The impact of Sputnik and the "race for space"

[leaapm]

50 years ago October 4th, the Soviet Union launched a 183-pound, basketball-sized, polished aluminum ball into an orbit around Earth.<br /><br />Sputnik not only ushered in the Space Age, it spurred a massive investment of intellectual and physical capital in science and engineering. In the US, President Eisenhower created the post of National Science Advisor. Congress created NASA and tripled funding to the National Science Foundation. Many youngsters were inspired and enabled to pursue a career in science and technology.<br /><br />How is Sputnik relevant today? How did Sputnik and America’s vault into the Space Age that followed affect the course of your life? <br /><br />In anticipation of the 50th anniversary of Sputnik’s launch, Weekend America, a weekly two-hour public radio program, is focusing on the technological and cultural impact of the event that propelled the Cold War into the Space Age. To help us tell the story, we’re looking for people who want to share their memories of Sputnik’s launch or describe the significance the race for space had in American life.<br /><br />To help us with the story, respond here: http://americanpublicmedia.publicradio.org/pin/sputnik<br /><br />Share your personal stories about the impact Sputnik had on careers, memories, science, or ways of thinking about the world and its future.<br /><br />Best,<br /><br />Lea ****<br />American Public Media/Minnesota Public Radio<br />http://minnesota.publicradio.org/publicinsightjournalism/<br />(651)290-1442<br />lcoon@americanpublicmedia.org<br />

 

[3488]

Welcome to SDC, leaapm.<br /><br />Brilliant first post.<br /><br />I am British, but I feel that Sputnik actually began the next step of human evolution.<br /><br />Sputnik, behind all the nationalism, Cold War propaganda & pride of the former <br />USSR, meant that humanity had developed the technology to be able to send <br />artifacts into space for long periods.<br /><br />It meant that only incremental steps from then on would lead to Humans (1961) <br />going into space, than onto the Moon (1969 -1972), then longterm habitation in LEO, ISS,<br />& now returning to the Moon & onto Mars.<br /><br />Sputnik, was the push & the proof that humans were to enter space & perhaps <br />eventually live there long term.<br /><br />I mean by next step of our evolution, was that life developed the means to leave the oceans <br />& onto land in the Cambrian period, <br />now life was making its first step to leave Earth & move into space.<br /><br />Humanity has the intelligence & witt to outlive both our Planet & our Sun. If only it had the WILL to do<br />so.<br /><br />Sputnik was the first step towards that.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[JonClarke]

I was born the year after Sputnik, and in high view it was one of those epoch-marking events. of course, the time was right, and if it had not been Sputnik then within a year or two there would have been some other satellite launched.<br /><br />Jon <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars</em>  Arthur Clarke</p> </div>

 

[vandivx]

...relevancy of Sputnik... whenever I recall that one I think what a pity that it was made possible only as a result of one-upmanship cold war competetion and state propaganda and who knows if and when the Americans would go to space if that didn't happen, it is pittifull that such relatively free nation had to wait and only respond to a lead made by a dictatorship country<br /><br />and once this tit for tat stopped being the order of the day American Apollo program ended and that was that for long time and they only woke up again with Mars because other nations' threat to be possibly first again there...<br />not pretty picture and I doubt you'd want my 'help with the story'<br /><br />vanDivX <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[bdewoody]

Most technology is pushed by some form of war. The development of the airplane was accelerated by WW I and WW II and later jet aircraft by the "cold war". Peace just doesn't inspire advances in technology like conflict does. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em><font size="2">Bob DeWoody</font></em> </div>

 

[bobw]

I came home from school one day to find my father listening to beeps on the short-wave radio, remember it like it was yesterday. I wish I had known the beeps told how much fuel and film was left, battery voltage, etc. It probably would have been more interesting.<br /><br />In practical terms Sputnik meant that there was no such thing as "out of range" anymore. We lived about five miles from the Detroit Tank Arsenal and much closer to the Cadillac Gage Co., they had an old tank on the lawn in front of the building and we kids would go play war in it. Serious playground discussions were about if our houses would actually catch fire or just blow over, where we would go if we survived the blast and how far the fallout would spread. Six years old and everybody knew we were dead meat. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[silylene old]

I too was born the year after Sputnik.<br /><br />Sputnik also kept my father out of the draft. In 1957 his draft deferments for college and grad school had run out, and he just reported to boot camp. Then Sputnik launched a few days later, and since he already had a job as a professor on 'hold', the army released him since a new emergency policy was developed stating that we need all the science teachers we can possibly find. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>

 

[alokmohan]

Remembering the dawn of the space age<br />Ron Cowen<br /><br /><br />Well, I say the fun has just begun<br />We're on Sputnik Number One<br />A'flying through outer space<br />At a rockin' rollin' pace <br />Oh! We're gonna get our kicks<br />On a little ole thing called a Sputnik<br />—Sputnik (Satellite Girl)<br /><br />In the fall of 1957, pitcher Lew Burdette's fastball gave the Milwaukee Braves a surprise World Series win over the New York Yankees. In Little Rock, Ark., white mobs rioted after nine black students dared to attend Central High School. On television, Leave It to Beaver made its debut. But for many people across the globe, the most riveting show was playing out overhead. <br /><br /> <br />Fifty years ago this month, the Russians created a sensation and sparked the space race when they launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth.<br />JPL/NASA; (lyrics) © Jerry Englerth/The Songwriters Advocate Music—BMI<br /> <br /><br />Reaching an altitude as high as 940 kilometers, a shiny aluminum sphere was circling Earth 14 times a day. Scientists tracked its orbit, while ham radio operators tuned in to its alien "beep-beep"—a sound that radio and television stations around the globe rebroadcast to millions. Some feared that the beeps were a sinister code that would help the Russians drop a nuclear bomb. Others simply marveled at how a 184-pound hunk of metal could rocket into the sky and stay there. <br /><br />The space age began on Oct. 4, 1957, when the Soviets launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth. "Soviet Fires Earth Satellite Into Space," blared the New York Times headline. "Myth has become reality: Earth's gravity conquered," read the banner of France's Le Figaro. <br /><br />Fifty years later, satellites for science, surveillance, and communication have become commonplace. But if Sputnik was supposed to usher in an era of human colonies on the moon and astronauts rocketing off to other planets, that part of the story