Back In Time - Moscow Takes the Lead: A posting at NASASpaceflight.com linked to this 5 October 1987 TIME magazine article, “Surging Ahead: The Soviets overtake the U.S. as the No. 1 spacefaring nation” (and the print version if you don’t want to click through nine pages). It is similar to the October 1986 National Geographic article, “Soviets in space: are they ahead?” (stored on my site as it isn’t available online – don’t tell anyone!). These articles were published four years or so before everything imploded, and are a poignant reminder of how much has been lost or squandered. Glasnost was initiated with good intentions (much-needed reforms of the Soviet government) but turned out to be a death sentence for the country.
Indeed, space experts in the U.S. and Europe are now conceding publicly what they would have found laughable a decade ago: although the Soviets lag far behind in electronic gadgetry, they have surged past the U.S. in almost all areas of space exploration. If unchallenged, Moscow is likely to become the world’s dominant power in space by the 21st century. Says Heinz Hermann Koelle, a West German space-technology professor and former director of future projects at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center: “American pre-eminence in space simply no longer exists.” Warns James Oberg, an expert on the Soviet space program: “If the Soviets can aggressively exploit this operational advantage, they can make us eat space dust for a long time to come.”
[…]
The new rocket will make possible the deployment of larger, more sophisticated Soviet space stations. Says Bogodyazh: “There will be a Mir-2.” Explains Alexander Dunayev, head of Glavkosmos: “Space stations weigh up to several dozen tons. What’s needed are stations that weigh several hundred tons. We should soon learn to build big structures out there, not tens of meters but kilometers across, multifunctional platforms. Cosmonauts may well live there permanently. And from these structures, there may be flights to other planets.” If so, then first on the agenda, undoubtedly, would be Mars.
The lure is strong. Mars is the only other known planet that may be habitable – and thus the only realistic location for a space colony. That makes it a logical target for the Soviets, who are committed to establishing a permanent presence in space for both scientific and military reasons. Besides, the national prestige resulting from a visit to Mars would be immense.
As the article notes, however, the Soviets were well behind the USA in electronic technology.
For all these accomplishments, Soviet microelectronics and computers are ten years behind those of the U.S. Military satellites sometimes break down in a matter of weeks. Photoreconnaissance satellites literally drop their film to earth for processing. The ultraconservative Soviet military is just now beginning to experiment with the techniques of electronic imaging developed by U.S. scientists years ago. Still, admits Geoffrey Briggs, NASA’s director of solar-system exploration, “it’s not clear that you need state of the art to be effective.”
“Russian Space Goals In The Early 21st Century”, Space Daily.
Charles Simonyi has started his blog at long last (beginning from December).
