Failure To Launch

Part Three: The First (and Worst) Satellite - Sputnik Panic

Jul 8, 2022 · 36 min · 35.3 MBExplicit
0:00-36:22

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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