Walter A. McDougall: Shooting the Moon
[Walter A. McDougall, winner of the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age (ACLS History 2001), is currently the Alloy-Ansin Professor of International Relations at the University of Pennsylvania.]
Gazing up at the Texas night sky from his ranch, Senator Lyndon B. Johnson did not know what to make of Sputnik I, the first artificial Earth satellite launched into orbit by a Soviet missile on October 4, 1957. But an aide’s memorandum stoked his political juices. “The issue is one which, if properly handled, would blast the Republicans out of the water, unify the Democratic party, and elect you President.” Back in Washington Johnson chaired blue-ribbon hearings to determine how the United States had fallen behind in “the race to control the universe.” Whether or not Sputniks were a threat, they were a “technological Pearl Harbor” and a terrible blow to U.S. prestige because “in the eyes of the world first in space means first, period; second in space is second in everything.”
In fact Sputnik was no surprise to the Eisenhower administration, which had monitored Soviet rocket tests and expected satellite launches during the International Geophysical Year. But Dwight D. Eisenhower’s top priority was to establish the legality of satellite overflight in anticipation of the American spy satellites needed to verify arms control treaties with the secretive Soviets. Thus, the U.S. satellite mission was given to a new civilian program rather than to the Army’s existing Redstone rocket group.
Just four months later, Eisenhower’s patient, building-blocks plan was dead, but not because the Kennedy administration had new ideas. The new president’s science adviser, Jerome Wiesner, advised against crash programs, and Kennedy himself (fearing dead astronauts on his watch) put safety above prestige. But Vice President Johnson had expansive ideas, which he impressed upon his personal choice for NASA’s new boss, James Webb. As early as March 20 Webb regaled Kennedy with talk of “pioneering on a new frontier” to boost U.S. prestige. The president agreed to buy time by accelerating the Saturn....
Read entire article at American Heritage
Gazing up at the Texas night sky from his ranch, Senator Lyndon B. Johnson did not know what to make of Sputnik I, the first artificial Earth satellite launched into orbit by a Soviet missile on October 4, 1957. But an aide’s memorandum stoked his political juices. “The issue is one which, if properly handled, would blast the Republicans out of the water, unify the Democratic party, and elect you President.” Back in Washington Johnson chaired blue-ribbon hearings to determine how the United States had fallen behind in “the race to control the universe.” Whether or not Sputniks were a threat, they were a “technological Pearl Harbor” and a terrible blow to U.S. prestige because “in the eyes of the world first in space means first, period; second in space is second in everything.”
In fact Sputnik was no surprise to the Eisenhower administration, which had monitored Soviet rocket tests and expected satellite launches during the International Geophysical Year. But Dwight D. Eisenhower’s top priority was to establish the legality of satellite overflight in anticipation of the American spy satellites needed to verify arms control treaties with the secretive Soviets. Thus, the U.S. satellite mission was given to a new civilian program rather than to the Army’s existing Redstone rocket group.
Just four months later, Eisenhower’s patient, building-blocks plan was dead, but not because the Kennedy administration had new ideas. The new president’s science adviser, Jerome Wiesner, advised against crash programs, and Kennedy himself (fearing dead astronauts on his watch) put safety above prestige. But Vice President Johnson had expansive ideas, which he impressed upon his personal choice for NASA’s new boss, James Webb. As early as March 20 Webb regaled Kennedy with talk of “pioneering on a new frontier” to boost U.S. prestige. The president agreed to buy time by accelerating the Saturn....