Articles tagged with: Astrostan series
Editor’s note: To commemorate the coming new year, neweurasia is looking heavenward to gaze into Central Asia’s past, present, and future. neweurasia’s Schwartz explores outer space’s ultimate meaning for the region’s destiny…
The “Astrostan” series is far from over. Central Asia and outer space is a topic — to some wacky, to others (me) fascinating — that we’ll be returning to again, sometimes in a way, ironically, more “down to earth”, e.g., talking about the space industry and space ideology, and sometimes in the more speculative ways of some of the posts you’ve seen this week, like using Mars as a model for understanding the region’s history. See you soon, space cadets. ;-)
The residents of Baikonur have a saying: “The cosmos are inside you.” I think it’s incredibly apt for this week’s exploration of Central Asia’s relation to outer space. This is a region with so many very earthly struggles that, as Averroes has repeatedly pointed out in his posts, we need to think carefully about Central Asia’s inner space as the real meaning of its reach heavenward.
Editor’s note: To commemorate the coming new year, neweurasia is looking heavenward to gaze into Central Asia’s past, present, and future. H.B. Paksoy (D. Phil., Oxford University) and neweurasia’s Schwartz take an interesting spin on the question, using the theoretical terraforming of Mars as a metaphor to understand Central Asian identity. This post is based partly upon Paksoy’s academic article, “Governance on Mars”, available here.
The colonization of Mars is not only the stuff of science fiction. It’s actually a useful thought experiment to interpret the histories of several regions on Earth that have suffered colonialism. When applied to Central Asia, the terraforming of Mars is actually quite illuminating.
Editor’s note: To commemorate the coming new year, neweurasia is looking heavenward to gaze into Central Asia’s past, present, and future. Averroes, having explored Turkmenistan’s space ambitions, now turns to Kazakhstan. “At least Turkmenistan has the right idea about outer space,” he writes, “In seeking to commercialize outer space, will Kazakhstan commercialize the Kazakh soul?”
In my last post I essentially described Turkmenistan as a country not quite with both feet on earth yet making it into outer space. The same cannot be said of Kazakhstan, which of course is not only home to the Baikonur launch facility, but also has many of its own mighty space ambitions. This is a country that has its feet planted firmly on terra firma — perhaps too firmly.
Cover art for OMFO's 2006 album, "We are the Shepherds".
Editor’s note: To commemorate the coming new year, neweurasia is looking heavenward to gaze into Central Asia’s past, present, and future. Averroes takes a furlough into Turkmenistan to examine the legacy of Turkmenbashi’s dreams of putting Turkmen into space. What he finds may surprise you.
After creating the magnificent universe, and its innumerable systems and the blue planet in them, Allah, in his mercy, created man upon the Earth… [But] mankind, by exploring the universe, lost his belief in the universe and the heavens! The human being feels he is alone. This is because people, by becoming too deeply involved with material things, have lost their connections with the spiritual and heavenly realms. — Niyazov, Ruhnama
I won’t apologize for quoting Niyazov and you’ll see why in a little while. Way back in the Nineties, Turkmenistan’s first and most notorious president declared his ambition of putting Turkmen into space. What’s become of the dream? Well, believe it or not, Turkmenistan has actually accomplished the goal — sort of.
To commemorate the coming of a promising new year and the end of a particularly difficult one, neweurasia has been looking to the future. Last week we turned earthward, examining the question of whether eventual political and economic unification would be good for the region. This week we turn heavenward, examining the technological and ideological destiny of Central Asia.
When Timur and I started the “Astrostan” series back in August, we originally intended it to cover just the Kazakh space industry. We were interested in both the history of the famed Baikonur facility and the cultural role of space exploration in contemporary Kazakh society. However, the series is now expanding to cover the topic of outer space in general in Central Asia, both past and present, in its entire range of aspects.
The history of outer space in Central Asia is, of course, inextricably tied up with Soviet space exploration. What I find interesting as a philosopher is the tension that existed between the Soviets’ ambition to change human nature — symbolized by their difficult struggle to reach toward the stars — and the human catastrophes that resulted from their endeavor. Call it hypocrisy or the metaxology of grand dreams, the Soviets’ mixture of hope and tragedy has lessons for everyone seeking to advance humanity.
An enormous pyramid-shaped UFO was recorded hovering over Moscow a few days ago. Whether it’s a hoax, a meteorological trick of the eye, or the real thing, it’s certainly impressive.
You can watch nighttime footage here and here, courtesy of The Sun and YouTube, as well as a daytime shot here, courtesy of SciFiWire. I’ve included some screen captures in this post after the break.
As part of our ongoing “Astrostan” series, neweurasia is polling public perception about UFOs in Central Asia. We want to hear your stories about flying saucers, little green (or gray) men, etc. Complete this survey or leave a comment below. If you’ve got photos or videos, share the link, too. “Take us to your leader!”
Making Francis Scott Key proud: the United States' answer to Sputnik, "Vanguard", a.k.a., "flopnik", was a disaster. Despite this failure, the perceived successes of Baikonur was such that the United States continued to fling itself headfirst into the Space Race. Click on the image to see footage of the disaster on YouTube.
Editor’s note: This is the third part in “Astrostan”, a series of posts on the historical and social importance of the Space Program in Kazakhstan.
This post will strive to address the real and imagined effects of the Soviet Space Program and Baikonur’s presence on the country of Kazakhstan. There are a couple questions I will present, not all of which are intuitive for a Western audience.
Do Baikonur and its launches damage the atmosphere? Do they create holes of any kind as they pass through our atmosphere? Is Baikonur bad for the local climate in southern Kazakhstan? Does Baikonur act as a kind of weather machine? What are the positive roles of Baikonur? What about Kazakhstan’s own space ambitions? Read the full story »
Photo of the Nedelin disaster © 2001 by Anatoly Zak, courtesy of Russian Space Web.com
Editor’s note: This is the second part in “Astrostan”, a series of posts on the historical and social importance of the Space Program in Kazakhstan.
A note about the image from Russian Space Web.com:
As the first flash of fire burst into the air over Site 41, automated camera systems clicked on and caught on camera what few Soviet citizens would learn about until the collapse. A still frame from this film shows survivors of the inferno running toward the edge of the launch pad with their clothes burning. Traces of smoke on the ground mark places where burning bodies fell.
Disasters of the Soviet Space Program
This week I’ll be guiding you through the less well-known areas of the Soviet Space Program. That’s a statement that requires qualification, as precious few aspects of the Soviet Space Program are ‘well-known.’ First woman/man/dog in space = well-known. Various cosmonaut accidents, real and imagined cries from space, launchpad disasters, and trajectory misfires litter the space age landscape. These are the stories that flesh out our heroes and define our villains – like the Bondarenko disaster that saw a not-yet-famous Gagarin stoically standing a deathwatch over his fallen comrade. This is not a thinly veiled attempt to defend NASA by throwing mud at RKA (Roskosmos), but a general movement towards dissemination of information about Baikonur. Let’s take this one in steps. These are tender topics, and I aim to treat them with the respect they deserve. This isn’t going to be a comprehensive look at every mistake and tragedy of the Soviet Space Program, but rather a focused look at Baikonur. That being said, I’m going to start with a misfire-turned-propaganda-victory that showcases the spin expertise of the Soviet government. Read the full story »
A soyuz rocket sits on a pedastool in downtown Baikonur. Photo by Flickr user alexpgp (CC-usage)
Editor’s note: This is the first part in “Astrostan”, a series of posts on the historical and social importance of the Space Program in Kazakhstan.
Deep inside Kazakhstan’s seemingly endless steppe sits a well-kept secret: the largest and oldest operational space center. While technically no longer a secret, it is almost unknown outside the former Soviet Union. The former secrecy of this site owes much to Soviet policy and military sensitivity. While admittedly not the most advanced, photogenic, or accessible of space centers, it arguably remains the busiest. This is even more amazing when one considers how little maintenance and upkeep the center receives when compared with other space facilities. Baikonur has an impressive history, being absolutely central to the Soviet Space Program, and home to a laundry list of amazing achievements and space “firsts.” Read the full story »
Mantrovkz posts a news report by Interfax in his blog [ru], where it is said about possible landing of UFO in the [northern] Pavlodar region of Kazakhstan.
The eyewitness, who reported on the fall of an unidentified glowing object to the regional Department of Emergency Situations, was nobody else but personally a head of the district police station. The site of alleged crash is an 15 m. in diameter ice-hole on the river. However, divers did not find any objects on the bottom, and the experts say that sample water is normal.
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