What makes this a valuable documentary is the footage of some of the greatest events of the 20-th century. Most will know the iconic scene of an engineer working on the world's first satellite (the image here). The Russian people, especially the older generation, would also be familiar with dog Laika - the first animal into space - a little hero that everybody loved, that paved the way to Gagarin, first man into space.
This film looks back at the origins of the theory of space flight depicting the life of Tsiolkovskiy - the father of space flight theory. It then goes onto to the build-up to the first satellite by showing the Soviet industrialisation after the communist revolution, the record- breaking but fatal fight of Osoaviakhim balloon in 1934, long distance flights of Chkalov and Gromov, the world's first successful jet airliner Tu-104, first soviet rockets of the TsAGI team, and finally, onto the first satellite - Sputnik 1 - with radio stations receiving its signals around the world, scientists talking about it and quite interesting descriptions of the instruments prepared for the next satellite - Sputnik 2 with a dog on board. It closes with the propagandist depiction of the session of the Supreme Council of the USSR and Khrushchev's speech praising the achievement.
Recommended for all fans of space exploration history. The film is quite easy to find provided you use the Russian Cyrillic title in the search.
This film looks back at the origins of the theory of space flight depicting the life of Tsiolkovskiy - the father of space flight theory. It then goes onto to the build-up to the first satellite by showing the Soviet industrialisation after the communist revolution, the record- breaking but fatal fight of Osoaviakhim balloon in 1934, long distance flights of Chkalov and Gromov, the world's first successful jet airliner Tu-104, first soviet rockets of the TsAGI team, and finally, onto the first satellite - Sputnik 1 - with radio stations receiving its signals around the world, scientists talking about it and quite interesting descriptions of the instruments prepared for the next satellite - Sputnik 2 with a dog on board. It closes with the propagandist depiction of the session of the Supreme Council of the USSR and Khrushchev's speech praising the achievement.
Recommended for all fans of space exploration history. The film is quite easy to find provided you use the Russian Cyrillic title in the search.
