LinuxCon: Dragons and penguins in space

Posted Sep 22, 2012 19:03 UTC (Sat) by khim (subscriber, #9252)
In reply to: LinuxCon: Dragons and penguins in space by madhatter
Parent article: LinuxCon: Dragons and penguins in space

LOL. ICMBs and space expeditions are intrinsically linked, but this story is more convoluted.

USSR won [the early] space race because government paid for it's development because it started development. Of course it was under impression that it pays for ICMBs development, but they started before they even knew how much hydrogen bomb will weight! First hydrogen bomb had weight in excess of 7 metric tons and it was clear that such a large mass can not be hauled to space or between continents (with the use of technology possible back then). Korolev decided to build rocket specifically to send human to the orbit - and then hope that guys who develop the hydrogen bomb will be able to shrink it enough. The ploy worked beautifully: descendants of that some rockets are still the most most frequently used launch vehicle in the world!

So yes, we have only reached space because government gave money to develop the ICBMs, but it does not mean that ICMBs were designed to deliver the hydrogen bomb.