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The Moon Landing Conspiracy:what The USSR Said. Qna by MOSTEC(m): 11:27am On Dec 13, 2016 |
The Moon Landing
through Soviet Eyes:
A Q&A with Sergei
Khrushchev, son of
former premier
Nikita Khrushchev
A son of the Cold War tells
what it was like from the
losing side of the Space
Race--and how the U.S.S.R.'s
space program fizzled after
Sputnik and Gagarin |
Re: The Moon Landing Conspiracy:what The USSR Said. Qna by MOSTEC(m): 11:29am On Dec 13, 2016 |
The Cold War between the
U.S. and the U.S.S.R. formed
the backdrop of the Apollo
program, as the two
superpowers jockeyed for
preeminence in space. Under
premier Nikita Khrushchev,
the Soviet Union had
succeeded in launching
Sputnik 1, the first artificial
satellite, and sending the
first man into orbit.
Reeling from a succession of
Soviet space firsts,
President John F. Kennedy
promised that the U.S. would
be first to send humans to
the moon and return them to
Earth before the end of the
1960s. On July 20, 1969, that
promise came true as
Americans claimed victory
when Neil Armstrong and
Buzz Aldrin walked on the
moon, witnessed by some
500 million television viewers
on Earth.
Sergei Khrushchev, Nikita's
son, recently looked back
and remembered what it felt
like to be on the Soviet side.
(These days, Khrushchev,
74, is a fellow at Brown
University's Watson Institute
for International Studies
in Providence, R.I., where he
spoke in his office,
surrounded by Soviet
memorabilia.) |
Re: The Moon Landing Conspiracy:what The USSR Said. Qna by MOSTEC(m): 11:30am On Dec 13, 2016 |
Where were you when
Neil Armstrong and
Buzz Aldrin landed on
the moon?
I remember the moon landing
very well. I was 34. I was on
vacation with my friends,
most of whom worked at the
Chelomei design bureau.
There was also an officer
from the KGB. We were in
Ukraine, in Chernobyl. It was
exactly the place where they
later built the [infamous]
nuclear power station. The
KGB officer had just returned
from Africa, and he had
brought a small telescope. So
we looked through the
telescope, but we didn’t see
any moon landing! So it was
still questionable to us!
[laughs] |
Re: The Moon Landing Conspiracy:what The USSR Said. Qna by MOSTEC(m): 11:32am On Dec 13, 2016 |
How widely was the
news of the moon
landing disseminated in
the Soviet Union in
advance of the event? Of course, you cannot have people land on the moon and just say nothing. It was published in all the newspapers. But if you remember [back then] when Americans spoke of the first man in space, they were always talking of "the first American in space" [not Yuri Gagarin]. The same feeling was prevalent in Russia. There were small articles when Apollo 11 was launched. Actually, there was a small article on the first page of Pravda and then three columns on page five. I looked it up again. |
Re: The Moon Landing Conspiracy:what The USSR Said. Qna by MOSTEC(m): 11:33am On Dec 13, 2016 |
What was the mood in
the Soviet space
program when
astronauts from Apollo
11 landed on the moon?
It was very similar to feeling
among Americans when
Gagarin went into orbit. Some
of them tried to ignore it,
some of them were insulted.
But I don't think it had a
strong popular effect. First
of all, the Soviet propaganda
did not play it up or give too
much information. I remember
I watched a documentary on
this. It was not secret, but it
was not shown to the public.
The Russian people had
many problems in day-to-
day life, they were not too
concerned about the first
man on the moon. |
Re: The Moon Landing Conspiracy:what The USSR Said. Qna by MOSTEC(m): 11:34am On Dec 13, 2016 |
Was Russia pretty
close?
The Russians were not
pretty close. I think Russia
had no chance to be ahead
of the Americans under
Sergei Korolev and his
successor, Vasili Mishin.
[Sergei Korolev was the
leader of the Russian space
program who, with Mishin
overseeing the development
of the rocket, succeeded in
launching Sputnik 1. He died
in January 1966.—Editor's
Note]
Korolev was not a scientist,
not a designer: he was a
brilliant manager. Korolev's
problem was his mentality.
His intent was to somehow
use the launcher he had.
[The launcher was called N1].
It was designed in 1958 for
a different purpose and with
a limited payload of about 70
tons.] His philosophy was,
let's not work by stages [as
is usual in spacecraft design]
, but let's assemble
everything and then try it.
And at last it will work. There
were several attempts and
failures with Lunnik [a series
of unmanned Soviet moon
probes]. Sending man to the
moon is too complicated, too
complex for such an
approach. I think it was
doomed from the very
beginning.
Of course, you must
understand that I am
speaking from the point of a
competitor. We worked with
our own project, [at] the
Chelomei design bureau.
Maybe we were more
realistic. But I don't think we
would have been able to
beat the Americans.
When talking about the
Russian space program,
there is a misconception in
the West that it was
centralized. In reality, it was
more decentralized than in
the United States, which had
one focused Apollo program.
In the Soviet Union, there
were different designers who
competed with one another. |
Re: The Moon Landing Conspiracy:what The USSR Said. Qna by MOSTEC(m): 11:35am On Dec 13, 2016 |
What was your father's
perspective on Apollo
11? Did you discuss
with him the American
moon landing over the
years?
My father's reaction was he
couldn't understand why
Korolev failed in this race.
And of course I gave him my
opinion why. My father did
not discuss [the moon
landing] too much. He listened
to me. He was very proud of
Sputnik; he wrote about it in
his memoirs. |
Re: The Moon Landing Conspiracy:what The USSR Said. Qna by MOSTEC(m): 11:36am On Dec 13, 2016 |
What are your thoughts
about renewed efforts
to go to the moon?
The Apollo project was a
political project. Now we are
under very different
circumstances. Also, a big
difference is technological
achievement. At that time, we
were at the beginning of the
age of [space] automation,
discovery and research. Now
we have all this, starting
from the spectacular
achievements of the Hubble
Space Telescope and the
Mars rovers, etc. I would
give priority to automated
vehicles, not manned
spaceflight. |
Re: The Moon Landing Conspiracy:what The USSR Said. Qna by daewoorazer(m): 11:44am On Dec 13, 2016 |
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Re: The Moon Landing Conspiracy:what The USSR Said. Qna by Elchappo: 12:45pm On Dec 13, 2016 |
daewoorazer: i am sure u meant "Space" the new company that would be producing pencil in nigeria by 2030 1 Like |
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