What Happened 50 Years Ago

What event happened 50 years ago that marked the end of the Best Aerospace Era?

Transcript

Paula: 0:00

For the best Aerospace Era this is Mansplaining. Here is your Host Anthony L. Sealey.

0:10

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome the bookend. Years for the best aerospace era are 1903 and 1975. The 72 years, that changed everything for mankind. Now most people can guess what happened in 1903. Of course, that's when Orville and Wilbur Wright's. First successful test flight of a heavier than air flying machine. The Wright flyer on the beaches of Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Everyone knows this, whether they're an aerospace enthusiast or not, right? A truly historic event that changed civilization for most of the world's population. Born around 1903. And since, but what happened in 1975? What monumental event occurred in that year that warrants being on the other bookend of the best aerospace era? Let's get into that. First, let's see what was going on in 1975, shall we? The Pittsburgh Steelers won the Super Bowl over the Minnesota Vikings. Benny Parsons won the Daytona 500. Jack Nicholas won the Master's tournament at Augusta in Georgia. Serial killers like Samuel Little John Wayne Gacy and the Zodiac Killer were terrorizing cities and neighborhoods around the country. There should be podcasts out there that cover serial killers and murderers, right? Some notable movies were released that year were three days of the Condor, Monty Python, and the Holy Grail. And the Rocky Horror Picture Show. The number one movie at the box office that year was Jaws the Third and Final boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier took place in the Philippines. The Communist regime known as the Kamar Rouge took control of Cambodia and led one of the worst genocides in human history. Also, in 1975, the Vietnam War came to an end with the fall of Sigon the capital of South Vietnam. Now, why are we here? What happened in aerospace history in 1975? There were no moon landings that year in aviation. The appeal and luxury of flying on an airliner began to lose a status in society and became more standard and routine, especially with new discount airline companies and lower fares. This is an interesting topic, but no, that's not it. Can it have something to do with Concord? The Supersonic Airliner an awesome achievement that began development in the 1960s with a partnership between the UK and France. The Soviet Union actually developed a supersonic airliner called the Tupelo TU 1, 4 4 that actually entered service before the Concord. As amazing as both the TU 1 44 and the Concord are, no, that's not it. Then what could it be? What if I told you that during the Cold War that the United States and the Soviet Union space programs. I worked together on a joint space mission. Now, before we talk about this mission, I went to hit home how improbable this mission was. Let me stay the stage and talk about the Cold War General George S. Patton, arguably one of the most polarizing figures of World War ii. Known for his prowess on the battlefield and his controversial actions and statements. He wrote this in his diary in November of 1943. It will be just as bad for us to have Russia win the war as it will be for Germany to do so. To be a success and maintain world peace. The US and the US alone should destroy Germany and, and Japan and be ready to take on Russia after the war in 1945 he said. The Germans are the only decent people left in Europe. It's a choice between them and the Russians. I prefer the Germans. Some may hear this and think General Patton was a Nazi sympathizer. Let's remember that not all Nazis were German, and not all Germans were Nazis. He once implied that being a member of the Nazi party is no different than being a member of the Republican Party or the Democratic Party. That's an interesting thought. Now let's look past his rhetoric on Germany here, and towards his thoughts and warnings about Russia General Patton warned. That the Russians had spies everywhere and that their scientists were developing their own nuclear weapons. And in four years, they will detonate their first bomb with nuclear weapons. Joseph Stalin can realize his ambition for world domination. Say what you will about General Patton, but here he was foretelling and he was not wrong about the Russian spies. The Soviets had a spy named Klaus Fuchs who passed information about the Manhattan Project. To the Soviets in the 1940s. By the way, this is off topic, but there are many famous pictures of General Patton, in his personal Jeep. What, you don't see a rubber ducks on the dash of his jeep. I said, what? I said. Now were there Soviet generals who thought that the Red army should not have stopped in Germany and continued west into Europe. I'm sure there were, even though the people of the USSR suffered greatly during the war with the lack of food and everyday necessities. Along with high death rates. This in addition to the Great Purge inflicted on their society by their own government, that led to millions of deaths in the 1930s and forties. A prominent Russian general named Georgie K. Zhukov once bragged to Patton at a conference about the firepower of the red arm's IS three tank saying my dear Patton, you see that tank? It carries a cannon which can throw a shell seven miles Patton. Unfazed by this statement casually but firmly replied. Indeed. Well, my dear Marshall Zhukov, let me tell you this. If any of my gunners started firing at your people before they had closed to less than 700 yards, I'd have them court marshaled for cowardice. General Zhukov was surprised by this reply. I got these quotes from the book, killing Patton by Martin Dugard and Bill O'Reilly. By the way, now the Red Army was formidable as were their tanks, and Joseph Stalin and the Soviet regime had its sights on more European territories as well as territories in the east like Japan. However, the allies occupied Western Europe and Japan surrendered to the US before the Red Army could invade. The once opportunistic partners who joined forces to defeat Germany, Italy, and Japan began to size each other up. Immediately after World War ii, the Soviet Union had a glaring problem. The US had a monopoly on the most devastating weapons ever made, and just showed they were not afraid to use them. Just as General Patton warned the Soviets ended this monopoly on August 29th, 1949. The Soviet's first nuclear test was estimated to have had a yield of about 22 kilotons. The nuclear race was on. In response, the US successfully tested the first hydrogen bomb on November 1st, 1952. The yield was estimated to be 10.4 megatons. It even destroyed the island It was tested on. The Soviets answered with their own hydrogen bomb test. In 1955, more and more atomic weapon tests were being conducted and the destructive yields were increasing. This culminated in the most destructive bomb ever officially tested. I do wanna stress officially here. On October 30th, 1961, the Soviets tested the most powerful thermonuclear device ever created. The Tsar Bomba its yield 58 Megatons 58. For reference, the nuclear bomb tested on Hiroshima is estimated to only have been around 15 kilotons. There are videos of this ominous Tzar Bomba explosion out there on the internet, by the way. It would be some time before any of these doomsday weapons could actually be implemented into usable weapons with practical delivery systems. The most dangerous delivery system was an intercontinental ballistic missile or ICBM. There was no way to stop an ICBM once it was launched. At the time I called the addition of a nuclear warhead on an ICBM, an unholy marriage. by the way, have you ever looked up how many nuclear tests were conducted in the 1940s, fifties, and sixties? You may be as shocked as I was at how many there were. If you want detailed numbers and information, then go to atomic archive.com. The European Recovery Program are more commonly called. The Marshall Plan was enacted in 1948 to stop the spread of communism in Europe economically. And the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO was formed in 1949 to stop the Soviets militarily, the Warsaw Pact. It was formed in 1955 in response to nato. This was the time of covert operations by the CIA and the KGB throughout the world to further each other's agenda across the globe, the US built up its military and developed a staggering number of nuclear warheads under the false suspicion that the Soviets had more. The US had a superior air force to deliver these weapons. Like the awesome and still in service B 52 bomber. The Soviets had a deadly strategy to overcome the odds. They prioritized though the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles that could carry a nuclear warhead in the orbit over the US air defenses. This delivery system was realized in 1957 with the R seven Rocket, despite the US' efforts, communism spread to China, Korea, and Cuba. Speaking of Cuba, let's talk about the Cuba missile crisis. Most agree. This was the closest the world came to World War iii. How close was it? In October of 1962 in the USSR country of Kazakhstan, near Baikonur and R seven was on the launchpad with a probe intended for Mars. Yes, the Soviets were trying to send probes to Mars. All the way back in the 1960s. The ground personnel were ordered to scrub the lunch. And get that R seven off the launch pad immediately because another R seven equipped with a nuclear warhead was being prepped for lunch at that very pad. Once it was rolled out on the rail system to the launch Padd, it could target New York, Houston, Atlanta, Washington. DC. You name it. With so many weapons pointed at each other, John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev were very close to losing control of the situation. Yes, we were close, ladies and gentlemen. A deal was struck that averted all out war and missiles were removed from strategic staging areas near both countries. Not long after this crisis, Nikita Khrushchev was ousted as a Soviet leader in favor of Leonid Brezhnev, and everyone knows what happened to John F. Kennedy on November 22nd, 1963. Now this brings us to the 1970s a time that was known as Détente, or as a Soviets called it Razryadka, It was a time of more open and less aggressive dialogue between the two superpowers. However, with this tumultuous history, you would think that any kind of joint space mission would be impossible and never happen. Only it did. On July 15th, 1975, Cosmonauts, Alexi Leonov and Valerie Kubasov launched a board, an R seven Rocket on Soyuz 19 at 1520 Baikonor time. That's oh six 20 Eastern time here. Appropriately. They launched first and waited in orbit for their American counterparts on Launchpad 39 B At 1550. Astronauts, Tom Stafford, Deke, Slayton, and Vance Brand launched on a Saturn one B in an Apollo spacecraft. The Saturn V would've been overkill for this particular mission. Tom Stafford said in his book, we have capture that the Saturn one B was a much smoother ride than the Saturn five, by the way, two days later on July 17th, after some complicated orbital maneuvers over the Pacific Ocean and South America,, the Apollo spacecraft rendezvous and docked with the Soyuz. Cosmonaut Alexi Leonev reported to the ground. Soyus and Apollo are shaking hands now. Three hours later, after some test, they opened the hatches and the astronauts and cosmonauts shook hands and embraced each other in celebration. They also checked out each other's spacecrafts. Can you picture a Cosmonaut sitting in the command seat of an Apollo spacecraft or an astronaut looking out the window of a Soyuz spacecraft during the Cold War? Imagine how impossible it would've been just a few years earlier. Both of these spacecrafts were designed for the same purpose of man lunar missions. However, they were vastly different in their design approach. The mission was named Apollo Soyuz test Project in the west, or as a Soviets called it the experimental Flight, Soyuz Apollo as politically complex as the relations were between the Americans and the Russians. It pales in comparison to how complex it was to accomplish this mission Now if you're listening to this in 2025, the anniversary of Apollo Soyuz Test Project is on July 17th. I want to know if you see any news about this event anywhere. I myself did not know that it happened until I came across it during my independent study on the space race while I attended Reinhardt University. I was astonished to learn that the US and the USSR were able to work together on a joint space mission during the Cold War. I want you to consider this. Tom Stafford, Deke Slayton and Vance Brand were all former fighter pilots as well as Alexi Leonov. These men would've been in dog fights in the air. If all out war had broke out between NATO and the Warsaw Pact in the past decades, but here they were celebrating an orbit together with each other. In the case of Tom Stafford and Alexi Leonov, they both flew patrol missions along the line that separate Eastern and Western Germany flying the F 86 saber. In the MIG 15 respectively. I will profile these two men in the future because their accounts from the best aerospace era are fascinating. I believe the Space race played a major role in preventing World War III Who's to say that I would be here making this podcast episode now, or you would be here listening to this now? Had all out nuclear war broke out during the Cold War. This mission proved two vastly different countries technologically and ideologically could work together and achieve something remarkable. This mission came at a challenging time for both nations. The capitalist United States was coming off the heels of the oil crisis, the Watergate scandal, and as I mentioned before. The very controversial end of the Vietnam War, is an estimated over 58,000 Americans were lost in the conflict. The Soviet Union were in the midst. Of what was known as the great stagnation, the Soviet regime prioritized their military budget to a great extent during the Cold War, and especially after the Cuban Missile Crisis. The quality of life was terrible for the average person under the USSR. Their breadlines were long. Also the Soviet leader Brezhnev pressure from party officials and those in the military who thought he should be more aggressive with the west and did not agree with this time of Détente or Razryadka. Also for his handling of the economy, which resulted in the great stagnation. The Cold War had negatively affected both societies, and this is why this handshake and orbit was so improbable. criticism. Aside from the cost of space programs and space missions, the Apollo Soyuz test project set the stage for greater and more ambitious space projects in the future. Like the most complex and most expensive thing mankind has ever made, the International Space Station, it is a collaboration of five different agencies in 15 countries. Here are the list of the countries involved in no particular order. Canada, Japan, France, United Kingdom, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Romania, Norway. Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, the United States and the now Russian Federation were the prime countries that commenced its construction in 1998. The same type of docking mechanism used to begin construction of ISS. Was the same one used in the Apollo Soyuz test project more than two decades earlier. Now imagine getting 15 of your coworkers to stop complaining and work together, or imagine one of those dreaded group projects in college with 15 classmates, or try getting 15 people to agree on something on a social media comment section. Not all these countries, governments have liked each other or agreed with each other in the past or now, but in orbit above the earth, we can work together and achieve monumental success if only we could do that here on earth. The Apollo Soya test project. I believe this mission is up there with Yuri Garins first flight in orbit. Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon, and of course the Wright Brothers first flight. This is why 1975 is the bookend year for the best aerospace era., Not just because it ended the most technological advancement era in aerospace history, but because it set the stage for what we have today and can do in the future. Now, I have mentioned some major events. Themes and figures in this episode, and I want to go into much more detail on these subjects in the future, and also, how close was this unprecedented handshake between an astronaut and Cosmonaut from taking place, not in orbit, but on the lunar surface itself. Standby for more. We are just getting started here at the best aerospace era. In the Mansplaining podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, there's always a light at the end of the runway.

Paula: 29:24

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