The Soviet Space Program

Abstract

The launching of Sputnik on Oct. 4, 1957, ushered in the Space Age, with the Soviet Union as its leader, and initiated one of the most suspenseful engineering and scientific races of all time. Since day, the Soviet and American space programs have been the national barometers of technological expertise and been used as political ploys and pawns by both Premiers and Presidents. The first 12 years were characterized largely by competition. From the beginning of planning in 1955 for the International Geophysical Year to 1969 when the two nations were clearly on a competitive, parallel course to the moon, there was much duplication and little cooperation. This was true in spite of the more than 25 formal invitations for cooperation issued to the Soviet Union by the United States. Only two bilateral agreements resulted, one in 1962 and one in 1965, and they were described as very limited in character. They covered four projects in satellite meteorology, communications, geomagnetic surveying and space biology and medicine. Only the one in space biology and medicine has produced any significant exchange of data and did not essentially begin until late January 1970. (A three-volume book is due to be published jointly with contributions from both Soviet and American scientists.) Now there is some indication a new era-one of cooperation or coordination between the two space giants -may be in its embryonic stage. Last month during the Soviet's 24th Party Congress and on Cosmonaut Day, April 12, the 10th anniversary of the first man in space (Yuri Gagarin) several public statements were made. In addition to disclosing the trend of future Soviet space plans, they endorsed cooperation with the United States. At a Kremlin celebration attended by 6,000, the president of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R., Mstislav V. Keldysh, praised both countries. Tremendous potentialities in the study of earth's natural satellite were uncovered by the flights of American astronauts to the moon and the development in our own country of new types of automatic lunar stations, he noted. A statement from 19 of the Russian cosmonauts also stressed cooperation. We think, they said, that in the interest of peace and friendship between the peoples of our planet, business cooperation between space explorers of different countries including the Soviet Union and the United States should develop and grow stronger. The public statements bode well for two recent agreements concerning space cooperation. The most recent one, reached in January but not signed until late March, outlines results of discussions between the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It covers areas for increased cooperation between the Soviet Union and the United States in the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes. Topics listed for discussion by working groups included: * Meteorological satellites. To work jointly to make improvements in the current exchange of data and to consider alternative possibilities for coordinating satellite systems of both countries