Gagarin's triumph: How Soviet audacity eclipsed NASA's caution
The propaganda success triggered by Gagarin's orbit of Earth on April 12, 1961, was enormous. However, we forget that history could have unfolded differently. NASA's cautious approach aided the Russians.
Sixty-four years ago, on Wednesday, April 12, 1961, when the clocks in Poland struck 6:07 AM GMT, the Vostok 8K72K rocket (a modified version of the R-7 Semyorka ballistic missile) launched into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh SSR. At its top was the Vostok 1 capsule (initially called Vostok) with cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who embarked on humanity's first space voyage. Radio Moscow only announced the launch at 7:00 AM GMT when the capsule flew over the Strait of Magellan. By then, it was already sure that the mission could succeed.
Fifty years later, the UN recognised April 12 as the International Day of Human Space Flight. The beginnings of space exploration could have been different if NASA and Wernher von Braun had not demonstrated extreme caution. This caution was absent six years later when three astronauts died in the Apollo 1 fire. The lack of delays in the Apollo programme could have led to an even earlier landing of Americans on the Moon. The success of an American as the first human in space might, although not necessarily, have influenced the fate of the Soviet Union.
Numbers indicate a double success for the Russians
In 1961, less than three weeks after Gagarin's flight, the Mercury-Redstone 3 rocket (Freedom 7) launched from the Air Force base at Cape Canaveral with Alan Shepard aboard. He also reached space. His mission was less advanced than that of the Russians. Vostok 1 performed an orbital flight lasting 1 hour and 48 minutes, while the Freedom 7 capsule completed only a 15-minute suborbital flight. It is worth noting that before the capsule was landed, Gagarin was ejected with a parachute and touched down 10 minutes later, and the reported mission time included Gagarin's landing moment.
Vostok 1 rose to 327 kilometres, whereas Freedom 7 reached "only" 187 kilometres. Gagarin orbited the Earth and landed near Saratov on the Volga. Shepard travelled less than 500 kilometres and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean. From a technical standpoint, the Russians' success was double - the first-ever manned flight and an orbital flight.
In August 1961, the Russians sent Gherman Titov into space, who competed with Gagarin for a place in the Vostok 1 capsule. Titov also amazed the world, completing a flight lasting more than 25 hours and orbiting the Earth 17 times. John Glenn's flight aboard the Friendship 7 capsule, which first orbited Earth three times on February 20, 1962, seems a meagre achievement compared to Titov's success. However, do you remember that Gagarin was only 157 cm tall, while both Shepard and Glenn were over 20 cm taller and barely fit into the capsule?
Americans could have succeeded first
We rarely remember that on July 21, 1961, Gus Grissom (the same one who perished in the Apollo 1 capsule) completed another suborbital flight (Mercury-Redstone 4), reporting as the third human in space. Shepard's flight could have occurred as early as March 6, 1961, or earlier. However, NASA decided on March 24 to conduct one more uncrewed test flight. Interestingly, just a day later, a dog named Little Star was launched from Baikonur as a general tester of the Vostok capsule before Gagarin's launch (Korabl-Sputnik 5 flight).
Yes, the Americans performed only suborbital flights, and technically their achievements weighed less than the Russians', but history might have remembered it differently. Besides, NASA could have decided that a successful manned flight before the Russians would pave the way for a faster orbital flight.
Just six weeks after Gagarin's flight, on May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced to Congress a plan to send a human to the surface of the Moon. This surprised some NASA employees. Despite ambitious plans for manned space exploration and even visions of a landing on Mars in the 20th century, they did not know how to achieve the lunar goal by the end of the decade. Kennedy's decision was driven not only by Gagarin's success but also by the complex geopolitical situation on Earth - the failed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro's regime in Cuba and the escalation of conflict in the Far East were damaging the image of the USA.
Many of these events would have occurred regardless of who was first in space, but sometimes small things can trigger significant changes. Statistics can be interpreted and presented in different ways, so it is not untrue to say that by the end of July 1961, three humans had been to space - two Americans and one Russian. What a different impression that makes. In this way, the narrative of the USA's superiority over the USSR was later constructed and justified. In it, the first simultaneous flight of two vehicles, the first flight of more than one person, the first woman in space, the first spacewalk by the Russians, and even the first flight of living organisms around the Moon by them, overshadowed the success associated with Americans landing on the Moon.
Why didn't Alan Shepard become the first human in space?
Unsurprisingly, Alan Shepard was disappointed with NASA's slowness, which repeatedly delayed his flight for additional tests. A successful mission was expected as early as January 1961. The March 6 date, initially considered official, also failed, more than a month before Gagarin's flight. Even on May 2, when Shepard was already in the capsule, the launch was aborted due to bad weather.
NASA's caution, however, had justification - in November 1960, the first flight of the Mercury-Redstone rocket rose only 10 cm above the launch platform. Another uncrewed flight was successful, but in January 1961, during the flight of a chimpanzee named Ham, the final dress rehearsal with a "crew" before Shepard's flight, problems arose. The Redstone rocket engines caused them. It sent the capsule too high, exposing the "passenger" to greater-than-expected g-forces. There was also a capsule breach during landing, and the capsule took on water while already in the ocean. Any of these could have endangered Shepard's life.
Wernher von Braun convinced NASA to perform one more test flight under Mercury-Redstone Booster Development. Paradoxically, during his flight, Gagarin experienced similar problems (orbital altitude too high). However, the Soviet Union was more willing to risk human life by sending a person on a risky journey.
Thus, April 12, 1961, became marked in history as the day humanity reached space. The Soviet Union's success pained the American public and politicians more than NASA's, as it consistently pursued its plan for space conquest.
