This blog welcomes experiences of the Sputnik event in 1957 and opinions of its effects on our lives. Here are two questions and a comment personal observation of accelerated math and science education.
Two burning questions: Why? and What if?
How did Russia come to be first to launch
Sputnik when the space powers were roughly equal?
My knowledge of history, even in my own lifetime, is rather weak, but here’s my take on what happened. See the references below.
1957 was a time of mutual fear between and against two nuclear superpowers. The artificial satellite catalyst was in the works as part of an International Geophysical Year program with a scientific theme. Neither U.S. or Russian government leaders were enthusiastic while war-bred technical tribes were chomping to launch. Mars-minded Von Braun even rolled out a satellite-mounted Redstone missile to the launch pad but got nixed in favor of a Navy Jupiter. Meantime, a Russian technical group managed to design an ultra-simple 180 lb. beeping ball to ride replace a nose cone on monster missiles under test.
News reports shocked first the scientists in the know then informed a confused U.S. public. It was hard to imagine the engineering or purpose of a beeping ball circling the earth, even passing over the U..S. twice without notice before news announcement. With missile fear came the question of whether the satellite could attack, as warned in civil defense pamphlets and school room desk ducking. Apparently, Russian had been working on really big missiles needed for large nuclear payloads that the U.S. had superior technology to miniaturize. Nevertheless, U..S. missile rocketry was faulty and embroiled in military turb battles.
President Eisenhower seemed not to recognize the political whammy of a satellite first launch but rather was more interested in high flying planes and future satellites with reconnaissance capabilities to sort out the strengths and weaknesses of Soviet military forces. With launch of bigger dog carrying Sputnik 2, the American public grew even more scared and impatient. A rushed effort with existing U.S. rocket power failed in public but eventually got up to speed in 1958. Then came the rivalry first man in space and wild-eyed thoughts of progressing rapidly from Earth to the Moon, with Russia setting the pace.
How would our lives be different if America, not Russia, had been first?
And here come the side-effects that changed our lives to this day.
Eisenhower started an Advanced Research Project Agency to execute both catch-up and public assurance projects. Now, remember that the U.S. capability was mostly in place but the Russians made the decision first, not from superiority but rather follow-through. Was the U.S. weakness in public will, leadership, technological prowess, project management, military strategy? Eisenhower had an enormous juggling challenge: secret or public, civilian or military, scientific dominant or engineering demonstrations, private industry or government executed, etc.? Currently, we see a National Science Foundation, NASA, ARPA, and vast military industrial complex created warily during the Sputnik-stimulated space race of the 1950s.
Waves of public education concerns generate institutional opportunities in the belief that the U.S. intellectual and technological weakness had lead to the first satellite defeat and possible future losses in space races. With a sense of investment inn public education infrastructure, U.S. science and technology leaped ahead.
Now, it’s sickening to experience the loss of investment sense in schools.
But look what the whole world got for very little — the Internet, as created and fostered by military and then educational institutions for more than two decades. Would the U.S. have developed the Internet without the Sputnik loss? Who knows, but on balance this seems to have been a great battle to loose at a time when a generally good economy and scary political system forces could let such a technology bloom.
References for History of Sputnik and the Eisenhower era
- NASA’s account of Sputnik
- NBC News reporter Jay Barbree 50 years of space reporting. Good account of Sputnik politics on through the moon and downward. Informative news-eye account of space successes and tragedies. Available on Bookshare.
- the Heavens and the Earth: A political History of the Space Age. Dry but very informative trace of politics, personalities, and technologies.
Available on Bookshare. - Fear of Sputnik: NPR interview with Jay Barbree
- Online News Hour: Sputnik revisited. Political historians analyze and recall 40 year anniversary of Sputnik.
- The Sputnik Shock effect on education. One academic’s account.
- Sputnik, the satellite that inspired generations
- sputnik, the satellite that started it all
- Happy birthday, sputnik. Thanks for the Internet. Credit to DARPA hence to Sputnik for Internet development.
Please share yur experiences below as well as responses to the above opinions oin the world changing effects of Sputnik.
