Today we - or the Russians - celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the first space aircraft launched into space - Sputnik 1. This marked the start of a race in space and for the Americans it was a great defeat to see the Sovjet Union being ahead of them. It was not only a defeat but the American government thought that this could become a military threat against the country. President Eisenhower at the time declared that the United States also could have launched their own Sputnik if they had lowered the scientific demands of the operation. This was of course nonsense. He lied to the whole nation. The Sputnik showed that the Sovjet Union now could strike the United States with long distance missiles and USA was actually far behind. A month later Sputnik 2 was launched with one passenger, namely the dog Lajka. Poor dog!
Sputnik 3 on the other hand became a failure as the tape recorder that was supposed to record the event did not work. This could have been avoided if not the premier of the Sovjet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, had refused to postpone the launch. The reason he did not postpone was because he had promised the Italian communist leaders something special in connection to the election the day after. Since these early days 4 500 satellites have been launched - half of which have been military spy satellites! I heard an interview on the BBC where a Russian space expert thought that within twelve-fifteen years they will be able to launch the first manned space aircraft for a journey to Mars. And for what good?
I Sverige har uppskjutningen av den rymdfärja som tog Christer Fuglesangtill rymdstationen ISS, väckt enormt uppseende. Han har väntat på detta tillfälle sedan 1992, om jag erinrar mig korrekt.
Utanför Kulturhuset i Stockholm finns uppbyggt en provisorisk byggnad som kallas 'Rymdbas Stockholm'vilken innehåller information om denna och andra rymdfärder samt det arbete som skall utföras under denna färd. Workshops, utställningar, fester och konserter ingår också i programmet.
Stora bilder på Christer Fuglesang pryder väggarna etc. Allt detta kan vara förståeligt eftersom det är första gången Sverige har en svensk astrounaut på ett uppdrag i rymden. Dock kan jag känna att det har utbrutit någon form av hysteri som kanske inte står i relation till det uppdrag Fuglesang har under denna färd.
Han skall ju bl.a. undersöka de ljusblixtar som många astronauter ser under sina vistelser i rymden, blixtar man tror orsakas av laddade partiklar som kommer i kontakt med näthinnan. Till detta har kommit att han och kollegan Robert Curbeamhar företagit ett antal 'rymdpromenader' - jag tror fyra till antalet - där de sista två om jag minns rätt, inte var inplanderade. Detta i syfte att laga de solceller som skall ombdsörja energiförsörjningen på rymdstationen och vilka inte fungerat optimalt eller inte alls. Detta uppdrag har varit förenat med ett antal risker då vissa delar är strömförande och det gäller att hela tiden följa de förhållningsorder som kommer från Houston. Det har som vi nu vet fungerat alldeles utmärkt och man lyckades i går kväll/i natt (mellan måndag-tisdag, 18-19/12) veckla ut dem igen.
En tidig kommentar i samband med rapporteringen kring denna rymdfärd var att den i USA inte rönt särskilt stor uppmärksamhet. Varför skulle den det? För att det är den första svenska astrounauten i rymden? Knappast. Hur många av er kommer ihåg tidigare resor till rymdstationen ISS och namnen på dem som genomförde dem?
På fredag skall Fuglesang och de andra vara tillbaka på jorden om allt fungerar som det skall.
The video added later when preparing for his second trip intospace:
English:
In Sweden the launch of the space shuttle with the Swedish astronaut/cosmonaut Christer Fuglesang has aroused an enormous interest. It's maybe not so surprising as this is the first Swedish astronaut and then of course the first dito having succeeded in participating in a scientific space journey like this.
Outside the Cultural Institute in Stockholm a special building has been erected called 'Spacebase Stockholm'where one can receive all kinds of information concerning this trip and other questions around space and jouneys to space, the work at ISS and so forth.
Large pictures of Fuglesang can be seen on the walls of this building and small models of space ships are placed outside the buildning. This is in a way understandable but is perhaps not proportional to the importance of the specific mission of Fuglesang.
He is going to examine the special flashes that astronauts can see in space during their stay, flashes that could be a result of charged particles coming in contact with the retina. His colleague Robert Curbeam and Christer has also made, I think, four 'space walks', trying to repaire the solar cells at the space ship, something they succeeded with in the end.
Before lift of Swedish newspapers talked about the minimal interest from the Americans for this space trip. They were more interested in the new discoveries of water on Mars and the possibilities of building some kind of scientific base on the moon. But why would the Americans be more interested in this trip than in others? Because it is the first Swede?
For those of you living in France maybe the names of some of the French astronauts are familiar. How about the taikonauts, the Chinese astronauts? Do we recall any names?
On Friday Fuglesang and his colleagues will be back on earth again if everything works out well.
