Space Program

Space Program. The American space program emerged in large part from the pressures of national defense during the Cold War. In the late 1940s, eager to assure American leadership in technology, the Department of Defense began pursuing research in rocketry and upper‐atmospheric science. The civilian side of the space effort began in 1952, when the International Council of Scientific Unions began planning for an International Geophysical Year (IGY) for the period 1 July 1957 through December 1958. As part of this effort, the U.S. scientific community in 1955 persuaded President Dwight D. Eisenhower to approve a plan to orbit a scientific satellite. The Naval Research Laboratory's Project Vanguard was chosen to carry out this mission.

In this context, the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik I, the world's first artificial satellite, on 4 October 1957, had a galvanic effect on American public opinion. Sputnik created the illusion of a yawning technological gap between the United States and the Soviet Union, and provided the impetus for a massive increase in American aerospace endeavors. The United States launched its first Earth satellite, Explorer 1, in January 1958 to study radiation zones encircling the earth. In the same year the government created a new agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), to manage civilian space operations.

As NASA's program developed over the next four decades, it consisted of several major components:Human spaceflight initiatives: Project Mercury's single astronaut program (1961–1963), to ascertain if a human being could survive in space; Project Gemini (1965–1966), with two astronauts practicing space operations; and Project Apollo (1968–1972) to explore the Moon.Robotic missions to the Moon (Ranger, Surveyor, and Lunar Orbiter); Venus (Pioneer Venus); Mars (Mariner 4, Viking 1 and 2); and the outer planets (Pioneer 10 and 11, Voyager 1 and 2).Orbiting space observatories (the Orbiting Solar Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope) to view the galaxy from space, beyond Earth's atmospheric clutter.Remote‐sensing Earth satellites (Landsat) for information gathering.Communications satellites (Echo I, TIROS, and Telstar) and weather‐monitoring instruments.An orbital workshop for astronauts, Skylab.A reusable spacecraft, the Space Shuttle.

The capstone of the space program, Project Apollo, the human expedition to the Moon, began with President John F. Kennedy's 1961 announcement that the United States would land an astronaut on the moon by 1970, as proof of the nation's technological virtuosity. The first major mission, Apollo 8, orbited the moon in December 1968, with astronauts Frank Borman, James A. Lovell Jr., and William A. Anders. The first moon landing came with the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. At 4:18 P.M. EST on 20 July, the lunar module—with astronauts Neil A. Armstrong (1930– ) and Edwin E. Aldrin (1930– ) aboard—landed on the lunar surface while Michael Collins orbited overhead. As Armstrong set foot on the lunar surface, he intoned to millions listening and watching on earth: “That's one small step for [a man, one giant leap for mankind.” Aldrin soon followed him onto the lunar surface, and the two astronauts planted an American flag, collected soil and rock samples, and set up scientific experiments. Project Apollo cost $25.4 billion, making it (along with the Panama Canal) one of the two largest nonmilitary technological endeavors ever undertaken by the United States.

After Apollo, the space program went into a holding pattern for nearly a decade before the first flight of the space shuttle, in 1981. In spite of high hopes, the shuttle program provided neither inexpensive nor routine access to space. Although it developed an exceptionally sophisticated vehicle, the shuttle program launched fewer missions and conducted fewer scientific experiments than NASA had publicly predicted.

Criticism of the space program reached a crescendo following the tragic loss of Challenger during a launch on 28 January 1986. This accident was especially poignant because the Challenger crew represented a cross‐section of the American population in terms of race, gender, geography, and religion. The explosion became one of the most significant events of the 1980s, watched on television by billions worldwide. After the Challenger disaster, the shuttle program shut down while NASA redesigned the system. The Space Shuttle returned to flight without incident in 1988. Over the next decade, NASA launched eighty‐five shuttle missions, all but one without incident. Each undertook scientific and technological experiments, ranging from the deployment of space probes such as the Magellan radar‐mapping mission to Venus in 1989 and the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990. Project Voyager also provided satellite reconnaissance of great importance, exploring the solar system's giant outer planets.

The late 1980s brought a new round of planetary exploration, typified by the successful Magellan mission to Venus and the Galileo mission to Jupiter, which, though plagued by malfunctioning systems, returned useful scientific data. Planetary exploration received a further boost in 1997 when the Mars Pathfinder successfully landed on Mars. Its small, twenty‐three pound robotic rover, Sojourner, exited from the lander vehicle and recorded weather patterns, atmospheric opacity, and the chemical composition of rocks. In 1984, seeking to reinvigorate the space program, the Ronald Reagan administration called for the development of a permanently occupied space station, built cooperatively with other nations interested in space exploration. Almost from the outset, the Freedom program, as it came to be called, proved controversial. The projected cost of eight billion dollars had more than tripled within five years. In 1993 NASA negotiated a landmark agreement to include Russia in the building of the space station.

NASA's mixed record of setbacks, achievements, and controversy continued in the early twenty-first century. Tragedy struck in February 2003 when the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry after a fifteen-day mission, killing all seven astronauts. Investigators blamed the accident on thermal insulation tiles that had broken away from a fuel tank on launch and damaged a wing.

In January 2004, in a triumph of unmanned exploration, NASA successfully landed two golf-cart-sized research vehicles, Spirit and Opportunity, at different sites on Mars. Both transmitted highly detailed photographs and gathered other data that scientists believed could determine if Mars had ever had surface water that could have supported the evolution of life. President George W. Bush capitalized on the renewed public interest in space exploration to call for a manned mission to Mars. The proposal faded quickly, however, as the federal government grappled with mounting deficits. In a controversial decision in 2004, NASA cancelled needed servicing of the Hubble Space Telescope, citing both budgetary and safety issues, and announced that Hubble would be allowed to disintegrate when its fuel reserves became exhausted in 2007. Scientists and some legislators protested, calling for an independent review of the decision.

The uncertain fate of the space-station project and the Hubble Space Telescope, and indeed the checkered history of the entire space program, pointed up the complexities of high‐technology policymaking, and the difficulties of building a constituency for expensive science and technology projects in a democracy where politicians must wrestle with competing political agendas.
See also Federal Government, Executive Branch: Department of Defense; Military, The; Physical Sciences; Science: Since 1945.

Bibliography

Walter A. McDougall , The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age, 1985.
William E. Burrows , Exploring Space, 1990.
Andrew Chaiken , A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts, 1994.
Roger D. Launius , NASA: A History of the U.S. Civil Space Program, 1994.
Roger D. Launius and and Howard E. McCurdy , Spaceflight and the Myth of Presidential Leadership, 1997.
Howard E. McCurdy , Space and the American Imagination, 1997.

Roger D. Launius

; Updated by

Paul S. Boyer