Garagin's flight was a triumph for the team of engineers led by Korolyov that produced both the R7 launcher and the Vostok spacecraft. In this paper, Mark Hempsell examines the culture of the Russian space industry and argues that it was dominated by a pre-war vision of astronautics, whereas in the United States and Europe space was seen more as an adjunct to the aeronautical industry. The only other nation with a similar outlook to Space, he argues, is the United Kingdom although the history of how this happened was very different.

Mark Hempsell presented his paper to the RAeS Space Group Conference, Yuri Gagarin’s legacy, 50 years on: securing the vision for the next half century. The event was held on 16 March 2011, the session was chaired by Dr John Hobbs and the podcast was edited by Eur Ing Mike Stanberry FRAeS.