|
Author
|
Topic: What if Freedom 7 (Shepard) had launched first?
|
dom
Member Posts: 866
From:
Registered: Aug 2001
|
posted 04-12-2011 02:21 PM
   
Today's anniversary got me thinking...What would have happened if Alan Shepard had indeed been launched first but been upstaged a few weeks later by a one-day orbital mission by Yuri Gagarin (as had been originally planned). Would Shepard's sub-orbital flight have been downgraded in the public's eyes, with Gagarin still keeping his title of "first man in space"? |
JasonB
Member Posts: 1091
From:
Registered: Sep 2003
|
posted 04-13-2011 12:55 PM
No. He would be considered today the first man in space. Most people don't know or care that he basically got lobbed up and came back down or that Gagarin orbited while Shepard didn't. The only thing most people know even today is that Shepard was the first American in space. If he'd beat Gagarin he would be known as the first man in space. It is interesting though to think of how things would have been different had he been the first man up. He probably wouldn't have went to the Moon. Of course the entire space race probably would have played out differently. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 43576
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
|
posted 04-13-2011 01:03 PM
quote:
Originally posted by JasonB:
He probably wouldnt have went to the Moon.
Nor may have anyone else. If Shepard was first, Kennedy would have had no reason to deliver his challenge to the nation. Assuming the rest of history played out as it did, then that would have removed the resolve provided by a fallen president's goal, which played a significant factor in keeping Apollo on track (regardless of what the Soviets were doing). |
JasonB
Member Posts: 1091
From:
Registered: Sep 2003
|
posted 04-14-2011 09:20 AM
Yes it could have very well been the Russians who landed men instead of us. You just never know how things would have played out differently for both sides simply by having Shepard up before Gagarin. |
Skylon
Member Posts: 277
From:
Registered: Sep 2010
|
posted 04-14-2011 10:23 PM
quote:
Originally posted by JasonB:
Most people don't know or care that he basically got lobbed up and came back down or that Gagarin orbited while Shepard didn't.
While I agree that things would have been very different had Shepard beat Gagarin, the American public memory seems to have hoisted John Glenn above Shepard. Showing a keen awareness that getting a man into orbit was the whole point of the Mercury Program. Would the same have been true had Shepard been the first man in space? Would John Glenn have been seen as just another astronaut then? |
golddog
Member Posts: 210
From: australia
Registered: Feb 2008
|
posted 04-15-2011 02:04 AM
I think that if Shepard had been first, but still a suborbital lob, followed by Gagarin as a full orbital flight, the American public would still have acclaimed John Glenn. I am still inclined to think the race to the moon would have gone on. |
Tykeanaut
Member Posts: 2216
From: Worcestershire, England, UK.
Registered: Apr 2008
|
posted 04-15-2011 04:53 AM
Yes, I believe that the United States may well have still gone on and been first on moon. |
cv1701
Member Posts: 31
From:
Registered: Apr 2008
|
posted 04-17-2011 09:31 AM
If Shepard had launched first, he would be regarded as the first man in space, definitely. Suborbital or orbital would not have mattered. What people forget is just how easily history could have played out that way. But it didn't, and all because of the MR-BD flight. After Ham's flight on MR-2 in January, there were still some problems that von Braun and his team wanted to work out. They thought they had everything fixed, but they wanted ONE more test flight... just to make sure. That test flight was a success. If it had been manned, the first man in space would have been Alan Shepard on March 24, 1961. If that had happened, I don't think John Glenn would have become as revered by the American public as he became. Think about it... the Soviets had been first. The US followed shortly after Gagarin's flight, but Shepard and Grissom only went suborbital. It was still underwhelming in comparison to what Gagarin had done. When Glenn flew, his flight brought us up to the capability of the Soviets and I think that fact gave Glenn the opportunity to become the figure that he is. Up until Glenn, everything the US had done had been underwhelming and short of the Soviet achievement. Would Kennedy have still proposed to go to the moon if Shepard was first? That's hard to answer. His proposal followed Sputnik and Gagarin. He proposed the moon because that was something the US had a chance at beating the Soviets at. If Shepard had been first, it would have seemed that the US was ahead of the Soviets (they got a satellite first, but now we got a man first). Kennedy's goal was more compelling and urgent with Gagarin being first. |
ejectr
Member Posts: 1758
From: Killingly, CT
Registered: Mar 2002
|
posted 04-17-2011 11:29 AM
I think the Titov flight had a lot to do with Glenn taking over the lime light as well.Although Gagarin's flight was orbital, it was only once around. When Titov made his flight... the bar was raised even higher sinking sub orbital flight to back seat status. |
Duke Of URL
Member Posts: 1316
From: Syracuse, NY
Registered: Jan 2005
|
posted 05-20-2011 09:20 AM
My suspicion is that the additional tests of Mercury/Redstone had their genesis back in 1956. Von Braun was set to conduct a test that would have put an inert nosecone into orbit. For political reasons such as the military nature of the Army launching as well as the Cold War climate and Eisenhower's "Open Skies" proposal the rocket was modified so it would not orbit.In the panic following Sputnik - and it's my impression Sputnik was no surprise to anyone in the early space "community" (boy do I love that word!) - Von Braun was given the go-ahead and the funding to launch Explorer. One of his goals was manned landings on the moon. I have an early Walt Disney TV program, from 1956 I believe, in which VB lays out his plans. The reality 13 years later was vastly different, but the intent was the same. Given that Von Braun was a very sharp guy to say the least, he would have recalled the aftermath of 56/57 and guessed that the best way to ensure he had the support and funding - no bucks, no Buck Rogers, right? - for a lunar program was to play for time by delaying and hoping the Soviets went first. Right or wrong things worked out like that, but it's always fun to speculate.
|
advertisement