Historical Sounds from famous Space Objects

In the following table you will find some really historical sound files from famous space objects. This page started when I received an audio cassette with some historical sound files from my friend Alois Ochojski DL3PD (+ April 2007). They were derived from a phono-card, which he had received in 1962 from the national broadcast service of CSSR. Alois was kind enough to record them to tape and I finally converted them to digital audio files. You can hear an introduction to these files read by Alois DL3PD by clicking on his picture on the right. The original comments are in Czech language. Please excuse the partially poor quality of the sound files. Keep in mind that most of the records are quite old.

Many thanks for the recordings to Alois DL3PD, Roy Welch W0SL, Sven Grahn, Maik Hermenau, Jean-Louis F6AGR, Dick Flagg AH6NM and Bill KA8VIT.

Picture

Object name
#NORAD

Remarks

Launch
Date

Weight

Sputnik 1
1957-001B
#00002 

First man made satellite in space, launched by USSR. Record provided by Alois DL3PD.

Oct 4^th 1957

83.6 kg

First man made satellite in space transmitting on 20.007 MHz. This recording was made by Roy W0SL in Dallas, Texas on October 7, 1957 at 0457Z using a military surplus AN/FRR3A HF RTTY receiver. Here is a picture of Roy while he is listening to Sputnik.

First man made satellite in space recording from unknown German ham-radio amateur. Recording filtered and provided by Don P. Mitchell.

Unknown British SWL commenting the reception of Sputnik 1 on October 11th 1957 at 10:58pm. Original source unknown. Recording provided by Bill KA8VIT. (Please note that the recording is 5MB large).

Sputnik 2
Physical lab
1957-002A
#00003

Spaceship with first animal in space, which was the dog named Laika. It also transmitted at 20.005 MHz. Record provided by Alois DL3PD.

Nov 3^rd 1957

508.3 kg

Explorer 1
1958-001A
#00004

Explorer 1 was America's first orbiting satellite. This recording was made by Roy W0SL in Dallas, Texas on February 11, 1958 at 0100Z using a home-made VHF converter in front of a National NC-300 receiver. Thanks Roy !

Jan 31^st 1958

14.1 kg

Vanguard 1
1958-002B
#00005

The oldest man-made satellite still in orbit. It is expected to last about another 190 years. Thanks to solar cells used on the satellite the transmitters operated 6 years and 3 months. Its output power was 100mW and 50mW and transmit frequencies were 108.0 MHz and 108.3 MHz. The telemetry transmitted was the package temperature indicated by the difference between the two transmitter frequencies. Therefore, the recordings were made with the receiver Beat Frequency Oscillator (BFO) turned on in order to produce an audible tone heard in the recordings. Thanks for the audio-file to Roy W0SL.

Mar 17^th 1958

1.47 kg

Sputnik 3
1958-004B
#00008

Sputnik 3 was conically shaped and 3.57m long. It had 12 scientific instruments and several radio systems. Enclosed audio file was recorded at 20.005 MHz and kindly provided by Sven Grahn.

May 15^th 1958

1327 kg

Lunik III / Luna 3
1959-008A
#00021

Lunar probe Lunik 3 flew around the Moon. Record provided by Alois DL3PD.

Oct 4^th 1959

1553 kg

First signals and pictures (see left) from far side of the Moon. Record provided by Alois DL3PD.

Space Ship Vostok with Sputnik 9
1961-008A
#00091

Space Ship Vostok carrying dog Chernuska in space. Record provided by Alois DL3PD.

Mar 9^th 1961

4700 kg

Russian Spaceship
Vostok 1
with
Jurij Gagarin
1961- 012A
#00103

The first man in space: Jurij Gagarin. Record provided by Alois DL3PD.

Apr 12^th 1961

4725 kg

Vinyl single made in USSR
"12-IV 1961 CCCP Gagarin" side 1 with Russian comments. Record provided by Maik Hermenau.

Vinyl single made in USSR
"12-IV 1961 CCCP Gagarin" side 2 with German comments. Record provided by Maik Hermenau.

Colorvox "Schallbildkarte"
"Reportage über den Weltraumflug Juri Gagarins". Record provided by Maik Hermenau.

Report in German language about the phase between the first artificial satellite Sputnik 1 and the first man in space Juri Gagarin. From a Schallfolie "Der Weg in den Kosmos" which was provided in the 60s by a Eastern German magazine called "Frösi". Record provided by Maik Hermenau.

US Spaceship
Friendship 7
Mercury Atlas 6
with John Glenn
1962-003A
#00240

Report in German language about the first US astronaut John Glenn circulating in MA 6 (Mercury Atlas 6) the Earth 3 times. Heftbeilage der Hauszeitschrift "Die Brücke" Nr.2 vom Oktober 1962 der Pharmazeutischen Medizinischen Abteilung der Farbwerke Hoechst AG. Record provided by Maik Hermenau.

Feb 20^th 1962

1900 kg

Gemini-9
(crew: Tom Stafford and Eugene Cernan)
1966-047A
#02191

This US mission faced some problems but nevertheless with a duration of more than 2 hours a new record for an EVA was established. Gemini-9 also tried to dock with ATDA, a test satellite. It returned to Earth on June 6th. Audio received on June 3rd 1966 by Dick Flagg (currently AH6NM) on 296.8 MHz at the University of Florida Student Satellite Tracking Station. Record provided by Sven Grahn.

June 3^rd 1966

3750 kg

Apollo 8

first manned mission to fly and orbit the Moon
(crew: William Anders, James Lovell, Frank Borman)

CSM-103
1968-118A
#03626

Originally Apollo 8 wasn't going to the Moon but was supposed to have a low-earth orbit to test the Lunar Module and Command Module. However, since the Lunar Module wasn't ready, NASA decided to change the mission objectives and send Apollo 8 to orbit the Moon 10 times. The crew William Anders, James Lovell and Frank Borman was retrained in record time for a completely new mission. They were the first three humans to see the dark side of the Moon and their voyage was the first ever to escape Earth's gravitational force and visit another celestial body.  On Christmas Eve 1968, when approaching lunar sunrise, the 3 crew members sent a famous broadcast message back to Earth when taking turns reading the first 10 verses from the book of Genesis. Audio courtesy of NASA (3MB).

Dec 21^st 1968

28817 kg

Apollo 11

irst manned mission to land on the moon
(crew: Neil. A. Armstrong, Edwin E. Aldrin, Michael Collins)

Command & Service Module
CSM-107
1969-059A
#04039

Lunar Module
LM/EASEP
1969-059C
#04041

Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to land on the moon. The LM (landing module) spacecraft transmitted at S-band with a carrier frequency of 2282.5 MHz both live television (FM modulated) as well as telemetry (on PM modulated sub-carriers). This communication system was collectively referred to as the Unified S-Band Communication System.

Jul 16^th 1969

40894 kg

The audio file enclosed documents the successful launch sequence. Recorded on July 16th 1969.

The famous words of Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon, when he stepped on the moon. Recorded on July 20^th 1969.

The second man to step on the moon was Edwin E. Aldrin. This video shows him climbing down the ladder. This video was received by Parkes Observatory in Australia. Video courtesy of NASA.

President Nixon talks with the Astronauts and wished for ".. peace and tranquility on the Earth." This video was received by Parkes Observatory in Australia. Video courtesy of NASA.

Vinyl single "First man on the moon" side 1 includes the speech of J.F.Kennedy announcing the plan to go to the moon. Record provided by Maik Hermenau.

Vinyl single "First man on the moon" side 2 includes the launch of Apollo 11 and landing of Eagle. Record provided by Maik Hermenau.

Part 1 of a report in German language about the first manned mission to the moon, Vinyl LP "Original Dokumente vom Weg zum Mond" war 1970 eine Beilageder Zeitschrift "Bunte Illustrierte". Record provided by Maik Hermenau (11 minutes).

Part 2 of a report in German language about the first manned mission to the moon, Vinyl LP "Original Dokumente vom Weg zum Mond" war 1970 eine Beilageder Zeitschrift "Bunte Illustrierte". Record provided by Maik Hermenau (15 minutes).

Apollo 13

aborted third manned mission to the moon (crew: James A. Lovell, Jr., John L. Swigert, Jr., Fred W. Haise, Jr. )

CSM-109
1970-029A
#04371

This mission to moon ended almost fatal. Due to an explosion of the oxygen tank in the service module the mission had to be aborted and luckily the crew returned safely on April 17^th 1970. See here a short movie of the damaged service module when clicking on the picture to the right.
Famous words of Jack Swigert after the explosion of the tank: "Houston, we've had a problem here."

Apr 11^th 1970

136077 kg

Soyuz-33
1979-029A
#11324

Launched to bring the "Saturn" crew N. N. Rukavishnikov (USSR) and G. I. Ivanov (Bulgaria) to the Space Station Salyut 6, Soyuz-33 failed to dock with Salyut 6 as there was a malfunction of the main engine during its final approach.
The "Proton" crew aboard Salyut 6 reported flames shooting sideways from the main engine, toward the backup engine, at the time of the shutdown. The docking was called off and the "Saturn" crew made ready to return to Earth.
Unfortunately also the backup engine had difficulties and as a result, Soyuz 33 made a steep ballistic reentry with acceleration up to 10G (98 m/s²). Listen to the crew reading the landing angles.
After the short mission of 2 days finally the "Saturn" crew arrived safely on earth.
Both audio files were recorded on April 11^th 1979 on 121.75 MHz by Sven Grahn.

Apr 10^th 1979

6860 kg

STS-1
Columbia
1981-034A
#12399

German report about the first launch of a space shuttle: STS-1 Columbia which was broadcasted by Bayrischer Rundfunk. Record provided by Maik Hermenau.

Apr 12^th 1981

81836 kg

MIR Space Station
1986-017A
#16609

The first crew to visit MIR were Leonid Kizim and Vladimir Soloviev. Their Soyuz T-15 spacecraft was launched on March 13^th 1986 and they docked to MIR on March 14th. They stayed in space for 125 days and during that time even travelled from MIR to Salyut 6 and back before finally returning back to earth.
The first audio file was recorded by Sven Grahn on March 15^th 1986 15:27 UTC on 121.75 MHz, apparently shortly after they entered MIR. Many thanks to Sven Grahn.
The second audio file was recorded the day after on March 16^th 1986 14:14 UTC on 143.625 MHz also by Sven Grahn.

Feb 20^th
1986 (core module)

140000 kg

Another way to use large space objects is to use them as passive reflectors. MIR indeed was large enough to scatter enough signal back to Earth. The audio file enclosed was recorded by Jean-Louis F6AGR on Feb. 21^st 2001. He received CW (morse code) signals, which were transmitted on 144 MHz by F6ETI.

International Space Station ISS
1998-067A
#25544 

The first crew of the ISS was the team of Commander William M. Shepherd, Soyuz Pilot Yuri P. Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev. They arrived with a Soyuz spacecraft on Nov. 2^nd 2000 and stayed 136 days.
In the sound file enclosed Bill Shepherd is thanking the ground crews. Recorded shortly after arrival of the 1st crew on Nov. 2^nd 2000 at 12:27 UTC on 143.625 MHz by Sven Grahn.
You can find many more recordings from Spaceships like ISS in the respective section of this website.

Nov 20^th
1998
(Zarja module)

183283 kg

If you have further recordings from space objects please let me know. I will be happy to add them to my homepage. Many thanks in advance.

Vy 55 & 73 de Matthias DD1US