The Video Edition

Little-known video from the Soviet Space Program

Introduction:

I’ve not really done video on this substack before, and this seems a good time to try it, as I recently gained access to a lot of little-known content. The result of this will be not much to read, but lots to watch.

Let me know if you want more videos in the comments please.

Kozyavka and Albina, Space Dogs.

Kozyavka & Albina flew together twice in a row - on June 7 & 14, 1956 on R-1E missiles. Both times, under the same conditions, one dog showed an increase in heart rate, the other - a slowdown. This phenomenon has been recorded as a special personal flight tolerance. They were the 14th and 15th dogs to fly on Soviet rockets. Currently, there’s an effigy of Kozyavka in the State Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia.

This short video shows the dogs in training, during, and after their flight.

R-1 Rocket Testing

The Soviet Union did not get anything like as many V2 rockets from Germany at the end of WW II as the USA did. They also captured fewer German rocket engineers. They therefore decided that the top priority was to master the technology used, and the first step was to build a copy. This was the R-1, the direct ancestor of the R-7, which shook the world by launching Sputnik 1.

This long video, (nearly 40 minutes), covers the work on this historic rocket.

Vasily Mishin, Short Interview

After Korolev’s death, Mishin took over, and became responsible for the N-1 program. While Mishin was a superb engineer, he lacked Korolev’s leadership and people skills. He is frequently blamed for the failure of the Soviet Union’s Lunar Program, but in my view, this is unfair - by the time he took over the underfunded and delayed program had zero chance of beating the USA to the surface of the Moon.

In this short video he is interviewed, surrounded by Lunar program hardware, (I think at the Moscow Aviation Institute).

Testing a Venera Probe.

Landing a probe on Venus is insanely difficult, with temperatures hot enough to melt lead, rains of scalding sulphuric acid, and surface pressures 93 times higher than we experience on Earth.

This shows some of the testing they did - I could make the case that the Venera landers are the toughest machines ever built. I’m not sure exactly which Venera is covered in the video.

Buran Rollout, and pad facilities

New to me, rollout of Buran / Energia. It’s also interesting to see the distinctive 3 blast pits at the launch site, which was converted from one of the N-1 launch pads. And you get a view looking down on a “grasshopper” transporter, with nothing mounted on top of it, unique as far as I know.

This Editions Cool Visual:

I’m going to blow my own trumpet this time, and share my showreel, (which does contain quite a few Soviet Space Shots in it!). And I’m available for hire, video and still images, not just Soviet stuff, but all sorts of unflown projects, and hard SF.

This Editions Cool Link:

Yup, me again! This is my Vimeo channel, where you will find a lot more of my work. I’m available to hire, and licencing of existing video and stills is extremely affordable!

https://vimeo.com/starbase1
(I prefer Vimeo to YouTube - no adverts, clean layout, and MUCH less aggressive compression).

That’s all folks!