Cold War: Sputnik

COLD WAR: SPUTNIK

Public Fear and Outrage

Many Americans reacted with disbelief and fear when the Soviet Union launched the world's first man-made satellite into orbit on 4 October 1957: the Soviets—supposedly well behind the United States technologically, militarily, and economically—had managed to beat the Americans into space. Eisenhower, often portrayed as having been caught off guard by Sputnik, noted that it came as a "distinct surprise," but what really shocked him was "the intensity of public concern." Democrats pounced on Sputnik as an issue of national defense. Democratic senator Henry Jackson of Washington described the launch as a "devastating blow to the prestige of the United States as the leader of the scientific and technical world." Some U.S. scientists who had worked for the air force or on the army's missile projects thought the feat unimpressive; still others, including celebrated rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, claimed that Truman had ignored space and as a consequence was responsible for the slow start of the American rocket program. America had focused much of its energy on air-breathing propulsion, especially jet fighters and bombers, not on heavy rockets.

Ike Plays Down

Sputnik. When Eisenhower called an advisory meeting on 8 October 1957 to discuss the event and determine what the administration should do, he learned that military rockets could have accomplished the task years earlier, but that the Defense Department had decided that it was more within the peaceful character of the satellite program to allow the development of an earth satellite to come from outside the military. Secretary of Defense Charles Wilson dismissed Sputnik as a "neat scientific trick." At a press conference Eisenhower said that Sputnik "does not raise my apprehensions, not one iota. I see nothing at this moment, at this stage of development, that is significant in that development as far as security is concerned." Nevertheless, many scientists and politicians were shocked and wanted to know how the United States could "catch up" with the Soviets. The national-security threat posed by a potentially armed satellite flying high over American airspace, combined with the public's belief that only federal spending could diminish the perceived Soviet lead in space, forced Congress and the president into action.

Sputnik

Shoots Federal Spending into Orbit. After meeting with a group of top scientists on 15 October, Eisenhower appointed Dr. James Killian, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as the first presidential science adviser and created the President's Science Advisory Committee. Congress passed the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) to encourage a new generation of Americans to study science in college. Under increasing pressure spending on aerospace soared. The cost of military R&D stood at $822 million in 1950, but a decade later it topped $2.196 billion. Total federal R&D in aerospace rose from $934 million in 1950 to $2.4 billion in 1960.

UNCLE SAM, SCIENCE'S SUGAR DADDY

Money Spent on Science.

Even before the Soviet launching of Sputnik on 4 October 1957 officially ushered in the space race, Uncle Sam had started to fund scientific research and development (R&D) at an increasing pace. In 1953, for example, more than 53 percent of all R&D funding came from the federal government. By 1960 more than 64 percent came out of Uncle Sam's pocket. Indeed in 1959, when space-race funding really kicked in, the federal government's share of R&D exceeded 65 percent of the $19.6 billion total. From 1953 to 1960 the total amount spent by the federal government on R&D tripled in constant dollars.

Funding from the Private Sector.

Compared to government spending on basic research, contributions made by other sectors seemed stingy: industry, the second largest contributor to R&D in 1953, only invested $153 million, while colleges and universities put in a paltry $10 million; other nonprofit institutions added $27 million. By 1960 the share contributed by colleges and universities had grown sixfold, but most of that money went to educate a new generation of scientists to counter the Soviet missile threat.

The Space Race

In December 1957 an attempt to put a satellite into orbit with the navy's Vangard rocket failed when the rocket exploded. On 31 January 1958, the United States finally launched a satellite, Explorer I, on a modified Jupiter-C rocket. The launch, however, turned out to be something of an embarrassment when compared with the Soviet achievement: weighing thirty-one img pounds, Explorer I was dwarfed by the three-thousand-pound satellite the Russians launched in May. Other American launches followed, and Eisenhower found himself under increasing pressure from virtually everyone—Democrats, most Republicans, scientists, the media—to step up the space race. Critics demanded Eisenhower bring integration and order to the space program and create a separate department of space. Despite his reservations and fear that a separate department would emphasize satellites over missiles, on 2 April 1958 Eisenhower asked Congress to establish the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), superseding the old National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA). On 12 January 1959 NASA selected the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation to design, develop, and construct the Mercury space capsule to put an American in space.

Source:

James Gilbert, Another Chance: Postwar America, 1945-1968 (Philadelphia, Pa.: Temple University Press, 1981).