Sputnik
I watched the PBS documentary presentation last night
on sputnik-the First satellite launched into space by
the former Soviet Union. It had a considerable amount
of information presented that was news to me. To be
fair I did not grow up in the era and the space race
had long since finished with the US the apparent
winners-having reached the moon before anyone else
back in 1969. But the big picture was presented in the
program-who was working on what rocket program? What
was then US President Eisenhower doing about the
situation? Was the US really that far behind the
Soviets and if so why?
The reality of the situation was that the US was not
really behind the Soviets in rocket technology. The US
may have been ahead of the Soviets, or at the very
least at the same pace, but then President Eisenhower
had other concerns on his agenda-other than being the
first to send a satellite into orbit. Apparently
President Eisenhower wanted to use satellite
technology to observe-aka spy-on the Soviets to know
what they were doing in reference to missile
technology, where theirs was located, how many they
had and the type. Eisenhower apparently had to deal
with legal issues at the time-legal as in who owns
space? Is there space jurisdiction for each country?
Did the country have the right to deny a fly over by
satellites? Eisenhower was dealing with these issues
when sputnik went up and then solved a part of his
problem. If the Soviets could send a satellite into
orbit, and no one objected to the fly-over then the US
could do the same.
An additional problem at the time was which of two
teams would have their rocket be launched as the first
US rocket/satellite in to space? The US Navy had a
rocket and satellite project called Vangaurd and it
had nothing to do with missiles, bombs or former
German scientists from the Nazi era. There was a US
Army team that was lead by Wernher Von Braun.
Speculation is that Eisenhower did not wish to go with
Von Braun’s team as the rocket that they had developed
was a predecessor to the V2 Rocket that was used by
Germany during the Second World War to bomb Europe.
Allegedly if Eisenhower had gone with von Braun’s team
they could have launched a satellite over a year ahead
of sputnik.
Eisenhower’s main concern was intelligence for the US
to keep tract of and know if they were keeping pace
with the Soviet advances in military technology. Spy
satellites allowed the US to gather information on
their then enemies to know what they were doing and if
they were following peace treaties-such as SALT I and
SALT II treaties.
The question of who got to space first will always be
answered with the reply of sputnik. But stepping back
and looking at the bigger picture is sometimes more
important a question.
NOVA | Sputnik Declassified | PBS
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sputnik/?campaign=pbshomefeatures_2_novabrsputnikdeclassified_2007-11-06
Sputnik Biographies--Wernher von Braun (1912-1977)
http://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/braun.html
Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
