Post Space Race with Revell – Part 1 describes the circumstances that led to the Apollo programme. The first studies for the Saturn rocket were made as early as 1959, two years before J. F. Kennedy’s famous speech: We choose to go to the Moon. Thus 1961 was the official birth of the programme. Following the example of conservative engineering, the concept was broadly conceived. It soon became clear that a three-stage rocket was needed, because it was essential to get rid of the empty heavy shells one by one. The Soviet design and the NASA design differed on one, perhaps crucial, point that Dr. Wernher von Braun had also considered carefully. How many propulsion engines does the first stage use. The decision directly affects the diameter of the first stage and, as is the case with foundations, what is built on top of it. So the vehicle had to be designed, but also the knowledge and training of the crew of a manned space flight. Thus, in addition to the Apollo missions, the Gemini programme was created, whose task was to test the necessary spacecraft manoeuvres in orbit on a small scale, but also to let the astronauts leave their ship and navigate. Just as the Atlas rocket of the Mercury programme came from military funding, the Titan-II for Gemini was chosen from the field of state-of-the-art military intercontinental ballistic missiles. The Titan was notable for its reliability. It completed two unmanned test flights in April 1964 and January 1965 and all 12 Gemini flights from March 1965 onwards, with the 18 astronauts eventually finding their way back to Earth unharmed. From Gemini-6 onwards, rendezvous in orbit were to take place. Thus, prior to the launch of the Gemini rocket manned in pairs, an unmanned Agena upper stage was launched into orbit. Both the Atlas from the Mercury programme and the Titan rocket from the manned Gemini launches were used as launch vehicles. The Agena upper stage had already been ordered earlier by the US Airforce as a satellite, which was equipped accordingly depending on the mission purpose. The Agena stage for the Gemini-6 launch did not reach orbit, so it failed. It was not until Gemini-8 that an Agena upper stage was again ready to fly into space and 100 minutes later the actual manned Gemini-8 crew launched and docked with the Agena for its exercises. Gemini-9 was also to perform another docking manoeuvre, but the two half-shells enclosing the docking area at the top of the rocket during Agena’s ascent phase only partially opened. This left only one beautiful shot, which earned this Agena the nickname “angry alligator” for Gemini-9.

Gemini-9 – Augmented Target Docking Adapter: The angry alligator (From NASA – Great Images in NASA Description, public domain)

The final Gemini flight, Gemini-12, then took place in June 1966, four months after the first rocket carrying Apollo spacecraft components was successfully launched. The first Apollo mission was carried out with the two-stage Saturn-IB, the Apollo capsule was tested unmanned on this flight, re-entry being the challenge here. The cheaper two-stage design was sufficient here, as it was only for Earth-orbital testing. The upper stage then remained conceptually the same for all Saturn rockets. The first tests of the Saturn-IB date back to October 1961, when the individual stages were successively tested, especially the upper stage, until the first Saturn-V was finally launched into space with Apollo-4 in November 1967. Before that, there had been 13 launches of Saturn I or Saturn-IB. The 14th launch of the Saturn-IB could not take place because one month before the launch date, the Apollo module burned out during an exercise with the astronauts on board. The accident led to the entire vehicle being rechecked for safety, and as a result it was greatly improved.

And after this introductory prehistory, it may be due to the founding year of the Revell company in 1956 that it was not possible to concentrate so intensively on space travel. After all, competing companies had already been established on the market for 15 years or more, so it was certainly necessary to quickly develop a broad base of models. Thus, apart from the A-4, which was founded in the German history, other models from the space programme were left out by Revell. With the Saturn-V, first edition in 1969 in 1/96 scale, the first rocket came on the market, just in time for the first moon flight with Apollo-11 on 20 July of that year. About every 13 years, the model reappears in new, but unchanged productions. Presumably due to the early edition or the secret construction plans, the model shows deviations from the original. Thus a marketplace has developed for the Saturn-V to supersize the Revell model, especially if the model is to be broken down into the individual stages, as it is, for example, in the museum in Cape Canaveral. The company New Ware , for example, specialises in this. What else exciting has been developed from this Saturn V kit at Revell? Well, there is another 03700 kit that contains just the Apollo spacecraft, that is the Command Service Module and the Lunar Module. So the spacecraft can be built coupled but also separated with the lunar module landed.

Mouldings for the Revell 03700 from the Apollo Box

If you are interested into the history of toys, please feel free to find more information here. My father, an old school modeller, was never that satisfied to just glue the plastic together. But when you review the article FineScale Modeler 2006/04 you may assume, that you learn more skills than brush on the glue. How about you? Do you like to give your kits a more detailed look?

The post Space Race with Revell – Part 2 The Mighty SATURN V first appeared on Product Cluster Blog.

Perhaps it has always been the case that nations have measured each other, probably mostly in battle. The battle on the battlefield, bloody and deadly, the battle in the arena against animals. Or for the more intellectually elevated, since, it is thought, 2000 BC, the pan-Hellenic games, which in modern times are fought out all over the world. How do you compete in the Cold War? Physical fighting is not possible. Many animals give up in time when it is clear who is the stronger. With humanoids, the winner is the one who doesn’t stay down permanently. This is bad for the two largest nations, the USSR and the USA, because everyone still wants to exist after such a fight. The Second World War, the starting point of globalisation, when the spoils were divided up by the two big nations, it was not clear which system was better or more dominant. Like in Monopoly, the fields were occupied and cultivated. The Second World War ended with Japan’s surrender. Immediately, the eight or so more local wars began, motivated by decolonisation and bloc formation to define the local power structure as well. The last of these wars, the Korean War, made it clear that the two great powers did not have to face each other, but that a smaller country could be found where the conflict could be fought out by proxy. Currently, such a kind of war is being worked on in Ukraine.

Scalemate presenting Revell’s German A4/V2 Rocket

After this historical excursion we come back to the year… Now this is difficult to define. After the foundation for space travel had been developed in the German Reich, albeit in order to carry warheads as far as possible into the enemy’s playing field, the technology and technicians were in high demand. The two great victorious powers tried to grab what they could. The loot was shipped home and both great nations now tried to do something with it. The USA was able to get hold of some of these missiles, plans, but above all the technicians, who themselves tried to get into American captivity. The USSR gained access to the workshops through the division of Germany, the Soviet occupation zone. Few technicians ended up in the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence, mostly those who preferred to remain in the eastern part of Germany. Both major nations quickly realised the potential of this technology and went to great lengths to occupy as much as they could in the wartime confusion of the German Reich. One must probably mention Sergei Pawlowitsch Koroljow, who was in charge of the Soviet target-oriented requisitioning in the German Reich, especially since he himself had been involved in rocket development since the 1930s and knew what was important. The USA, with its Operation Overcast, took everything that looked like a rocket. No doubt also aided by the volunteer prisoners of war who had worked on it and took the precaution of withholding material from the Red Army. Korolyov, an excellent technician, managed to work out the jigsaw puzzles that were missing and taken away to the USA. In the USA, the captured material, including the people, was stored for the time being. People and material were too contaminated with fascism, pride too great.

Since there was also an effort in the USA to use the missile as a weapon, the US Air Force was in charge of it. They developed the Atlas missile from 1946 to 1957, there was an interruption because funds were needed for the Korean War. Nevertheless, the first of this type of missile took off four months earlier, on 21 August 1957 near Baikonur in Kazakhstan. The Soviet rocket, then named R-7, is still known today as the Soyuz rocket, a family of rockets that has evolved over the years and is still in use. With 1936 launches to date, a solid workhorse. A rocket from this family also launched the Sputnik spacecraft in 1957, which, out of fear, was the spark that finally let the US enter the space race. There, the US Air Force was still tasked with taking on and winning the race. But the US Air Force was unable to build on the success of the Atlas rocket. With the end of the term of office of the 70-year-old 34th president of the USA, a 27-year younger and dynamic president entered the White House who did not have this categorically negative attitude towards the historical origins of the Germans and their team, who had meanwhile settled in Huntsville (Alabama). The pioneer of space travel, Wernher von Braun, who was already conducting research on the German side and whose early goal was to travel to the planets, did not remain idle in the USA either. If he was able to advance his dream through the armament projects in the German Reich, he also managed to get funding in the USA. Thus, the Redstone missile, based on the “Aggregat 4 / Retaliatory Weapon 2”, was developed in parallel with the US Air Force’s Atlas. It was not only to transport warheads, but also the first satellite of the USA and, in the course of the Mercury program in 1961, the first American into space.

Scalemate presenting Revell’s U.S. Army Redstone

The Sputnik shock in 1957, was followed by the first dogs in space, the first man and first woman as cosmonauts in space, the first spacewalk (leaving the spacecraft), much longer stays in orbit than the US, the first pictures from the far side of the moon, the first probe on the moon, the first robot on the moon and the first space station into earth’s orbit. Korojov’s consistent work until 1966 had clearly paid off here in the race.

In the USA, this Soviet superiority was not to be accepted. Attentive observers also realised that the US Air Force was overburdened by its military tasks to also advance space flights, especially since Wernher von Braun’s group worked more efficiently compared to the resources made available. Thus, the civilian US National Aeronautics and Space Administration was founded in 1958, and von Braun’s team was quickly integrated. As early as 1959, the first studies on the Saturn rocket were made, two years before Kennedy’s famous speech: We choose to go to the Moon.

Dr. Wernher von Braun, the NASA Director of the Marshall Space Flight Center, and President John F. Kennedy at Cape Canaveral, Florida on November 16, 1963. (Photo: NASA), Courtesy of NASA

And after this introductory prehistory, part 2 will follow, with the Revell company founded in Bünde in 1956 and the beautiful models around space travel.

If you are interested into the history of toys, please feel free to find more information here.

The post Space Race with Revell – Part 1 A Historical Background first appeared on Product Cluster Blog.