History 220-011 History of Space Exploration

If an American happened to be gazing at the stars on Friday, October 4, 1957 he may have noticed an object crossing the evening sky. Radio listeners, too, may have heard a series of "beep, beep, beep" sounds coming from their radios. A momentous event had occurred in the region of the Soviet Union known as Kazakhstan -- the Soviets had launched an artificial satellite into orbit around the earth. The satellite named Sputnik, Russian for "traveling companion," transmitted the beeping sounds as it followed its orbit around the globe. Rather than celebrating this momentous scientific feat, Americans reacted with a great deal of fear. The event came at a period near the end of the McCarthy communist "witch hunts," a time when schoolchildren were involved in "Duck and Cover" air raid drills, and citizens were encouraged to build their own civil defense shelters. It was widely believed that if the Soviets could launch a satellite into space, they probably could launch nuclear missiles capable of reaching U.S. shores.

Against the backdrop of the Cold War conflict, a new kind of rivalry took shape in the early 1960s between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Russians appeared to be ahead in the so-called "race for space" as they followed their launching of the first satellite, Sputnik, in 1957 with the history-making flight of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in April 1961. The following month, Alan Shepard became the first US astronaut in space in a fifteen-minute sub-orbital flight. Three weeks later, President Kennedy called for the landing of an American on the moon by the end of the decade as he sought a major mobilization of the nation's resources to catch up with and surpass the USSR in the space race. By February 20, 1962, when John Glenn returned safely after orbiting the earth three times aboard Friendship 7, the US space program clearly had moved into high gear.

nformation about the United States’ space flight programs, including NASA missions and the astronauts who participate in the efforts to explore space.

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik-1, the world's first artificial satellite. Only about the size of a beach ball (22.8 inches or 58 cm. in diameter) and weighing 183.9 pounds (83.6 kg), it orbited the Earth in around 98 minutes.This guide is intended to help direct the researcher to information on Sputnik and the space race as well as artificial satellites. in addition to suggested books on the topic, links to digitized primary resources and other online resources for information on the history of Sputnik are included.

During World War II, the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) had been allies, both members of the Allied Powers. But this was a marriage of convenience. When the war ended, tensions brewing between the democratic and capitalist United States and the communist Soviet Union crystallized into the Cold War. From the late 1940s through the 1980s, the conflict between these two superpowers shaped global politics and determined the priorities of each nation state. Space exploration became a central means through which the United States and the Soviet Union sought to demonstrate national strength and superiority. As was true of the nuclear arms race, technological advances central to the space race – such as rockets, satellites, space stations, and space transportation systems – were considered military assets that contributed to national security. In the early years of the space race, the Soviet Union was soundly out front, with early victories such as the 1957 launch of the satellite Sputnik 1 and cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s successful orbit of the earth in 1961. In response to Sputnik, the U.S. government established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to advance the American space program. Sputnik also compelled Congress – with strong encouragement from President Eisenhower – to pass the National Defense Education Act (NDEA), which provided student loans for the study of math, science, and languages in college, and marked the first time the federal government directly funded higher education.

The LEM Eagle carried a small, unconventional television camera affixed to the inside of the door. It had one mission. Once astronauts opened the door and activated the camera, it would begin shooting live images of the historic event, transmitting the raw footage through an antenna to Earth below. There, engineers at three tracking stations would tape the original signals onto one-inch telemetry tapes for backup and then convert the raw feed into a conventional format compatible with American broadcast standards. The camera did its job. The engineers boxed the one-inch telemetry tapes wound onto 14-inch canister reels, which served no purpose but to provide backup if the live relay failed and shipped them to the Goddard Space Flight Center. The tapes were sent to the Washington National Records Center (WRNC) in Suitland, Md. The engineers never saw the backup telemetry tapes again. This report investigates the loss of one of history's most significant primary documentary sources.

On the day Sputnik first orbited the earth, the chief clerk of the Senate’s Education and Labor Committee, Stewart McClure, sent a memo to his chairman, Alabama Democrat Lister Hill, reminding him that during the last three Congresses the Senate had passed legislation for federal funding of education, but that all of those bills had died in the House. Perhaps if they called the education bill a defense bill they might get it enacted. Senator Hill—a former Democratic whip and a savvy legislative tactician—seized upon on the idea, which led to the National Defense Education Act.

The Outer Space Treaty was considered by the Legal Subcommittee in 1966 and agreement was reached in the General Assembly in the same year ( resolution 2222 (XXI)). The Treaty was largely based on the Declaration of Legal Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, which had been adopted by the General Assembly in its resolution 1962 (XVIII) in 1963, but added a few new provisions. The Treaty was opened for signature by the three depository Governments (the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States of America) in January 1967, and it entered into force in October 1967. The Outer Space Treaty provides the basic framework on international space law.