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American Space Age Reaches Fifty Years
Bryansix brings us a story about the 50th anniversary of the United States' entry into the Space Age. On January 31st, 1958, Explorer 1 became the first U.S. satellite to reach orbit. The New York Times is running a similar feature.
"Explorer 1 gave America a chance to recover some of its confidence and prestige after the Sputnik shock, but there was a scientific payoff as well: The data returned by the satellite showed that Earth was not surrounded by a swarm of killer pebbles, as some scientists had feared. However, the cosmic-ray readings hinted at the existence of bands of radiation surrounding the planet - an unexpected result that led to the discovery of the Van Allen Belts."
Oh, and what Sputnik shock? It was an amazing achievement, even if "The Enemy" got there first.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
This is not the space age.
Ironically, of course, after 50 years of the space age, the Earth is surrounded by a growing number of killer bits of space debris - but it's our own fault. :)
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
Bah, no such thing ever happened. We've looked over the edge and seen the turtle. How are you supposed to orbit that?
The Bronze Age turns 4000. People care equally about both milestones. GIFs at 11.
Satellites are indeed a big deal. But beyond our own orbit, space has turned out rather... empty.
Lets all celebrate by shooting a monkey into space!
American Space Age Reaches Fifty Years
But in Soviet Russia, Space Age Reaches 51 Years:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_1
There you are, staring at me again.
Let's face it folks: going to the moon in the 1960s was more about politics than it was about science. Had to get one over the commies. Now that the political motive is no longer there it is very hard to justify spending up on a 1960s scale space effort.
No wonder NASA still has a shuttle fleet that is 25 years old - or half as old as the whole US space effort.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Drat, foiled again! Savour your victory while you can, because next year will be different!
Man, the US space program at 50 ain't what it used to be! Now we're senile, geriatric and drive around in diapers (and 30+-year-old shuttles). Really hurts to see that, even worse than waching an old, lame Ozzy slobbering on himself in his living room. Oh, we could bring both back to 1969 when they ruled!
December 14, 1972 is the anniversary I pay the most attention to. I sincerely hope we go back.
This is a cool troll thing you've got going on but I'd suggest leaving Diablo III unbolded. It's the first thing I saw so there was no surprise.
Actually more automated launches are done each year than was done during any 2-3 year period of the 60s,70's, and 80's. The reason is that in the 60's, it was just USSR and America that were doing launches of any size. In the 70's, China Kind of joined it, but not really. 80's was the same. Now in this decade, we have America, Russia, China, EU, India, and about to have Isreal, Brazil, and a number of private launches. I suspect that within 5 years, we will see more launches each year than was done during any DECADE of the 19Xx's.
BTW, America makes a lot of launches today that are not really advertised. I would guess so does Russia. China absolutely does the same thing.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Long live Molvania.
they just wonder about different things. Sure, most of it is consumer bullshit and Britney-watching but it is still wonder.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
"going to the moon in the 1960s was more about politics than it was about science"
Right, but to be precise it was a political chess move that cornered the Soviets into a position where they didn't have any easy responses. That's why Kennedy wanted something that was "hard" to do. At the time, Mars would have been impossible, and Venus is still impossible (to land on). So the Soviets were basically trapped as far as taking any larger "leap" for mankind. The largest possible leap had already been taken.
There were bigger reasons that just putting one over their nemesis. The 1957 Sputnik launch had sucked off a lot of prestige. Arms sales, alliances and whatnot flow your way when you can prove you have the right stuff. If you appear to fall behind on something like intercontinental ballistics (as it was at the time) people could switch alliances or arms purchase decisions since they'll doubt you can deliver security. Even if leaders didn't like the Soviets, they might still make deals with them. The whole ball of wax could unravel...
You can't send a takedown notice to an already printed newspaper.
Through half a century, and quadrillions of miles served, the NASA logo is still cool.
--
make install -not war
Last Apollo 17 EVA?
One of the less well-known aspects of Explorer 1 was how it surprised controllers by changing its axis of spin. It was launched spinning about its theoretically stable long axis like a drill bit, but due to mechanical energy dissipation in its flexing antennas, it ended its first orbit in a flat spin--"like a juggling club" according to this book, which points out that the same would have happened to O'Neill colonies without constant dynamical control.
The data returned by the satellite showed that Earth was not surrounded by a swarm of killer pebbles, as some scientists had feared.
It is now.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Just think - *IF* NASA's back-to-the-moon plan pans out, it will have taken 50 years to go back. But it won't pan out. You can bet the program will be axed.
This space available.
To celebrate this anniversary, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Amateur Radio Club, W6VIO, is offering a commemorative Explorer I QSL card for each contact made through February 4th. See their operating schedule for times and frequencies of operation.
At the United States Space and Rocket Center we are celebrating the anniversary with the opening of the Davidson Center - a large building which houses many Apollo spaceflight artifacts along with a real Saturn V that is under restoration. Its opening to the general public will be next Friday.
Funny story, since the Saturn V is an ICBM, Russia called to ask what we had done with the Saturn V after we moved it indoors. For similar reasons, all of the rockets we have here that can hit Russia lay on their sides, instead of vertically (like the non-ICBM's all are).
- Van Braun thought he was capable of send up a satellite in late 1940s, but the US military didnt want to then.
- An earlier launch at Vandenburg failed. Two branches of the military were competing, but the Vandenburg one got first dibs. Van Braun kept a "skunk works" going with JPL just in case the other failed.
- The US was afraid of the legal aspects of orbiting a satellite over another country without their permission. That may have delayed the US effort.
- Eisenhower was an active participant in the space effort. He wasnt just a lame golfer.
And I was pissed off...
I was stuck in Huntsville for a day following a meeting, and had planned to go to the Rocket Museum.
Of course, it was closed for the celebration.
Go figure.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.