Posted on 01/27/2011 6:30:40 AM PST by SlowBoat407
In this post, I defer to my father, Charles Husson, who spent 30 years at NASA’s Langley Research Center as a systems engineer and program manager. From launching test payloads off Wallops Island, VA, in the late 1950′s to troubleshooting the Viking I Lander in the late 1970′s, and subsequently on loan to the Defense Department from NASA in the 80′s, he has been on the cutting edge of technology and has a unique view of how government and industry worked together to move this country into true “high-tech.”
He was particularly fired up about one comment Obama made during the State of the Union address, and I invited him to write his thoughts. The “Sputnik moment” will probably go down as one of the most unfortunate metaphors a president has chosen in an attempt to spur innovation, and one reason is given below.
A SPUTNIK MOMENT – Charles Husson
Using a “ Sputnik” moment to stimulate Americans and possibly Congress to “gird up their loins” and meet the great challenge ahead was a very bad and grossly incorrect metaphor. It was Washington’s fault that this country was unable to launch a satellite when they had the means – many months ahead of Sputnik.
That embarrassment was due to a United States government edict from President Eisenhower that said “no military vehicle would be used to launch a satellite into orbit”; hence, the government-ordered, failure-plagued program “The Vanguard” to build a “peaceful” launch vehicle was created.
Four months later, after numerous launch vehicle explosions on the pad and in mid-flight, Wehrner Von Braun was finally allowed to use a military launch vehicle to put Explorer I into orbit. The Explorer I satellite built by William Van Allen had been put on hold by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Had Washington not interfered, there would be no space race, as we were clearly ahead on orbital launch capability when Sputnik was launched. Their ignorance and misdirection of these facts is wordsmithing of highest caliber. They could teach us “How To Cheat at Cards Without Being Caught”.
This is another example of Washington’s misreading of the technical environment and what it takes to be technically successful. You can build high-speed train systems based on foreign technology, build alternate energy platforms based on foreign technology, and green the environment through foreign technology, but it will not solve the basic industrial R & D infrastructure problem instituted by the United States government in the 1970’s and imposed on its own manufacturing system.
I’ll have more to say on that, but for now it’s enough to know that we can get back on track in five years if the government will take a few simple steps.
Did he? It’s been ages since I read it and don’t remember. I do remember however, my Dad taping up the front page of the NY Daily News on a kitchen wall. It had a picture of the successful Juno launch. He was very proud of our achievement
I've read the same. Eisenhower was said to be privately delighted that the Soviets broke the ice on that. His public face was more somber.
Interesting little personnel story. I was about 10 years old when Sputnik went up. My older brother was a ham radio operator and he found out what band it was broadcasting on. I recall him and I sitting in his bed room listening to it go BEEP --- BEEP --- BEEP as it passed over every 90 minutes or so. At night we would go out side and you could see it pass.
50 years later almost to the day on the anniversary of the Sputnik launch, I was having a satellite dish mounted on my roof so I could have 500 or what ever useless channels of TV at my command. I sat there and remembered listening to that BEEP -- BEEP --- BEEP on that old Heath Kit vacuum tube receiver and was kind of humbled at the technology advances in just my lifetime.
Zer0 IS our sputnik. A commie thing sent to soar in the heavens. The 2010 elections were America’s initial response.
The Sputnik comments shows his mentality and values is not that of an American, but rather someone raised abroad.
Maybe your family did, but my military family and our military neighbors who lived on Chanute AFB had no part of that!
I agree!!
I'll guar-on-tee that there wasn't one at my house.
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