Failure To Launch

Did you know that Ballooning was once an Olympic sport? This week, we're rejoined by Nicholas Slayton (@nslayton) to talk about balloons, specifically all the people who died trying to conquer the Stratosphere.

Find Nicholas' work here and here!

Support FTL through Patreon and unlock bonus content!

Theme song by DJ Danarchy

Sources

1. The Pre-Astronauts, Craig Ryan
2. Gaddafi article from the Independent

This is a preview of a bonus episode. To hear the rest, join our patreon at any tier: https://www.patreon.com/failuretolaunch

Non-failure topic this week as Quinn, Chris, and Other Chris talk about Max Valier, the Austrian dude largely responsible for popularizing space research, creating the first professional rocket program, and riding rocket cars.

Support FTL through Patreon and unlock bonus content!

Sources

- Max Valier, A Pioneer of Space Travel - Ilse Essers

- The Rocket Men (Air Force Magazine)

Theme song by DJ Danarchy

*CONTENT WARNING*

This week, we're back with Taylor and Tanner of the Beyond the Breakers podcast for part 2 of our series on Soyuz 11.

Follow Beyond the Breakers here

Support FTL through Patreon and unlock new bonus content

Sources:

- Salyut - The First Space Station: Triumph and Tragedy, Grujica Ivanovich (2008)

- Rockets and People Volume 4: The Moon Race, Boris Chertok (2013)

Theme song by DJ Danarchy

The story of the world's first space station is complicated, tragic, and incredibly stupid. Today, we're joined by Tanner and Taylor from @beyond_breakers to talk about it.

Follow Beyond the Breakers here!

Support FTL through Patreon and unlock new bonus content!

Sources:

- Salyut - The First Space Station: Triumph and Tragedy, Grujica Ivanovich (2008)

- Rockets and People Volume 4: The Moon Race, Boris Chertok (2013)

- Mir Hardware Heritage, NASA (1995)

Theme song by DJ Danarchy

This is a preview of a bonus episode. To hear the rest, join our patreon at any tier: https://www.patreon.com/failuretolaunch

The French were the first to fly and it made them really weird about balloons. This episode, we're joined by journalist @NSlayton to talk all about the first balloons and aeronauts.

Find Nicholas' work here and here!

Support FTL through Patreon and unlock new bonus content!

Sources:

- The Aeronauts, Donald Dale Jackson

- The Early History of Ballooning, Fraser Simons

What if America got so scared they let a Greek elevator repairman turn off the sky? In this episode, Quinn, Chris, and Other Chris are joined by guest youtuber Phrosphor to talk all about Operation Argus, the Cold War plan to hide America under a radioactive death cloud.

Check out Phros' work here!

Support the show and unlock bonus content!

Sources:

Burning the sky: Operation Argus and the Untold Story of the Cold War Nuclear Tests in Outer Space. Mark Wolverton, 2018

Iron Sky was alarmingly close to being a documentary. This week, Quinn is joined by Joe and Tom, the hosts of Lions Led By Donkeys to talk about all the ways the Soviets tried to put weapons in space. It involves far more flamingos than you'd expect.

Sources:

- Energiya-Buran: The Soviet Space Shuttle, Bart Hendrickx

- RussianSpaceWeb.com, Anatoly Zak

This is a preview of a bonus episode. To hear the rest, join our patreon at any tier: https://www.patreon.com/failuretolaunch

Turns out there were a lot of Soviet space teen movies. And some of them are even good.

Last time, we talked about the biggest rocket ever designed. This time, we're rejoined by guest Scott to talk about the lunatic who designed it, Bob Truax. Also making appearances in this story: Johnny Carson, Evel Knievel, Robert Goddard, and a tortilla baron.

Sources:

- Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition, Ed Regis

We've also got a patreon! If you want to support FTL and unlock bonus episodes, follow the link below!
https://www.patreon.com/failuretolaunch

The 60s was a time for scientists and engineers to ask the tough questions. Questions like: what if a rocket was so big it was a railroad? This episode, we're joined by friend of the show and rocket engineer Scott to talk about Sea Dragon, the largest rocket ever designed.

*This was our longest recording ever and ran into a couple of technical problems so please excuse some muddiness here and there that we couldn't edit around.

We've also got a patreon! If you want to support the show and unlock bonus episodes, follow the link below!
https://www.patreon.com/failuretolaunch

This is a preview of a bonus episode. To hear the rest, join our patreon at any tier: https://www.patreon.com/posts/96333556?pr=true If you ever wanted to see a dude drill a venusian rabbit-lizard with a WW1-era handgun, we've got you covered.

Couldn't have happened to a worse guy (still didn't deserve to be airbrushed). Today Quinn, Chris, and Other Chris start off 2024 by talking about Grigory Nelyubov, the cosmonaut who fell from grace and got written out of history for being an arrogant prick.

We've also got a patreon! If you want to support the show and unlock a new bonus episode, follow the link below! https://www.patreon.com/failuretolaunch

Sources:

- The First Soviet Cosmonaut Team, Colin Burgess

- The Cosmonauts Who Weren't There, James Oberg

A few days before Christmas in 1960, a pair of Soviet space dogs (Comet and Joke) were launched toward orbit to pave the way for Yuri Gagarin.

To every listener of FTL, thank you, have good holidays however you celebrate it, and you can expect a lot more fun (horrible) stories and guests in 2024.

In the early 60s, the Soviets convinced the world their space program worked flawlessly by only announcing successes and covering up all failures. This policy extended to the people who worked for them.

In this short series, we'll be looking at all the cosmonauts who were written out of history, starting with the first cosmonaut to ever die in the line of duty: Valentin Bondarenko.

Sources

- The First Soviet Cosmonaut Team, Colin Burgess

- The Cosmonauts Who Weren't There, James Oberg

In late 1944, the Polish Home Army undertook one of the coolest resistance missions in WW2: stealing an entire V2 rocket and smuggling it to the UK. This episode, we're joined by @RedeyeReviewer to talk about a story that really deserves to be an action flick.

Check out Redeye's channel!

Sources:

The Polish Underground, 1939-1947

Animals in Space

From space engineer to arms dealer to the pawn of a dictator. This episode, Quinn, Chris, and Other Chris talk to documentary maker BobbyBroccoli about the story of Gerald Bull, the most infamous figure in Canadian space history.

When most people think "space chimp" they probably think of Ham, the friendly cuddly primate that paved the way for American astronauts. They don't think of the mean one. In today's episode, we're joined by podcast host Francis Horton (@ArmyStrang) to talk about Enos, the coolest space chimp.

Sources:

- Packing For Mars, Mary Roach

- Animals In Space, Chris Dubbs & Colin Burgess

- https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/enos-forgotten-chimp

On today's episode, Quinn, Chris, and Other Chris are joined by award-winning author Mary Roach to talk about her book Packing For Mars as well as the more secretive side of astronaut culture.

Check out Mary's writing here.

Today, we're back talking to podcast host and producer Nate Bethea about OTRAG, the world's first private launch company, the weird dictators they worked with, and a lot more crocodiles than you'd expect.

Sources:

Projet Wotan, Joelle Stolz

Today, Quinn, Chris, and Other Chris are joined by Nate Bethea to talk about OTRAG, the first private rocket company. In Part 1, we cover the origins of Lutz Kayser and all the Nazis and dictators he worked with.

Sources:

1. Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition, Ed Regis
2. Projet Wotan, Joelle Stolz

The Soviet everyman. The first Soviet sex symbol. The boyish Russian nationalist. The first man in space played a lot of roles. In this episode, Quinn, Chris, and Other Chris talk to space historian Andrew Jenks to try to get to the bottom of just who Yuri Gagarin was.

The answer: "Complicated."

In a bid to find more soldiers to send to Ukraine, Russia has found an interesting new recruitment pool: rocket scientists. In this experimental short, Quinn talks briefly about Roscosmos' new Uran Battalion and the 60 year old men being offered the chance to die in the trenches.

Not really sure what these shorts will turn into, if they continue. Bonus content, emergency filler episodes. But if you have opinions, let us know.

Sources:

https://www.ft.com/content/c194cb2d-3aa0-4195-9be5-e78c1d2fd183

As the Cultural Revolution threw China into chaos, no institution was immune, not even their highly-secretive rocket program. In this episode we talk to Tom O'Mahony, host of the 33rd County and Beneath The Skin podcasts, about how China's rocket scientists spent the late 60s brawling in the streets and assassinating each other over office politics.

Check out our guest, Tom (@gotitatguineys)

• Host of 33rd County and Beneath The Skin
• Producer of What a Hell of a Way to Die and Lions Led By Donkeys

Sources

• Making Breakthroughs in the Turbulent Decade, Chengzhi Li
• Thread of the Silkworm, Iris Chang
• China in Space, Brian Harvey

The first Moon Race wasn't to land people. It wasn't even to land. In the late 1950s, the Soviets and Americans raced to see who could be the first to slam satellites into the Moon at Mach 10. In this episode, Quinn, Chris, and Other Chris interview space historian Andrew LePage on his work, his blog, and the probes that paved the way for Apollo.

Go check out Drew's website! Also, a big thanks to Drew for coming on the show.

Show Notes

• https://www.drewexmachina.com/2015/09/27/nasas-forgotten-lunar-program/
• https://www.drewexmachina.com/2018/11/08/the-first-race-to-the-moon-getting-off-the-ground/
• https://www.drewexmachina.com/2019/09/14/the-first-race-to-the-moon-reaching-our-neighbor/
• https://www.drewexmachina.com/2019/10/04/luna-3-shedding-light-on-the-dark-side-of-the-moon/

Quinn, Chris, and Other Chris finish up their coverage of Soyuz 1 and Vladimir Komarov, the first man to die during a space mission. We also talk about the hundreds of dumb conspiracy theories that popped up around Soyuz 1, how they got started, and how they succeeded in replacing the truth.

Sources

• Soyuz 1: The Death of Vladimir Komarov by Asif Siddiqi
• https://www.drewexmachina.com/2017/04/26/soyuz-1-tragedy/
• https://www.russianspaceweb.com/soyuz1.html
• http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/Soyuz1Land/Soyanaly.htm#Asif2
• https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2011/05/02/134735091/questions-questions-questions-more-on-a-cosmonauts-mysterious-death

The cosmonaut who cursed the Soviet Union as he burned alive. The friend who died to protect Yuri Gagarin. The lump of carbon in an open casket. There are a lot of stories out there about Vladimir Komarov and Soyuz 1, and most of them are lies. In this episode, Quinn, Chris, and Other Chris go over what really happened to the first man to die during a spaceflight.

Show Notes:

• Soyuz 1: The Death of Vladimir Komarov by Asif Siddiqi
• http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/Soyuz1Land/SoyAtti.htm
• https://www.russianspaceweb.com/soyuz1.html
• https://www.drewexmachina.com/2017/04/26/soyuz-1-tragedy/

This episode, Quinn, Chris, and Other Chris talk about the history of Space Hygiene and the worst space mission that everyone survived. Topics covered include:

• The Soviet and American test subjects who didn't bathe for science
• The Gemini 7 astronauts who stewed in their spacesuits for two weeks
• The Salyut cosmonauts who almost drowned using the first space shower

Sources:

1. Packing For Mars, Mary Roach
2. https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/mission_trans/gemini7.htm

This episode we cover the history of the longest-running cooperation in space history, BION, as well as the endangered species it launched into space and the people who chained themselves to a door to shut it down.

Sources:
Animals in Space, Chris Dubbs & Colin Burgess
NASA
Institute for Biomedical Problems / Roscosmos

The Navy tries to launch a grapefruit into orbit, an Army general LARPs as a Bond villain, and America's first satellite launch comes down to the dumbest photo-finish in space history. Part 2/2 of our series on Project Vanguard, the US Navy's flawed satellite launch program.

Sources:
Red Moon Rising, Matthew Brzezinski
Vanguard: A History, NASA

The story of probably the funniest and worst field in space science. We cover the history of space toilets from the Gemini "Defecation Glove" to the Shuttle Toilet-Blender.

Show Notes
- Packing For Mars, Mary Roach
- How Do You Go To The Bathroom In Space, William R. Pogue

Project Vanguard, the US Navy's plan to put a satellite in orbit, isn't one of those space stories that's well-remembered and with good reason - it was a historic failure and a national embarrassment. Needless to say, we were interested. In this episode, America tries to beat the Soviets to orbit with three (3) competing space programs, Navy engineers discover possibly the most dangerous chemicals on the planet, and an unfinished, untested, underfunded, and mismanaged rocket is forced to perform "the wettest dry run in history".

P.S. Thank you to Sarah from the It Came From The Sea podcast for the intro (the annoyed tone is intentional and hopefully not directed at us)

Sources:
Red Moon Rising, Matthew Brzezinski
Ignition, John D. Clark
Vanguard: A History, NASA

In this episode, we take a look into the idea of delivering mail by rocket. It's a story of colonialism, Nazis, scammers, stamp collectors, and possibly the dumbest/coolest conman of all time. 

Most people know about Laika the space dog or ham the astrochimp. What most people don't know about are the cyberpunk animals of the French Space Program. This episode, we explore CERMA, the Hammaguir launch site, and the various endangered animals France launched into space.

Show Notes:
Start of "Soviet September", where Quinn is banned from talking about the USSR or their space program for the next four (4) episodes, inclusive.

Sources:
Animals in Space: From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle, Colin Burgess, 2007

The Soviets came up with some truly innovative ways to protect their cosmonauts and space stations. This episode, we dig through a layer of Cold War secrecy and cover-ups to bring you the history of space guns. From cosmonaut Alexei Leonov taking on a wolfpack with a 1.5lb handgun to the Space Shuttle kicking off a wave of stupid Soviet space weapons.

Part 2 of our 2 part series. In 1978, a Soviet spy satellite carrying weapons-grade uranium slammed into Canada's Northwest Territories. This episode, we talk about the scientists, soldiers, and psychics who signed on with Operation Morning Light to clean up the mess and why they failed.

Content Warning: As with most things involving the Canadian government's treatment of First Nations people, a fair amount of racism.

Sources:
Leo Heaps, Operation Morning Light: Terror in Our Skies : the True Story of Cosmos 954
http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/trackind/RORSAT/RORSAT.html#References
https://web.archive.org/web/20110929125210/http://gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/gamma/ml_e.php

This series, we are doing a deep dive on Cosmos 954, the Soviet spy satellite carrying a nuclear reactor that deorbited and crashed into Canada's Northwest Territories. In Part 1, we focus on the satellite itself, how it failed, and how a little-known American government agency stepped up to tackle a nuclear disaster. Topics covered include:

- Why the Soviets loaded a spy satellite with weapons-grade uranium
- The horrible "failsafes" they designed into their satellites
- How a nuclear prank in Boston scared the US into taking accidents seriously
- How all of this is (tangentially) Korolev and Khrushchev's fault

This episode, we take a look at the history of Sputnik 2 as well as the the Soviet answer to Project Albert: the Canine Cosmonaut program.
Topics covered include:
- How Korolev designed, built, and launched a satellite in less than a month.
- Why the Soviets only picked stray female mutts to fly on their rockets.
- Why there was no reason for Laika to die except Khrushchev's ego.

Show Notes:
Red Moon Rising by Matthew Brzezinski
Animals in Space by Colin Burgess and Chris Dubbs

This episode, we finish our three-part series on Sputnik 1 and the people, politics, and egos that launched the Space Race. Topics covered include:
- The decisions that made Sputnik 1 the perfect propaganda tool and worthless as a scientific instrument
- Khrushchev chopping up the Red Army and purging its top general
- How media and politicians in the West fanned the flames of Sputnik Panic
- How a beeping ball made the Soviet Union into a true superpower

In this episode, we continue our investigation into Sputnik 1, its troubled development, and the politics that went into world's first satellite. Topics covered include:

- Khrushchev being so sold on rockets he slashes the Red Army by a third
- Rival engineers who got each other sent to the gulag
- Building a rocket site in the most inhospitable place on Earth
- Two revolutions, one coup d'état, and the least-bloody purge in Soviet history

Back from an extended hiatus, we take a look at the cult that developed around Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. Topics covered include:
- Gagarin's folk tale-worthy landing and the subsequent cover-up
- Gagarin's father being demoted to his uncle by state propaganda
- Yuri's unlikely role as the first Soviet sex symbol
- How the Kremlin exploited (and continues to exploit) Gagarin's legacy

Show Notes
Suggestion & Question Email: [email protected]
Podcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/launch_failure

Episode Notes
Source for Gagarin Cult History: The Cosmonaut Who Couldn't Stop Smiling: The Life and Legend of Yuri Gagarin by Andrew L. Jenks, 2012  
Source for Propaganda Posters: https://russiatrek.org/blog/art/propaganda-posters-of-soviet-space-program-1958-1963/
Source for Putin Quotes: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/68180

Between super-heavy lifters, centrifuges throwing shells into space, or hypersonic warheads, this is a time of Sputnik Moments - moments in history that represent a great leap in science. But what about the first Sputnik Moment? What about the satellite that was so influential that it set the bar for every scientific breakthrough since and kicked off the greatest (peaceful) competition in human history? In this set of episodes, Quinn, Chris, and Other-Chris will take a deep dive into the horrible reasons that made Sputnik happen, the development of objectively the worst satellite ever made, and the way a small chrome ball turned the geopolitical world on its head.

In part one, we talk about the US general, competing scientists, and brutal rebellion that made Sputnik happen.

No better way to start off than to dive into the wonderful world of animal experimentation. In Episode Zero, Quinn and Chris go over America's Project Albert, Nazi rockets cobbled together from spare parts, so many dead monkeys, and much more.