Thursday, October 04, 2007
Bleeping Two Foot Tin Ball Threatens World
It was fifty years ago today that the Soviet Union launched the most terrifying threat to national security the United States had ever known...a beeping metal sphere. Up until then, Americans had confidently assumed that they had no rivals in the realm of scientific or technological innovation. They were certain that even if the Russians had the bomb, there was no possible way it could be delivered across an ocean. They obviously were not familiar with the term hubris.
And so, in 1957 when Khrushchev announced that the Soviet Union intended to launch a satellite into Earth orbit in connection with the International Geophysical Year, no one seriously took them seriously.
Until they heard the news on October 4. Until they heard this sound on their radios and saw this picture on every news stand in America.
Ok...maybe not that exact picture...but something like it. Needless to say, the results were dramatic. Panicked at their sudden deficiency in math and science, Congress went to work and within the next year had passed a bevy of legislation intended to address the issue. Among other things, the National Aeronautics and Space Act was signed, creating NASA, and the U.S. entered the space race with Project Mercury. Other side benefits of this rush to catch up with the Communists?: DARPA, the Polaris Missile Program, and America's public schools who were suddenly given the money they needed to build state of the art labs and update their mathematic curricula.
Ultimately, the U.S. "won" the Space Race, as much as it could be won, by fulfilling President Kennedy's call to send an American to the moon and back before the end of the 1960s. DARPA remains well funded to this day, and our Polaris Missiles are still armed and ready for deployment. Sadly, our schools' math and science programs have dwindled over the years...but at least we got Tom Lehrer's "New Math" out of the deal.
In any event, it was 50 years ago that the world suddenly grew a lot smaller and the future loomed a lot larger...all because of a 2 foot wide spherical transmitter.
It was fifty years ago today that the Soviet Union launched the most terrifying threat to national security the United States had ever known...a beeping metal sphere. Up until then, Americans had confidently assumed that they had no rivals in the realm of scientific or technological innovation. They were certain that even if the Russians had the bomb, there was no possible way it could be delivered across an ocean. They obviously were not familiar with the term hubris.
And so, in 1957 when Khrushchev announced that the Soviet Union intended to launch a satellite into Earth orbit in connection with the International Geophysical Year, no one seriously took them seriously.
Until they heard the news on October 4. Until they heard this sound on their radios and saw this picture on every news stand in America.
Ok...maybe not that exact picture...but something like it. Needless to say, the results were dramatic. Panicked at their sudden deficiency in math and science, Congress went to work and within the next year had passed a bevy of legislation intended to address the issue. Among other things, the National Aeronautics and Space Act was signed, creating NASA, and the U.S. entered the space race with Project Mercury. Other side benefits of this rush to catch up with the Communists?: DARPA, the Polaris Missile Program, and America's public schools who were suddenly given the money they needed to build state of the art labs and update their mathematic curricula.
Ultimately, the U.S. "won" the Space Race, as much as it could be won, by fulfilling President Kennedy's call to send an American to the moon and back before the end of the 1960s. DARPA remains well funded to this day, and our Polaris Missiles are still armed and ready for deployment. Sadly, our schools' math and science programs have dwindled over the years...but at least we got Tom Lehrer's "New Math" out of the deal.
In any event, it was 50 years ago that the world suddenly grew a lot smaller and the future loomed a lot larger...all because of a 2 foot wide spherical transmitter.
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