Sputnik and The Dawn of the Space Age
Tomado de http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/sputnik/
History changed on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world's first artificial satellite was about the size of a basketball, weighed only 183 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path. That launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. While the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S.S.R space race.
The story begins in 1952, when the International Council of Scientific Unions decided to establish July 1, 1957, to December 31, 1958, as the International Geophysical Year (IGY) because the scientists knew that the cycles of solar activity would be at a high point then. In October 1954, the council adopted a resolution calling for artificial satellites to be launched during the IGY to map the Earth's surface.
In July 1955, the White House announced plans to launch an Earth-orbiting satellite for the IGY and solicited proposals from various Government research agencies to undertake development. In September 1955, the Naval Research Laboratory's Vanguard proposal was chosen to represent the U.S. during the IGY.
The Sputnik launch changed everything. As a technical achievement, Sputnik caught the world's attention and the American public off-guard. Its size was more impressive than Vanguard's intended 3.5-pound payload. In addition, the public feared that the Soviets' ability to launch satellites also translated into the capability to launch ballistic missiles that could carry nuclear weapons from Europe to the U.S. Then the Soviets struck again; on November 3, Sputnik II was launched, carrying a much heavier payload, including a dog named Laika.
Immediately after the Sputnik I launch in October, the U.S. Defense Department responded to the political furor by approving funding for another U.S. satellite project. As a simultaneous alternative to Vanguard, Wernher von Braun and his Army Redstone Arsenal team began work on the Explorer project.
On January 31, 1958, the tide changed, when the United States successfully launched Explorer I. This satellite carried a small scientific payload that eventually discovered the magnetic radiation belts around the Earth, named after principal investigator James Van Allen. The Explorer program continued as a successful ongoing series of lightweight, scientifically useful spacecraft.
The Sputnik launch also led directly to the creation of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In July 1958, Congress passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act (commonly called the "Space Act"), which created NASA as of October 1, 1958 from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and other government agencies.
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Beep, Beep, Beep...
Here Comes Sputnik!
Tomado de http://www.batnet.com/mfwright/sputnik.html
created August 30, 1997
Last update: 3/16/02
New! The Shock of the Century by Washington journalist Paul Dickson: Go to http://sputnikbook.com for an outline on this book. There are photos, introduction, and several links.
Never before had so small and so harmless an object created such consternation.
Daniel J. Boorstin, The Americans: The Democratic Experience
Editor's note:
It's been a really long time ("billions and billions...") since I have checked the following links or updated this page. Sorry some the links are dead but I have found a collection of links, including the NY Times that has the actual front page headlines of the Sputnik news and events in October 1957. For this and other links click here.
This website was created for the 40th commemoration of the beginning of the Space Age. Contributions and corrections are most welcome. I admit there are some sweeping overgeneralizations in this page and I'm not attempting to have an accurate word-for-word historical account of these events..
October 4, 1957 (40 years ago):
The Russians launched the first artificial satellite from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan which demonstrated the technological superiority of Communism (actually more of a propaganda pain for the US). They equipped the Sputnik with transmitters to broadcast on frequencies at 20 and 40 MHz so everyone will know it's up there.
The United States was shocked. Senator Lyndon Johnson said the Russians have jumped way ahead of us in the conquest of space. "Soon, they will be dropping bombs on us from space like kids dropping rocks onto cars from freeway overpasses!*" [*from a movie that dramatized the emotional impact of that day]. Everyone in the United States were constantly reminded that the Russians were well on the way in conquering space and newspaper headlines, "REDS ORBIT ARTIFICIAL MOON" and "SOVIET SATELLITE CIRCLES GLOBE EVERY 90 MINUTES".
Reactions by Americans:
Many people did not know how to think of a satellite in orbit. It was too mysterious for them, "What is a 184 pound object in orbit?" "Are they looking down at us?"
Engineering colleges were flooded with new students the following quarter. It was as if everyone was "joining the army" to take on the Russians in the New Frontier.
Everyone on Johnston Island in the Pacific were issued sidearms to carry at all times. Johnston Island is so small it only has room for a runway and a hanger for airplanes.
Students at Case Institute immediately became "Rocket Scientists" and stayed up many late nights discussing various methods of space travel.
Jim Dawsons, science writer for the Star Tribune, wrote about how his third grade teacher was very nervous at the time. His school at Omaha, Neb., was just a few miles from the Air Force's Strategic Air Command headquarters. A fleet of F-100 fighters appeared in the sky coming right for the school. "MiGs!" the teacher shrieked. "MiGs!" She ran, hysterical, from the classroom, convinced they were about to be nuked by Russian fighter jets. The kids, mostly Air Force brats, ran to the windows to admire the F-100s, the coolest jet of its day.
Politicians and editorialists began attacking the U.S. educational system for having fallen behind Soviet schools in training people in the sciences and other fields.
Former President Harry Truman was moved to comment, charging the "persecution" of prominent U.S. scientists by Sen. Joseph McCarthy during the early 1950s had been a setback to the nation's development of satellites and rockets.
Ross Perot became inspired by the Sputnik to create an electronics dynasty.
After observing Sputnik, seven year old Franklin Chang-Dìaz of Costa Rica became infatuated with space travel and eventually became a NASA astronaut.
Tom A. posted on the newsgroup about an American entreprenuer had a "Sputnik" gumball for sale at the local candy store. It was blue and had protrusions sticking out of it to simulate Sputnik's antenna, and it was delicious.
President Dwight Eisenhower was surprised but not as anxious as everyone else. He had photographs of the Russian launch facilities that were obtained from U2 flights over Soviet territory the United States was conducting since 1956. So immediately after the Sputnik launch President Eisenhower did not see it as an immediate military threat and he tried to lessen the political impact. But Eisenhower could not disclose intelligence gathered by the U2 flights, and he was not successful in damping the political impact. Thus the "Missile Gap" argument was born.
The Sputnik launch occurred back in the days when the Pentium had vacuum tubes, and during this period the Americans and the Russians regarded each other as enemies (also known as the "Cold War"). They built massive armies, navies, and air forces and were prepared to engage in global war at a moments notice. American military manuals regarded the Russians as "The Threat," and Soviet government went as far as training many non-military citizens on use of small arms to prepare for an invasion from "The Imperialists."
The United States tried to gain a foothold on the High Ground with the satellite Vanguard but it exploded on the launch pad and everyone laughed at the U.S. silly; some called it the "Kaputnik." And it wasn't as bad as just a launch failure, the vanguard satellite only the size of a grapefruit. The Sputnik 1 was 184 pounds and the Russians launched the previous month Sputnik 2 which was 1100 pounds and carried a live dog, Laika. There were lots of finger pointing, yelling, but also some had said that Sputnik didn't pose an immediate military threat. Although the same vehicle that can put a satellite into orbit can also vault a nuclear bomb across continents, nobody had solved the problem of shielding a satellite, or a warhead, during atmosphere re-entry. But it was that blasted "beep, beep, beep" every 90 minutes reminding the U.S., "Razzzzzz, we beat you!"
To hear the sounds of Sputnik, Candice Rich of the pop music webpage http://fiftiesweb.com, has a wav file at http://fiftiesweb.com/pop/sputnik.wav
Vanguard Sidenote:
Briefly, (very briefly), they weren't trying to beat the Russians, only trying to launch one and only one satellite. They also wanted to conduct one experiment successfully sometime during the International Geophysical Year (the 18-month "year" designated by scientists as January 1957 to July 1958). This was in the hot time of the Cold War, when both the Soviets and the US were trying to develop ICBMs and IRBMs, and Vanguard had NO military priority. The Vanguard team had to struggle and fight for money, range time at the Cape, buying equipment, etc. etc.
The entire program was just 14 launch vehicles, and not all of those were "satellite launch vehicles." The big collapse of TV-3 in December 57 was a Test Vehicle, and the "grapefruit" satellite in its nosecone was kind of an afterthought: "Gee, if all the three stages work perfectly, as a bonus we could put a small satellite into orbit. So let's make a small one and try it." TV-3 was the FIRST attempt to launch the entire "stack." (Later, in the Apollo era, this kind of test came to be known honorably as "all-up systems engineering test").
The Vanguard I satellite, launched successfully on March 17, 1958 is now the oldest manufactured object in orbit. While it hasn't be actively transmitting for a good many years, it is in a highly stable orbit and will probably remain there for several hundred more years.
For an interesting web site on Vanguard, go to http://home5.swipnet.se/~w-52936/index20.htm.
[now back to our regular scheduled program]
However, a "war" on and the U.S. had to get SOMETHING in orbit and soon. Werner Von Braun and his rocket team finally got permission to launch the Explorer satellite and they successfully launch it on January 31, 1958. Explorer 1, a scientific satellite, used a rocket that had been developed to test guided missile components (also the same rocket later used as a IRBM placed in Turkey and aimed towards the Soviet Union). Explorer 1 carried an instrument package that provided evidence that the Earth is surrounded by intense bands of radiation, now called the Van Allen radiation belts.
The U.S. could have put the first satellite in orbit in 1956 with a Jupiter rocket that reached 700 miles altitude and just 1000 mph short of orbital speed. However, those working with the launch vehicle were ordered to make sure the third stage was a dummy. President Eisenhower was nervous about the U2 flights over the Soviet Union and a U2 being shot down. That was one of the reasons he was reluctant to place a satellite in orbit because then it would have been another American object passing over the Soviet Union. Others in top government didn't want to embarrass anyone by putting the first satellite in orbit. There were other conflicts as well. The three U.S. military services (Army, Navy, Air Force) each had their preference of how to deploy space vehicles thus wasted much time arguing among themselves [the Marines probably said it didn't matter which service leads the conquest of space, but it couldn't be done without an amphibious landing! Maybe this is why John Glenn was the most popular among the first astronauts].
In a Associated Press article by Greg Myre, Russian scientist Arkady Ostashev said, "Those were great days. It was a lot of fun." Ostashev was part of a handpicked team and he was responsible for testing the rockets used for launching Sputnik. Sergei Korolev, father of the Soviet space program, told Ostashev and his colleagues after their triumph, "Congratulations, the road to the stars is now open." Although the Baikonur launch complex was so isolated that Ostashev and his colleagues, desperate for entertainment, would catch scorpions, put them in glass jars and watch them fight to the death.
Another sidenote:
Sergei Korolev had to struggle with many in the Soviet government who thought satellites and men in space was a waste of time. While working the technical challenges, he also had many political challenges from those preventing him from getting the resources he needed for the space program he managed. For more information on this, read the excellent book about Sergei, "Korolev: How One Man Masterminded The Soviet Drive To Beat America To The Moon" (by James Harford, 1997, John Wiley & Sons).
Many things happened after October 1957. Here is a brief list of what the United States did:
Created NASA as the single agency to mobilize U.S. resources to beat the Reds to the stars.
Created the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). The purpose behind ARPA was to research new technologies that where too risky to the private industry. In 1969 they created the ARPAnet to research transfer protocols between computers across systems, the predecessor to the Internet.