In the intense years of the Space Race, the Soviet Union pursued some of the most ambitious rocket programs ever attempted, but two catastrophic explosions would leave lasting scars on its quest for ...

Designed for use in low-or-zero-gravity environments where conventional firearms would not work properly, this magazine-fed, pyrotechnic flashbulb technology generated a laser beam—with one variant ...

The USSR’s ambitious Mars mission was initially planned to launch in 1975, but it was never executed. During the Cold War, significant advancements occurred in the fields of science and technology as ...

In 1971, the United States launched a secret satellite program called JUMPSEAT, which surveilled the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War. Before, during, and after the Cold War reconnaissance ...

pt. I. Zero-gravity capitalists : 1988-1990. Knocking on the Soviet's door ; Perestroika in orbit ; Tricking state and NASA ; The world turns upside down ; The Mir really exists ; Aren't two routes ...

Originally published: Challenge to Apollo : the Soviet Union and the space race, 1945-1974. Washington, D.C. : National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2000. Presage -- First steps -- Stalin and ...

On this day in 1963, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina V. Tereshkova became the first woman to travel in space, having been launched into orbit aboard the spacecraft Vostok 6, which completed 48 orbits in 71 ...

Just weeks before Apollo 11 reached the Moon, the Soviet Union attempted to launch its massive N1 rocket, the centerpiece of its secret lunar program. The result was one of the most powerful ...