Space Race (TV series)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Space Race'' is a
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
docudrama Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television and film, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of documentary and drama and "a fact-based representation of real event". Docudramas typic ...
series first shown in Britain on
BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
between 14 September and 5 October 2005, chronicling the major events and characters in the American/Soviet
space race The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the tw ...
up to the first landing of a man on the
Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
. It focuses on
Sergei Korolev Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (russian: Сергей Павлович Королёв, Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov, sʲɪrˈɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪtɕ kərɐˈlʲɵf, Ru-Sergei Pavlovich Korolev.ogg; ukr, Сергій Павлович Корольов, ...
, the Soviet chief rocket designer, and
Wernher von Braun Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun ( , ; 23 March 191216 June 1977) was a German and American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was a member of the Nazi Party and Allgemeine SS, as well as the leading figure in the develop ...
, his American counterpart. The series was a joint effort between British, German, American and Russian production teams.


Reception


Awards

*
Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...
2006 **Nominated:
RTS Television Award The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...
for Best Production Design (Drama):
Alan Spalding Alan may refer to: People *Alan (surname), an English and Turkish surname *Alan (given name), an English given name **List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' *Al ...
*
Sir Arthur Clarke Award The Sir Arthur Clarke Award is a British award given annually since 2005 in recognition of notable contributions to space exploration, particularly British achievements. Nominations for the awards are made by members of the public, with shortlis ...
2006 **Won: Sir Arthur Clarke Award for Best Presentation (TV & Radio)


Episodes


Episode 1: "Race For Rockets" (1944–1949)

The results of Wernher von Braun's work on the
V-2 The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed ...
for the
Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
at
Mittelwerk Mittelwerk (; German for "Central Works") was a German World War II factory built underground in the Kohnstein to avoid Allied bombing. It used slave labor from the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp to produce V-2 ballistic missiles, V-1 flyin ...
and
Peenemünde Peenemünde (, en, "Peene iverMouth") is a municipality on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is part of the ''Amt'' (collective municipality) of Usedom-Nord. The communi ...
is shown, and his final activities within Germany during the last years of the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, as both American and Soviet forces race to capture German rocket technology. However, when the Americans gain the upper hand by recovering von Braun and most of his senior staff, along with all their technical documents and much other materiel. Sergei Korolev's is released from the
Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...
to act as the Soviets' rocketry expert alongside former colleague
Valentin Glushko Valentin Petrovich Glushko (russian: Валенти́н Петро́вич Глушко́; uk, Валентин Петрович Глушко, Valentyn Petrovych Hlushko; born 2 September 1908 – 10 January 1989) was a Soviet engineer and the m ...
, and how he is set to work bringing Soviet rocket technology up to date with that of von Braun, working with what material and personnel are left after von Braun's escape to the US.


Episode 2: "Race For Satellites" (1953–1958)

As the
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
intensifies, Korolev is asked to build a rocket capable of carrying a five-ton
warhead A warhead is the forward section of a device that contains the explosive agent or toxic (biological, chemical, or nuclear) material that is delivered by a missile, rocket, torpedo, or bomb. Classification Types of warheads include: * Explosiv ...
to America; he designs and constructs the
R-7 Semyorka The R-7 Semyorka (russian: link=no, Р-7 Семёрка), officially the GRAU index 8K71, was a Soviet missile developed during the Cold War, and the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile. The R-7 made 28 launches between 1957 and 1 ...
, the first
ICBM An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range greater than , primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more thermonuclear warheads). Conventional, chemical, and biological weapons c ...
, and is later allowed to use it to launch the first
satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...
,
Sputnik 1 Sputnik 1 (; see § Etymology) was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program. It sent a radio signal back to Earth for t ...
, quickly following up with the rushed
Sputnik 2 Sputnik 2 (, russian: Спутник-2, ''Satellite 2''), or Prosteyshiy Sputnik 2 (PS-2, russian: Простейший Спутник 2, italic=yes, ''Simplest Satellite 2'') was the second spacecraft launched into Earth orbit, on 3 November 195 ...
. Meanwhile, von Braun struggles to persuade the US government to allow him to launch his own satellite; after Sputnik's launch and the failure of the US Navy to launch a
Vanguard satellite Project Vanguard was a program managed by the United States Navy Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), which intended to launch the first artificial satellite into low Earth orbit using a Vanguard rocket. as the launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral ...
, he is finally allowed to launch the first American satellite,
Explorer 1 Explorer 1 was the first satellite launched by the United States in 1958 and was part of the U.S. participation in the International Geophysical Year (IGY). The mission followed the first two satellites the previous year; the Soviet Union's ...
. Korolev announces that the Americans have evened the score and that they are in a space race, which they intend to win. At the end of the episode, two men are shown walking down a corridor, one of them wearing a spacesuit.


Episode 3: "Race For Survival" (1959–1961)

Both the Americans and Soviets are planning crewed space flights, and we see both sides preparing to do so with the development of the
Vostok programme The Vostok programme (russian: Восток, , ''Orient'' or ''East'') was a Soviet human spaceflight project to put the first Soviet citizens into low Earth orbit and return them safely. Competing with the United States Project Mercury, it succ ...
(USSR) and
Project Mercury Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Un ...
(USA). As well as basic details about the capsules and their delivery vehicles, we also see some of the selection and training of the Russian cosmonauts, and rather less of that of their counterparts in the US. After difficulties and failures on both sides, including a side story about a
catastrophic failure A catastrophic failure is a sudden and total failure from which recovery is impossible. Catastrophic failures often lead to cascading systems failure. The term is most commonly used for structural failures, but has often been extended to many oth ...
of one of the first Russian ballistic missiles, the Soviets succeed in putting
Yuri Gagarin Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin; Gagarin's first name is sometimes transliterated as ''Yuriy'', ''Youri'', or ''Yury''. (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space. Tr ...
into space first, with the Americans putting
Alan Shepard Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. (November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998) was an American astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot, and businessman. In 1961, he became the second person and the first American to travel into space and, in 1971, he beca ...
up shortly afterwards.


Episode 4: "Race for the Moon" (1964–1969)

Both countries now plan to put a man on the
Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
; the Americans pull ahead in the space race with
Project Gemini Project Gemini () was NASA's second human spaceflight program. Conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, Gemini started in 1961 and concluded in 1966. The Gemini spacecraft carried a two-astronaut crew. Ten Gemini crews and 16 individual ...
, but then suffer a disaster with the
Apollo 1 Apollo 1, initially designated AS-204, was intended to be the first crewed mission of the Apollo program, the American undertaking to land the first man on the Moon. It was planned to launch on February 21, 1967, as the first low Earth orbita ...
fire. Meanwhile, despite a notable successes such as the first
space walk Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environmental support. EVA inc ...
by
Alexei Leonov Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov. (30 May 1934 – 11 October 2019) was a Soviet and Russian cosmonaut, Air Force major general, writer, and artist. On 18 March 1965, he became the first person to conduct a spacewalk, exiting the capsule during th ...
, the Soviet space programme struggles to keep up amid internal strife. Glushko and Korolev permanently fall out in an argument about fuel; Korolev turns to Nikolai Kuznetsov to develop engines instead. Kuznetsov delivers the
NK-33 The NK-33 and NK-43 are rocket engines designed and built in the late 1960s and early 1970s by the Kuznetsov Design Bureau. The NK designation is derived from the initials of chief designer Nikolay Kuznetsov. The NK-33 was among the most powerfu ...
, very efficient but much less powerful than the Americans' F-1. The Soviet program suffers further blows when Korolev dies during surgery, Gagarin dies in a jet crash,
Soyuz 1 Soyuz 1 (russian: Союз 1, ''Union 1'') was a crewed spaceflight of the Soviet space program. Launched into orbit on 23 April 1967 carrying cosmonaut colonel Vladimir Komarov, Soyuz 1 was the first crewed flight of the Soyuz spacecraft. The ...
crashes and kills
Vladimir Komarov Vladimir Mikhaylovich Komarov ( rus, Влади́мир Миха́йлович Комаро́в, p=vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ kəmɐˈrof; 16 March 1927 – 24 April 1967) was a Soviet test pilot, aerospace engineer, and cosmonaut. ...
, and the prototype booster for the Moon shot, the
N-1 rocket The N1/L3 (from , "Carrier Rocket"; Cyrillic: Н1) was a super heavy-lift launch vehicle intended to deliver payloads beyond low Earth orbit. The N1 was the Soviet counterpart to the US Saturn V and was intended to enable crewed travel to the ...
, fails to successfully launch. In America, von Braun has continuing difficulties with the
Saturn V Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, with multistage rocket, three stages, and powered with liquid-propellant r ...
, especially combustion instability in the large F-1 engine, but these are ultimately overcome almost by brute force at great expense, and the rocket successfully launches the first crewed lunar mission,
Apollo 8 Apollo 8 (December 21–27, 1968) was the first crewed spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit and the first human spaceflight to reach the Moon. The crew orbited the Moon ten times without landing, and then departed safely back to Earth. These ...
, and the first crewed lunar landing,
Apollo 11 Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, an ...
. The final episode finishes with brief text summaries of the remaining careers of the various people involved.


Production details

The BBC filmed ''Space Race'' in and around the town of
Sibiu Sibiu ( , , german: link=no, Hermannstadt , la, Cibinium, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Härmeschtat'', hu, Nagyszeben ) is a city in Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania. Located some north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles the Ci ...
,
Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...
in Romania. Romania has signed the EU co-production treaty which allows for EU co-productions. Compared to other locations, Romania attracted the BBC with unspoiled natural locations, experienced crews and moderately priced production facilities. The series was filmed with the Panasonic SDX 900
DVCPro50 DV refers to a family of codecs and videotape, tape formats used for storing digital video, launched in 1995 by a consortium of camcorder, video camera manufacturers led by Sony and Panasonic. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, DV was strongly ...
professional camcorder. This allowed keeping to the speedy shooting schedule and provided the 'gritty' look appropriate to the time period. Shot in widescreen 25fps progressive mode, the series deliver rich, filmic feel, which compares favourably with high definition.


Cast

*
Richard Dillane Richard Dillane (born 1964) is a British actor. He appears in a lead role of the Netflix series ''Young Wallander'', based on the character Kurt Wallander created by novelist Henning Mankell. He played British intelligence agent Peter Nicholls i ...
Wernher von Braun Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun ( , ; 23 March 191216 June 1977) was a German and American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was a member of the Nazi Party and Allgemeine SS, as well as the leading figure in the develop ...
*
Steve Nicolson ''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen Notable people with the name include: steve jops * Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people * Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people * Steve ...
Sergei Korolev Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (russian: Сергей Павлович Королёв, Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov, sʲɪrˈɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪtɕ kərɐˈlʲɵf, Ru-Sergei Pavlovich Korolev.ogg; ukr, Сергій Павлович Корольов, ...
*
John Warnaby John Warnaby is a British actor who has appeared extensively in film and television. Career In 1996, Warnaby appeared at the Royal National Theatre, National Theatre in Helen Edmundson, Helen Edmundson's adaptation of Leo Tolstoy, Leo Tolstoy's ...
Vasily Mishin Vasily Pavlovich Mishin (russian: Васи́лий Па́влович Ми́шин) (18 January 1917 – 10 October 2001) was a Russian engineer in the Soviet Union, and a prominent rocket pioneer, best remembered for the failures in the Soviet sp ...
*
Ravil Isyanov Ravil Akhmedullovich Isyanov (russian: Равиль Ахмедуллович Исьянов; 20 August 1962 – 29 September 2021) was a Russian actor who appeared in over 70 film and television roles, primarily in the United States. He was most ...
Valentin Glushko Valentin Petrovich Glushko (russian: Валенти́н Петро́вич Глушко́; uk, Валентин Петрович Глушко, Valentyn Petrovych Hlushko; born 2 September 1908 – 10 January 1989) was a Soviet engineer and the m ...
*
Rupert Wickham Rupert may refer to: People * Rupert (name), various people known by the given name or surname "Rupert" Places Canada *Rupert, Quebec, a village *Rupert Bay, a large bay located on the south-east shore of James Bay *Rupert River, Quebec * Rupert ...
Kurt H. Debus Kurt Heinrich Debus (November 29, 1908 – October 10, 1983) was a Nazi party member, rocket engineer, and NASA director. Born in Germany, he was a member of the Schutzstaffel (SS) during World War II, where he served as a V-weapons flight test d ...
*
Tim Woodward Timothy Oliver Woodward (born 24 April 1953) is an English actor. Tim Woodward was born in Kensington, London, England, the son of actors Edward Woodward and Venetia Barrett. He was educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College. He is pr ...
Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin *
Eric Loren Eric Loren is an American film and television actor based in London. He played Mr Diagoras and the Dalek Sec Hybrid in the long-running British TV series '' Doctor Who''. He also played Kurtis Trent in '' Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness'' ...
– Castenholz *Chris Robson – Dieter Huzel *
Mark Dexter Mark Lee Dexter (born 21 April 1973) is an English actor who trained at RADA. Life and career Dexter was born in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England. As a teenager, he was an early member of the Central Junior Television Workshop which led t ...
– Staver * Oliver de la Fosse – Staver's Lieutenant * Vitalie Ursu
Yuri Gagarin Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin; Gagarin's first name is sometimes transliterated as ''Yuriy'', ''Youri'', or ''Yury''. (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space. Tr ...
*
Oleg Stefan Oleg Stefan ''né'' Oleg Stepanovich Shtefanko (russian: Олег Степанович Штефанко; born September 7, 1959) is a Soviet and Russian actor who became popular in Russia after moving there to study acting. He later became an Ame ...
Alexei Leonov Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov. (30 May 1934 – 11 October 2019) was a Soviet and Russian cosmonaut, Air Force major general, writer, and artist. On 18 March 1965, he became the first person to conduct a spacewalk, exiting the capsule during th ...
*
Mariya Mironova Maria Andreyevna Mironova (russian: Мари́я Андре́евна Миро́нова; born 28 May 1973) is a Soviet and Russian actress. People's Artist of Russia (2020). Biography Mironova was born on 28 May 1973 in Moscow, to actors Andre ...
– Nina *
Jeffry Wickham Jeffry Wickham (5 August 1933 – 17 June 2014) was an English stage, film and television actor. He served as President of the actors' trade union Equity from 1992 to 1994 and was the father of the actress Saskia Wickham and Rupert Wickham. H ...
Nikolai Kuznetsov *
Robert Jezek Robert Jezek (born 6 April 1955) is a Canadian stage, film and television actor based in the United Kingdom. Career In 1989, Jezek appeared as Sergeant Zbrigniev in the ''Doctor Who'' television serial ''Battlefield''. He is known for playin ...
Robert R. Gilruth Robert Rowe Gilruth (October 8, 1913 – August 17, 2000) was an American aerospace engineer and an aviation/space pioneer who was the first director of NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center, later renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. He worked ...
* Robert Lindsay – Narrator *
Stuart Bunce Stuart Alexander Bunce (born 21 October 1971) is an English actor who is best known for his portrayal of the First World War poet Wilfred Owen in the film ''Regeneration'' directed by Gillies MacKinnon. Biography Bunce was born in Beckenham, Kent ...
– Lev Gaidukov * David Barrass
Helmut Gröttrup Helmut Gröttrup (12 February 1916 – 4 July 1981) was a German engineer, rocket scientist and inventor of the smart card. During World War II, he worked in the German V-2 rocket program under Wernher von Braun. From 1946 to 1950 he headed a grou ...
*
Constantine Gregory Constantine Gregory (born Constantine Liebert, September 16, 1942) is an American actor, dialect coach, and voice actor. Until 1983 he was usually credited as Constantin de Goguel. Life and career He was born of a Dutch father and Russian–born m ...
Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
*
Simon Day Simon William Day (born 7 June 1962) is an English comedian and actor known for his roles in the sketch show ''The Fast Show'' and the sitcom ''Grass''. Career Day was born in Blackheath, London, and rose to fame as a stand-up comic, winning t ...
– Kammler * Nicholas Rowe
R. V. Jones Reginald Victor Jones , FRSE, LLD (29 September 1911 – 17 December 1997) was a British physicist and scientific military intelligence expert who played an important role in the defence of Britain in by solving scientific and technical p ...
*
Mikhail Gorevoy Mikhail Vitalievich Gorevoy (russian: Михаи́л Вита́льевич Горево́й; born 19 May 1965) is a Russian actor, occasionally credited as Michael Gor in English language productions, best known internationally for playing Vlad ...
Ivan Serov Ivan Alexandrovich Serov (russian: Ива́н Алекса́ндрович Серóв; 13 August 1905 – 1 July 1990) was a Russian Soviet intelligence officer who served as the head of the KGB between March 1954 and December 1958, as well as h ...
*
Stephen Greif Stephen John Greif (; 26 August 1944 – 23 December 2022) was an English actor known for his roles as Travis in ''Blake's 7'', Harry Fenning in three series of ''Citizen Smith'', Signor Donato in ''Casanova'' and Commander John Shepherd in '' ...
Colonel Holger Toftoy * Anna Barkan – Ksenia Koroleva * Max Bollinger – Russian cosmonaut (VO) *
Todd Boyce Todd Boyce (born July 1, 1961) is an American film, television and theatre actor. He is perhaps best known for playing Stephen Reid in the successful soap opera ''Coronation Street'' from 1996 to 1997, 2007 and again from 2022. Early life Todd ...
Alan Shepard Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. (November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998) was an American astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot, and businessman. In 1961, he became the second person and the first American to travel into space and, in 1971, he beca ...
* Emil Măndănac – Viacheslav Lapo, Russian sound technician * Mihai Dinvale – German Scientist * Anthony Edridge
Chris Kraft Christopher Columbus Kraft Jr. (February 28, 1924 – July 22, 2019) was an American aerospace and NASA engineer who was instrumental in establishing the agency's Mission Control Center and shaping its organization and culture. His protégé ...


Inaccuracies and errors

Most of the historical and technological data presented in the series are heavily simplified, and sometimes contain outright untruths or errors. The series would best be described and interpreted as giving a general impression of the subject matter, rather than rigorous factual account.


Factual errors

* An early scene shows Serov executing Polish resistance fighters who discovered a V-2. This did not happen. A team of British and Polish soldiers and scientists formed a mission to retrieve a fallen V-2 near
Blizna :''See also Blizna, Podlaskie Voivodeship. For the Polish film of this name see The Scar (1976 film).'' Blizna is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Ostrów, within Ropczyce-Sędziszów County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in south- ...
in Poland.Rockets and People, by Boris Chertok * Footage showing early rocket club activity of von Braun actually shows Reinhold Tiling's rockets, a rival to the VfR club that von Braun belonged to. The VfR rockets were crude engines attached to sticks. * Key figures are missing from the presented history.
Andrei Tupolev Andrei Nikolayevich Tupolev (russian: Андрей Николаевич Туполев; – 23 December 1972) was a Russian Empire, Russian and later Soviet Union, Soviet aeronautical engineer known for his pioneering aircraft designs as Di ...
,
Vladimir Chelomei Vladimir Nikolayevich Chelomey or Chelomei (russian: Влади́мир Никола́евич Челоме́й; 30 June 1914 – 8 December 1984) was a Soviet engineer of Ukrainian ethnicity and designer in missile program of the former Sovie ...
and
Mikhail Yangel Mikhail Kuzmich Yangel (russian: Михаил Кузьмич Янгель; 7 November 1911 – 25 October 1971), was a Soviet engineer born in Irkutsk who was the leading designer in the missile program of the former Soviet Union. Biography ...
are also conspicuously absent, for example, even in the sequence depicting the disastrous explosion of Yangel's prototype R-16 ICBM. In the series, Glushko is generally identified with all rocket projects competing with Korolev within the USSR, even those for which he had only partial responsibility or was a subcontractor. * The narrator said twice that the Mercury-Redstone could put an astronaut into orbit. In reality, the best the Redstone rocket could do was put an astronaut into a 15-minute "suborbital" ballistic trajectory, which peaked out around 120 miles up. The first orbital flight of an American astronaut did not occur until 20 February 1962, when the Mercury capsule was put into orbit with a more powerful
Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic ...
rocket. Indeed, NASA report TMX-53107 called Mercury-Redstone "a prelude to an orbital flight program" (pg 1–2). However, Episode 3, "Race for Survival", is at pains to disclaim orbital capability. The narrator says (from 8'46" to 8' 51") only that the V-derived Redstone "has only a tenth of the power of Korolev's rocket. Barely enough to put a man into space." This of course is why ''Freedom 7'', Alan Shepard's Redstone-launched capsule, was suborbital. *The narrator states that Gagarin flies "over a sleeping America" even though Vostok's flightpath did not take the craft anywhere near North America, except the Aleutian Islands. Gagarin did say "I'm over America", though. America includes South America and Vostok 1's flight path did just touch America in that sense. Gagarin spoke at night, while still over the Pacific, but only three minutes from the Straits of Magellan; a little earlier he was near Hawaii, which had become one of the US less than two years earlier. *Episode 1 features a map of Europe with wrongly indicated countries. Switzerland is labeled Austria, Austria is labelled Yugoslavia and the Czech Republic is labelled Hungary. *Episode 1 features the surrender of Wernher von Braun to the Americans; at that time, he had a badly fractured arm, which was not mentioned in the series. *In Episode 2 the narrator states twice that the R-7 rocket has 32 engines. This is not entirely correct. The R-7 and its successors have four side boosters and a core booster. Each side booster has a single rocket engine with four combustion chambers, two vernier combustion chambers, and one set of turbopumps. The central core has a similar engine but with four vernier combustion chambers instead of two. This makes total of 32 chambers, not engines. In the scene where Glushko is supposedly testing the clustering scheme, only one engine is shown. *One of the cosmonauts, after seeing the Vostok's cockpit for the first time (Episode 3), asks where the controls are. Also the Gagarin flight scene indicates that there were no controls inside. In fact controls were present on board the Vostoks, but they were blocked to prevent the cosmonauts from manipulating them. A set of codes was placed aboard, so that the cosmonaut could unlock the controls if necessary. *When the Mission Control is shown for the first time in Episode 3 it shows that all the flight controllers have a TV screen showing the launch pad. In reality only the flight director had a TV screen. The other consoles had only meters to measure the various systems. *In Episode 4 the narrator states that "if they (
Apollo 8 Apollo 8 (December 21–27, 1968) was the first crewed spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit and the first human spaceflight to reach the Moon. The crew orbited the Moon ten times without landing, and then departed safely back to Earth. These ...
) fail to lock into the Moon's orbit they will fly on, forever lost in space". In fact, Apollo 8 used a
free return trajectory In orbital mechanics, a free-return trajectory is a trajectory of a spacecraft traveling away from a primary body (for example, the Earth) where gravity due to a secondary body (for example, the Moon) causes the spacecraft to return to the primar ...
that would have taken them back to Earth had the engine performing lunar orbit injection failed.


Unconfirmed statements

The series repeats the claim Korolev was denounced by Glushko several times. There are no known documents substantiating this statement. Glushko had been imprisoned himself before Korolev was arrested and had been sentenced to eight years in a prison camp "for participating in sabotage organization". He was retained to work for the
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...
to develop aircraft jet boosters. In 1942, at Glushko's request, NKVD transferred Korolev from another prison to Glushko's OKB.


Filming inaccuracies

* American soldier who meet Von Braun carry a SKS carbine instead of the standard us M1. * Usage of period footage is inconsistent, in particular with regard to the R-7 and its variants. * The scene that depicts transporting a V-2 missile to firing position uses a different missile pulled by the Soviet
ZIL-157 The ZIL-157 is a general-purpose -ton 6×6 truck, produced at the Lichachev plant in the Soviet Union from 1958 to 1977, when production was transferred to the Amur plant, since the Lichachev plant wanted to focus more on modern trucks, such as ...
truck. * In the sequence with the train leaving the German station with scientists one can read "CFR" on the locomotive, which stands for
Căile Ferate Române Căile Ferate Române (; abbreviated as the CFR) is the state railway carrier of Romania. As of 2014, the railway network of Romania consists of , of which (37.4%) are electrified. The total track length is , of which (38.5%) are electrifie ...
(Romanian Railways). * The scene depicting a launch from Kapustin Yar, which is dated by 1948, includes vehicles that were not produced at that time, in particular the
ZIL-157 The ZIL-157 is a general-purpose -ton 6×6 truck, produced at the Lichachev plant in the Soviet Union from 1958 to 1977, when production was transferred to the Amur plant, since the Lichachev plant wanted to focus more on modern trucks, such as ...
(1958), the
ZIL-131 The ZIL-131 is a general purpose 3.5 tonne 6x6 army truck designed in the Soviet Union by Zavod Imeni Likhacheva, ZIL. The basic model being a general cargo truck. Variants include a tractor-trailer truck, a dump truck, a fuel truck, and a 6x6 fo ...
(1967) and the
UAZ-469 The UAZ-469 is an off-road military light utility vehicle manufactured by UAZ. It was used by Soviet and other Warsaw Pact armed forces, as well as paramilitary units in Eastern Bloc countries. In the Soviet Union, it also saw widespread service ...
(1971).


Notes

* While Korolev's last name often appears to be mispronounced as "Korolyov" in the film, this is closer to its pronunciation in the
Russian language Russian (russian: русский язык, russkij jazyk, link=no, ) is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language mainly spoken in Russia. It is the First language, native language of the Russians, and belongs to the Indo-European langua ...
. *While both Glushko and Korolev were civilian engineers, they were correctly depicted as wearing military uniform during their stay in Germany, as both had been given commissions in the Red Army.


Companion book

A companion book to the series was written by
Deborah Cadbury Deborah Cadbury is a British author, historian and television producer with the BBC. She has won many international awards for her documentaries including an Emmy Award. Personal life Cadbury has two sons and lives in London. Education Cadbury ...
.


Selected editions

* *


Notes

*The National Geographic Channel broadcast the series as a two-part mini-series in 2006.


See also

* ''
From the Earth to the Moon ''From the Earth to the Moon: A Direct Route in 97 Hours, 20 Minutes'' (french: De la Terre à la Lune, trajet direct en 97 heures 20 minutes) is an 1865 novel by Jules Verne. It tells the story of the Baltimore Gun Club, a post-American Civil W ...
'' * '' When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions''


References


External links

* * {{IMDb title, 0461887, Space Race 2005 British television series debuts 2005 British television series endings 2000s British documentary television series BBC television docudramas Science docudramas 2000s British television miniseries English-language television shows Cultural depictions of Yuri Gagarin Cultural depictions of Nikita Khrushchev Cultural depictions of Wernher von Braun Alexei Leonov Alan Shepard BBC television documentaries about history during the 20th Century Works about V-weapons