The Soviet Space Saga Podcast

Episode 9 - First Again In this final episode of this miniseries, we get a sense of the magnitude of the Soviet success in space by going through all of their firsts. It's a long list! Thanks for listening to this podcast, I hope to hear back from you! soundcloud.com/sovietspacesa…

Episode 8 - Setbacks The Soviets paid a price for all their firsts in space, and there were victims to their secrets on both sides of the Space Race. But if we remember and talk about them now, we do the right thing! soundcloud.com/sovietspacesa…

Episode 7 - To Venus and Mars The Soviets hoped to put a red cosmonaut on the Red Planet, and this may have lost them the Moon Race. But their unmanned missions to Venus and Mars were astounding successes, despite the limited technology of the sixties. soundcloud.com/sovietspacesa…

Episode 6 - First Woman in Space In the Soviet Union, everything was different, even sexism. Sending the first woman to space was a natural fact of Communism, but its egalitarianism had a paradoxical nature. Listen to the story of Valentina Tereshkova! soundcloud.com/sovietspacesa…

Some people thought that going to space would cause insanity; others, blindness. But the first human ever to go there returned home with only the slight side effect of the confusion caused by his sudden promotion to major. Listen to his story! soundcloud.com/sovietspacesa…

There was a time before July 12, 1969 when the race to the Moon was still very much on -- and the Soviets were winning. Listen to the story of how the Soviets lost the Moon race by winning almost every milestone! soundcloud.com/sovietspacesa…

The Americans had sent fruit flies to space, and figuring that insects aren't all that closed to humans, the Soviets reused a Sputnik capsule to experiment with dogs instead. The most famous of them was Laika, the first living being on Earth orbit. soundcloud.com/sovietspacesa…

Episode 2 - Sputnik The first thing humans ever sent to orbit was a shiny metal ball, and it rocked the world. It prompted the formation of DARPA, which famously contributed to the creation of the Internet -- and to one of the COVID vaccines. Listen here: soundcloud.com/sovietspacesa…

Episode 1 - The Space Race from the Soviet Side The story of space exploration begins with bombs -- because of course it does. Listen how the Soviets went from appropriating Nazi research to creating the biggest rocket ever made at its time. Listen here: soundcloud.com/sovietspacesa…