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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."
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?
Didn't notice the Fifties, did we?
rj
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.
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.
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.
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.
Yeah, just like this ridiculous article:
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/01/0247207
I think we need another Commie Purge...seems that our old friends the Ruskies have infiltrated Slashdot as well, and it looks like the new Cold War is being played out in the comments section of our beloved tech journal!
Or maybe its a historical piece about an important event in history (start US Space program, which you have to admit is important no matter what the nationality), and the phrase "sputnik scare" was taken in a historical context from within the article. Nah, too far fetched. Your theory is much better, Tom Clancy.
Being born in the Seventies, well... no.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
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.
lol...
/. they can do that via a trickle down effect through well established media outlets...however that does not mean that they are not passively propogating this forum simply because of like-minded topics...
/. needs a "This Day in History" rather than having it as a full fledged front page article. It's more of a "huh, neat... next topic"
Well, im prone to agree with you on the whole "Proud To Destroy" attitude of Neo-Capitalism, or US society as a whole...(I'm Canadian)
I really doubt that any organization is actively inserting propoganda into
This is still however a noteworthy event, even if its not really an actual event... perhaps
Didn't you get the memo? First Posts are old news.
If you want to get noticed, you have to be First American Post.
- RG>
Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!
Uh yeah, would those 50's be the same ones that dumbass Truman supported the oppressive french puppet government in Vietnam, and the catastrophically misinformed foreign policies of his administration? Or when Diem's US puppet regime in South Vietnam declined to hold free elections as accorded by the Geneva conference of '54? Or perhaps the election of '55 which Diem rigged to receive 98.2 percent in blatant fraud which the US eagerly supported?
Oooh you're good. You are really good.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
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.
You can read my post on this. If Sputnik was a WOW then Explorer 1 was a SIGH(of relief).
- 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.