As a sophomore undergraduate at the University of Houston when the Russians launched Sputnik on October 4, 1957, I subsequently watched a lot of my fraternity brothers and other friends transfer their majors into the basic sciences and engineering as a result of the new “gitty up-let’s go- we’re already behind the Reds-and we can’t trust the Russians” space age just dropped out of the sky upon us faster than any of us could realize that Houston was now only a few short years away from becoming home to something called “NASA” and the title-holder of the phrase, “Space City, USA”.
It all began on the foundation of everything that came to be during the Cold War relationship between our country and the U.S.S.R. – It all began in competitive distrust for each other. And for those of you who weren’t around in 1957, I cannot even begin to adequately describe our national shock, shame, disappointment, distrust, and, yes, fear – that exploded from the realization that the Russians had beaten us on the first leg as the first nation to put a satellite into space. If you can read between the relatively calm lines written by John Blakeslee, you will rub elbows with every negative emotion I’ve described here.
Just another thought for the liner facts column: Had there been no Sputnik, there might never have been a place named the Astrodome, eight years later. Sputnik set up the progression of facts that eventually led to the appointment of our new covered sports stadium as the Astrodome. Had there been no Sputnik, who knows, things may have developed differently enough to have changed everything that followed in reality.
Anyway, keep your heads up – and your spirits soaring. There’s hardly a modern technology or condition that has not come to us as a result of the once-upon-a-time space race that really got banging down the road with Sputnik. Besides, its fun to think about subjects other than baseball or football every now and then. – Those sweet subjects will always pull us back when our hunger for them always returns.
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Russian Moon Creates Debate
By Alton L. Blakeslee, Associated Press Science Reporter
New York (AP) – In its third day of life, the Russian moon is creating some trail of confusion concerning three intriguing questions:
Is Sputnik – Russian for space satellite – making some space studies, such as temperatures or space’s shooting star?
Is it telling about them in a radio code?
Will the U.S.S.R. inform other nations of what it learns in this maiden voyage into space?
Russia’s rocket scientist, Dr. A.A. Blagonravov, says Sputnik is only broadcasting radio signals so it can be tracked, and is not studying temperatures, or other events in space. And it’s not broadcasting anything in code, he adds.
But in Moscow, a prominent scientist says that Sputnik is counting hits by meteorites out in space. The moon would have to report this by some code. One possibility is that, due to language translation difficulties, this scientist was referring to future moons, not to Sputnik the First.
A Moscow broadcast says that Sputnik has provided knowledge “of great scientific value,” but gives no details. This could refer just to observations of its orbit, giving clues about air density in space, or to knowledge useful in launching and directing future moons into desired orbits.
Some U.S. scientists listening to Sputnik’s beeping signals detect changes which they say sound like a code.But they quickly add that this could be a practice test of a presently meaningless code. Codes will be essential in any future moons to radio back reports of what is learned in space, since the moons can’t land back home.
Dr. Blagronavov yesterday called Sputnik an experimental or test shot and said it was outside the International Geophysical Year (IGY).
Both nations have agreed to share fully everything their IGY moons learn.
Asked on a TV program NBC-Youth wants to know whether the Russians would share information about Sputnik, he replied:
U.S. scientists observing it can learn very useful information for launching their own satellite.
Experiences of Sputnik could help the Russians in subsequent launches and the United States with its first one.
Dr. John P. Hagen, director of the American Moon project Vanguard, said in a telephone interview that the Soviet radio signal appears to contain a code.
“It could well have no meaning other than to practice a code transmission,” he said. “This would be expected. It’s hard to tell if it represents real information.”
He explained that the 20 megacycle radio signal from Sputnik shows a series of pulses about a third of a second long, with a modulation or change in that pulse.
Dr, Blagonravov explains the variations are due to physical laws producing them as a speeding object proceeds or recedes from a given listening post.
He told IGY scientists that the moon carried only radio equipment, circuits and batteries for tracking purposes. He confirmed that Sputnik weighs 184 pounds.
U.S. scientists calculate that electronic equipment and batteries weighing this much could be packed inside Sputnik’s small size with the rest of the weight made up of iys outer shell.
~ Camden (NJ) News, October 7, 1957, Page 2.
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“Save the Astrodome. ~ Give new life to the Eighth Wonder of the World. ~ Vote Yes on Harris County Proposition 2.”
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