5 Things You Don't Know about the Space Race

To finish up space month, here are the top 5 things you didn't know about the American/Russian space race.

1. On May 15, 1960, the Russians launched Vostok 1 into orbit over the earth. It was intended to orbit for four days, and then the retro rockets would fire, and it would re-enter earth's atmosphere. At least, that was the plan. What really happened was when the rockets fired, they were pointing in the wrong direction. When they fired, the spacecraft actually went into a higher orbit. The Russians were praised for their ingenuity on making the craft to extend its life in space. Naturally, the whole thing was a mistake that the Russians played off as if they meant for that to happen. The spacecraft that was intended to return in September 1960 didn't actually come back until October 1965.

2. When John Glenn was preparing for his space launch, NASA engineers were trying to figure out how he could take pictures with a 35mm camera in his space suit gloves. They tried everything from riggings to handles to levers, but nothing worked. There was a legitimate fear that they wouldn't be able to figure it out. Some time before the launch, Glenn went into town to get a haircut and pick up some items from a drugstore. In the drugstore, he spotted a new Japanese camera with a big shutter button and auto focus. He bought it for $45 and used it on the space flight.

3. The first woman in space was Valentina Tereshkova, obviously a Russian woman. Unfortunately, she was not ready for space flight, nor was she trained properly. Russian Premier Krushchev wanted the world to think that Russian engineering was so perfect that non-pilots could be sent by the Russians into space. While in space, her transmissions were mostly unintelligible and she was sick most of the time as well as slept too much. Doctors on the ground feared that she was becoming mentally unhinged during her flight. She safely returned to earth, but the rescue team found her sobbing and shaking. She was treated as a hero upon her return, but the truth of what actually happened wasn't released for many years.

4. The first Russian to walk in space was Aleksei Leonov; however, he was also the first space explorer who nearly didn't come back. His space walk lasted about ten minutes. When it was over, he made his way to the air lock, but panic set in when he realized he couldn't get back in. Was the door sealed? Could he not open the door? Nope. His suit had ballooned and wouldn't fit through the doorway. The oxygen in the suit was high pressure which had pushed the suit out too far to fit. The only thing he could do was release oxygen out of his suit to decrease the pressure. It began to work so he made his way back into the spacecraft. The problem then was that his backpack backup kicked in and it re-inflated the suit. So he had to turn his oxygen off and on and squeeze back into his spacecraft. It him longer to get back into the spacecraft than the entire time he spent outside of the spacecraft. When he finally made it back inside, pouring sweat, he wrote the following message: "I think that it is a bit too early to campare outer space with a place for an entertaining stroll."

5. On January 2, 1959, the Russians launched Lunik 1 (also known as Luna 1). Originally, the Russians had a plan to put an atomic bomb on the satellite and crash it into the moon, but they scrapped that idea. Instead, they put sodium particles in it to show when it was leaving earth's atmosphere. The plan was to take space measurements and at the end of the mission crash into the moon. The satellite had two metallic pennants with the Soviet coat of arms. The Russians, however, didn't tell people that the plan was to crash into the moon. When it came time, Lunik 1 was pointed to the moon, but it missed... by a long shot. In fact, it missed by 4,000 miles. The positive side was that Lunik 1 became the first artificial satellite to orbit the sun. It still orbits the sun in the realm of space that's between Earth and Mars.

So, as our month of space expendablenlightenment comes to a close, one can only be left in awe of what's really out there and be left with an appreciation for those who risked their lives in the exploration of it.

Bet you didn't know that!