;
On April 2, 1958, the President sent a message to the 85th US Congress with a proposal to create a new structure based on the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA).
After months of heated debate, the parliament approved the relevant bill. On July 16, 1958, the Aeronautics and Space Act was approved by a conciliation commission of the Senate and House of Representatives. On July 29, 1958, Eisenhower signed the document to enter into force. The post of the head of NASA was taken by the president of the Case Thomas Institute of Technology Keith Glennan.
The agency was formed on the basis of the National Aeronautics Advisory Council (NACA), and specialists from this respected organization (8,000 employees) formed the core of the nascent corporation. In addition to the Aeronautics Council, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology (about 2,500 people) was integrated into NASA, the Navy gave up its team that worked on the Avangard project (200 specialists), and in 1960 moved to NASA Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun with his design department at the Army's Ballistic Missile Directorate.
A small digression: my opinion in the failure of the race "who is the first" is to blame for Eisenhower and his team. Let me explain.
-
In July 1955, the 34th President of the United States, Dwight David Eisenhower, officially announced that from July 1, 1957 to December 31, 1958, within the framework of the International Geophysical Year (IGY) program, when 67 countries in all the globe will conduct geophysical observations and research according to a unified program and methodology, America intends to launch an artificial Earth satellite. A little later, the Soviet Union made a similar statement, but few people paid attention to him. Although the USSR announced this not behind the scenes, but officially: in the sixth issue of the magazine "Radio" for 1957, radio frequencies and the type of signals of the future satellite were published.
Image -
Eisenhower's advisers believed that the developers of American long-range missiles should not be diverted to ephemeral civilian projects, since the benefits received by the military from a non-military space program would not justify the required costs. The first ballistic missiles were in short supply, and the Administration did not want to waste them on such "trifles" as peaceful space …
Image When, on May 26, 1955, the US National Security Council took stock and adopted Decision # 1408 approving the national space program (provided that it did not interfere with the creation of ballistic missiles) and recommending the United States to “launch a small scientific satellite under the international the patronage of the IGY, emphasizing its peaceful purpose … "was already too late: by the summer of 1955, there were no" non-military "missiles with the required characteristics in the United States.
-
Themselves too clever: in words, Eisenhower rejected the proposals of the Air Force, Navy and the US Army to participate in the creation of the "satellite": in his opinion, the American satellite, officially prepared for launch, "should be used exclusively for scientific purposes, and its existence is not determined by aggressive intentions."
Image 
Image The White House, worried about the possible sharp reaction of the Russians to military vehicles crossing the space over the Soviet Union, intended to first launch a purely "civilian" and "scientific" satellite into orbit so that the Soviet military-political leadership had nothing to object (after all, such launches were officially announced in the IGY program), thus setting the precedent of "open space" (the prevalence of outer space over state borders).
Excerpt from Rand's historic report:
The military importance of launching spacecraft into near-earth orbits is primarily due to the fact that the means of defense against air attack are being rapidly improved. Modern radar technology detects aircraft at distances of up to several hundred miles and is able to provide accurate data on their movement. Anti-aircraft artillery and guided projectiles are capable of striking air targets at a considerable distance, and the use of remote fuses increases the effectiveness of anti-aircraft weapons several times. Under these conditions, much attention is paid to increasing the speed of missile systems, which will significantly complicate their interception. Given this circumstance, it can be assumed that in the future, high-speed unmanned missile systems will be used to a large extent and almost exclusively for air attacks. Consequently, the development of an artificial Earth satellite will be directly related to the creation of an intercontinental ballistic missile. It should also be noted that an artificial Earth satellite is an observation apparatus that cannot be shot down by an adversary who does not have such technical means at his disposal.
Chasing two hares, and even "working undercover", they let both of them
Image The main political and technical task set before NASA and the "rocket baron" who earned the trust of the highest circles was to send a man into space.
After the launch of the PS-1 satellite, Werner von Braun, along with proposals for reviving the Orbiter project put forward a new manned flight program called Project Adam. This program included a two-year work plan for the preparation of a suborbital human flight, which was to take place before the end of 1960. As a carrier, it was supposed to use an upgraded rocket "Redstone", a habitable capsule - a sealed gondola from stratospheric balloons used by the Air Force for high-altitude research. In this case, the gondola was located in the instrument compartment of the rocket, just as the returnable capsules of geophysical rockets are located.
Project "Adam" - "Man Very High"? Mission Impossible… According to the calculations of Werner von Braun, "Redstone" was supposed to take the gondola with a man to an altitude of about 240 km; after that, the gondola is separated from the carrier and for at least 6 minutes moves along a ballistic trajectory, then the parachute is released, and the gondola makes a splashdown
Image In the course of such a suborbital flight, it was planned to study the vital activity of the human body under conditions of overload and weightlessness, to test the operability of manual control and communication systems in natural conditions, and to develop criteria for the design of habitable capsules for future spacecraft. In addition, as it was noted in the memorandum, the launches on the "Adam" project will make it possible to assert the fact of the technical superiority of the United States in the eyes of the world community.
Image 
Image For the preparation and implementation of the first suborbital launch, the Army's Ballistic Missile Directorate requested an allocation of $ 11.5 million, with $ 4.75 million to be transferred immediately.
The Man Very High project was considered in July - August 1958. However, due to the establishment of NASA and the reassignment of all structures involved in astronautics to the new agency, it was rejected. Only the suborbital flight scheme and the Redstone launch vehicle, a direct descendant of the V-2, will remain from the project in the future space program.
Image Project Adam was not the only option for a manned flight that came into being after the start of the race for leadership in space. In addition to von Braun, both the US Navy and the US Air Force have come forward with their proposals to send a man into space. The latter's project - Man in Space Soonest or Project 7969 - was the most thoughtful. Both from an organizational and technical point of view.
There were other projects as well.
But that's a completely different story
Image 
Image 
Image Afterword:
Image When you fly to the moon, "the old forest man told Gagarin jokingly," take them with you. Reliable footwear, see for yourself
<
Image Did not work out. It's a pity: footprints from bast shoes would look very impressive on the moon.
Image Gagarin Suomen television haastattelussa. Juri Gagarin saapui Suomeen junalla. 1961-03-07:
Having listened to (and I recommend to you) the entire reportage on Finnish television, I agree:
You know what kind of a guy he was
The one who opened the star trail?..
There was fire and thunder
Measured the cosmodrome, And he said quietly …
He said, "Let's go!"
He waved his hand …
Original sources, photos, links and videos:
