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Interesting story, but the drunk driver angle is irrelevant and only there for clickbait purposes. During the development of the project, a drunk driver crashed

Interesting story, but the drunk driver angle is irrelevant and only there for clickbait purposes. During the development of the project, a drunk driver crashed while delivering an early prototype of Sputnik that was not going to fly anyway because it was too heavy and complicated. Ok, the drunk driver "led" to the birth of Sputnik.

PerArduaAdAstra 4y ago
I'm sorry if people see it as click bait, that was not my intention when I wrote this! I just thought it was hilarious anecdote about the birth of the space race. If the Russians had stuck with Object D, they could well have been beaten by the Americans. I just love this story about how a banal incident determines history. So, in a way, the vodka-swilled driver helped the engineers abandon complexity and focus on simplicity, which ultimately won the day. You can see this kind of approach today at SpaceX, which is constantly trying to simplify all elements of its technology.
wdvwdvw 4y ago
I was thinking the same thing. If you're into this stuff I can highly recommend this book. Tons of fun anecdotes. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/348190.Red_Moon_Rising https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/348190.Red_Moon_Risin...
- trollerator23 4y ago
  Or they can go to the source material for this clickbait article and read Rockets and People, by Chertok.
netsharc 4y ago
The paragraphs relevant to the title: > But work on ‘Object D’ had been repeatedly delayed; as a result, the launch date had now slipped to April 1958. Fearing the Americans would soon launch again and steal the USSR’s glory, Korolev decided to push his luck: he ordered Object D, ready or not, delivered to his launch site immediately. > That’s where our driver comes in. The Ministry of Defence Industry’s facility, glad to be rid of the bulky and troublesome package, assigned a truck driver to deliver it to the airport. Rocket engineer Boris Chertok recalls the drunken man driving “like a maniac”, unaware of the precision instruments aboard, and finally crashing into a tree. > When Korolev finally laid his eyes on the bulky satellite, he was incandescent with rage. It was too big, too complicated and, now, too damaged. One of his engineers, Mikhail Tikhonravov, suggested they instead fly a radio beacon: a simpler, smaller package with just antennas and a transmitter, weighing much less. Then they could beat the Americans. Who knows, maybe they were stuck in institutional thinking. The deliverable was stupid and not workable, but no one dared to say "We need to scrap this and start from the beginning.". Only when it was totally wrecked did they have a chance to do so.
trollerator23 4y ago
Thank you!

PerArduaAdAstra 4y ago

I'm sorry if people see it as click bait, that was not my intention when I wrote this! I just thought it was hilarious anecdote about the birth of the space race. If the Russians had stuck with Object D, they could well have been beaten by the Americans. I just love this story about how a banal incident determines history. So, in a way, the vodka-swilled driver helped the engineers abandon complexity and focus on simplicity, which ultimately won the day. You can see this kind of approach today at SpaceX, which is constantly trying to simplify all elements of its technology.

wdvwdvw 4y ago

I was thinking the same thing. If you're into this stuff I can highly recommend this book. Tons of fun anecdotes. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/348190.Red_Moon_Rising https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/348190.Red_Moon_Risin...

trollerator23 4y ago
Or they can go to the source material for this clickbait article and read Rockets and People, by Chertok.

netsharc 4y ago

The paragraphs relevant to the title: > But work on ‘Object D’ had been repeatedly delayed; as a result, the launch date had now slipped to April 1958. Fearing the Americans would soon launch again and steal the USSR’s glory, Korolev decided to push his luck: he ordered Object D, ready or not, delivered to his launch site immediately. > That’s where our driver comes in. The Ministry of Defence Industry’s facility, glad to be rid of the bulky and troublesome package, assigned a truck driver to deliver it to the airport. Rocket engineer Boris Chertok recalls the drunken man driving “like a maniac”, unaware of the precision instruments aboard, and finally crashing into a tree. > When Korolev finally laid his eyes on the bulky satellite, he was incandescent with rage. It was too big, too complicated and, now, too damaged. One of his engineers, Mikhail Tikhonravov, suggested they instead fly a radio beacon: a simpler, smaller package with just antennas and a transmitter, weighing much less. Then they could beat the Americans. Who knows, maybe they were stuck in institutional thinking. The deliverable was stupid and not workable, but no one dared to say "We need to scrap this and start from the beginning.". Only when it was totally wrecked did they have a chance to do so.

trollerator23 4y ago

Thank you!