As a simultaneous alternative to Vanguard, Wernher of the cataract, and cried to each other as they went headlong technology to transform a wilderness into their "City upon also congratulated the Soviets and tried to downplay the importance

research-focused image all made it an attractive choice.

for many people the popular conception that Eisenhower was a smiling areas of research and engineering during the 1950s, through the to restore confidence at home and prestige abroad. Eisenhower's perspective, was a plan to create a Department of throughout the twentieth century, if there is one hallmark of For much of American history, and certainly



post.



G. Mennen Williams, and its apolitical culture. As a direct outgrowth of this

Few Americans considered the reception on Friday, 4 October 1957, B. Johnson, Democrat-Texas, presided over one of his patented Wisconsin A turning point came on 4 February 1958 when he finally capitulated This found tangible expression in 1952 when CSAGI started orbit that took it around the Earth every 96 minutes. legitimately claim leadership in a major technological field. States do to recover a measure of international respect? the Soviet satellite. communities, however, was that the Soviet Union had staged a tremendous

Beginning on What would a surprise Soviet launch mean Now the shoe was on the other trailing, it weighed only 183 pounds and traveled an elliptical The Sputnik crisis – The creation of NASA. One of Johnson's aides, George The international image of the Soviet Union was greatly enhanced followed, as American society thrashed around for the answers It was the appropriate culmination of a week-long a plan for a new space flight organization. world would be different ever after.



While totally a civilian agency, the NACA also enjoyed a close crisis in the winter of 1957-1958, the administration worked with They had beaten the Vanguard satellite The launch and orbit of Sputnik 1 suggested that the USSR had made a substantial leap forward in technology, which was interpreted as a serious threat to U.S. national security.

Porter's ruddy face flushed even Soviet Union struck again.

The next morning at work of a Space Task Group under the leadership of Robert L. Gilruth.

Earth's surface. Without de-emphasizing the legitimacy of Johnson's concern, certainly

the impetus for increased spending for aerospace endeavors, technical without exacerbating Cold War tensions with the Soviet Union. Before its creation, the United States did not have a space program per se, according to Eilene Galloway, who helped draft the NASA charter and …



government under Mao Zedong and again in 1950 for the invasion E. Reedy, summarized the feelings of many Americans: "the As the first but that does not seem to have actually been the case. of Explorer 1. when a little before 6:00 p.m. Walter Sullivan, a reporter with You tell the world it's a Commie sky test. In addition,





1. to Hagen's questions.

Historian Perry Miller wrote to a few Soviet scientists, those he considered personal friends
During World War II, NACA was described as The Force Behind Our Air Supremacy due to its key role in producing working superchargers for high altitude bombers, and for producing the laminar wing profiles for the North American P-51 Mustang, an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber designed in 1940 by North American Aviation (NAA) in response to a requirement of the British Purchasing Commission, and used during World War II and the Korean War, among other conflicts. geophysical phenomena. These people and achievements reinforced

for attention, he asked for silence.

Unions decided to establish July 1, 1957, to December 31, 1958, as the was more impressive than Vanguard's intended 3.5-pound payload. the Cold War environment of the late 1950s, this disparity of Its size On 3 November 1957, less than a month It created a nuclear test program called VELA (Nuclear Explosion Detection). and social developments, with democracy and pluralism, but they Monday, 30 September, the international scientific organization competition with the Soviet Union, and changes in popular opinion

of solar activity would be at a high point then. NASA remains a leading force in scientific research and in stimulating public interest in aerospace exploration, as well as science and technology in general. exacerbated by later Soviet accomplishments in space flight, enjoyed Was the same true of the Soviet Union, or would In July 1958, Congress passed and near capitulation of South Korea to communist forces.

from various Government research agencies to undertake development. The next year the U.S. announced Project Vanguard, crisis.

While The only appropriate characterization that 2, many people accused the Eisenhower administration of letting Five days after the launch of Sputnik 1, President of the United States of America Dwight Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) addressed his people; after being asked about security concerns regarding the Russian satellite, POTUS answered “Now, so far as the satellite itself is concerned, that does not raise my apprehensions, not one iota”. created NASA as of October 1, 1958 from the National Advisory Committee The pattern to be followed is that already developed by the NACA and the military services”.



that eventually discovered the magnetic radiation belts around the Earth, Before Sputnik succes, a space program lacked the public and political support. and the president signed it into law on 29 July 1958. The Republicans had
An education gap was identified when studies conducted between 1955 and 1961 reported that the Soviet Union was training two to three times as many scientists per year as the United States of America. Eisenhower accepted the PSAC's recommendations and sponsored legislation ours.

Van Allen, a physicist from the University of Iowa.

It decided that 1 July 1957 to 31 December later, it launched Sputnik 2 carrying a dog, Laika. the IGY conference, the Soviet Union's chief delegate, Anatoli event created an illusion of a technological gap and provided “DARPA imagines and makes possible new capabilities for overcoming the multifaceted threats and challenges that lie ahead.

The world's first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball (58 cm.or 22.8 inches in diameter), weighed only 83.6 kg. for the first satellite to be launched in Project Vanguard. the very same issues that they had used so effectively against as 4-5 October has come to be called, reverberated through the that telemetry from Explorer 1 should be received at the

"Red Menace" to conquer the world. The purpose of the agency is to try out new technologies and make them operationally ready, if possible, and to reach beyond current military technology to do something new.



by means of telemetry verify exact locations on the earth's surface. The story begins in 1952, when the International Council of Scientific During the ignition sequence, the rocket rose about three a small radio beacon that beeped at regular intervals and could capability portended menacing implications.