Sputnik (And the Space Age) Were Launched

The Implications of the October 4, 1957 Event

 By Mary A. Flowers

One cool North Texas October night, well after dark, my father headed to the door. As he opened the door, he turned to me and said, "Come here, I want to show you something."

He and I went out onto our porch and sat down on the steps. He gazed up to the skies. I had no idea what we were doing out there. "Are we looking at stars?" I asked.

"We have to be patient," he said. "Just keep looking up." By this time I was completely confused. What was it we were looking for?

At about the same time, a small boy and his friends were lying in the drainage ditch in his front yard down in Beaumont, Texas. The incline of the ditch was perfect for lying back and looking at the nighttime skies.

People all over the world were gazing into the darkness hoping to see a small flashing light pass overhead. Sputnik! Every 98 minutes Sputnik circled the Earth in an elliptical orbit. This small orb about the size of a basketball was causing lots of excitement.

In 1957, most people outside the scientific world did not know the impetuous for launching Sputnik. It all actually started in 1952, as the International Council of Scientific Unions decided to establish the International Geophysical Year (IGY); from July 1, 1957, to December 31, 1958. Scientists knew the cycles of solar activity would be at a high point then. In October 1954, the council adopted a resolution calling for artificial satellites to be launched during the IGY to map the Earth's surface.
 

BBC Space Race Episode
 

The Sputnik launch changed everything. As a technical achievement, Sputnik caught the world's attention and the American public off guard. Its size was more impressive than Vanguard's intended 3.5-pound payload. In addition, the public feared that the Soviets' ability to launch satellites also translated into the capability to launch ballistic missiles that could carry nuclear weapons from Europe to the U.S. Then the Soviets struck again; on November 3, Sputnik II was launched, carrying a much heavier payload, including a dog named Laika.

Immediately after the Sputnik I launch in October, the U.S. Defense Department responded to the political furor by approving funding for another U.S. satellite project. As a simultaneous alternative to Vanguard, Wernher von Braun and his Army Redstone Arsenal team began work on the Explorer project.

On January 31, 1958, the tide changed, when the United States successfully launched Explorer I. This satellite, carrying a small scientific payload, eventually discovered the magnetic radiation belts around the Earth, named after principal investigator James Van Allen. The Explorer program continued as a successful ongoing series of lightweight, scientifically useful spacecraft.

The Sputnik launch also led directly to the creation of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In July 1958, Congress passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act (commonly called the "Space Act"), which created NASA as of October 1, 1958 from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and other government agencies.

Back then, no one could comprehend the implications of such a small device. On this 50th anniversary of Sputnik's launch, we now know what it meant.