Space - 1958-1960

Since I’m starting this blog roughly 25% through the decade, a certain amount of catching up is required.  Conscious of the need to keep these musings short enough to be interesting, I’m going to split them up.  Apologies for breaking up the chronology.

One of the great themes of the 1960s was the “space race.”  It’s hard, fifty years later, to understand the fascination that practically all Americans had for space exploration at the time.  I distinctly remember being allowed to go late to school so I could watch early lift-offs on live TV broadcasts.  For the adults of that time, it was tied up with the fear and combativeness of the Cold War (which we’ll discuss at length later) and the pride they felt in a country that had won World War II and could do anything.  For the kids like me, it was just really exciting and interesting.  NASA had a great public relations department at the time, and anyone could write and ask for free material.  My wall, and many of my friends’, was plastered with NASA pictures of astronauts, rockets, etc.

So, to set the stage: 

Sputnik

After World War II, both the U.S. and the Soviet Union used German scientists and their captured rockets in programs for both military and civilian research.  The first successful orbital launch was of the Soviet unmanned Sputnik 1 ("Satellite 1") mission on October 4, 1957. The small satellite had two radio transmitters which emitted "beeps" that could be heard by radios around the globe. This success led to an escalation of the American space program, which unsuccessfully attempted to launch a Vanguard satellite into orbit two months later. On January 31, 1958, the U.S. successfully orbited Explorer 1.  In the meantime, the Soviet dog Laika became the first animal in orbit on November 3, 1957.

Sputnik surprised the American public, resulting in a “wave of near-hysteria”.  Not only did Sputnik shatter the perception of the United States as the technological superpower and the Soviet Union as a backward country, the satellite's launch also evoked fears that the Soviets in space would put the U.S. territory at their mercy.  It forced the Americans to take a more offensive stance in the emerging space race, resulting in an emphasis on science and technological research and reforms in many areas from the military to education systems.  The federal government began pouring unmatched amounts of money into science education, engineering and mathematics at all levels of education.  (Shamelessly plagiarized from Wikipedia)

By the end of 1960, no human had yet gone into space, but that (and much more) was to change in 1961.  Stay tuned ....