Quote:
Originally Posted by G6Tanuki
Yes, the US were rather enthusiastic at adopting transistors for satellites
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Well, can't really blame them, much as there are many thermionics fans here- when every gram hurled expensively into space has to justify itself, extra power requirements for making metal glow get a jaundiced look when there are new-fangled devices available that dispense with that bit. The Soviet Union's first space rockets were notably large and powerful compared to their US counterparts, too, as they were originally intended for heavy, less developed nuclear payloads and their bulky re-entry vehicles with low-tech ablatives which allegedly included thick layers of oak heartwood and slabs of copper! So valves and their power sources would have been less of a game-stopper on the "other side", Sputnik 1 amounted to a heavy battery pack that was most of the weight and a bit of electronics.