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An Old School NASA Engineer on "Our Sputnik Moment"
Over The Horizon ^
| 1/26/11
| Emile Husson
Posted on 01/27/2011 6:30:40 AM PST by SlowBoat407
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To: SlowBoat407
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
21
posted on
01/27/2011 7:37:24 AM PST
by
Roccus
(Joe Biden.....America's only living brain donor.)
To: KarlInOhio
I've heard speculation that our delay was intentional. We wanted to establish a precedent of free passage over other countries in space - essentially national sovereignty only goes to the edge of the atmosphere rather than all the way to infinity. We could do that by allowing a Soviet satellite to orbit above us without asserting our rights to the space above the US as we would if a Soviet aircraft crossed our airspace.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.
22
posted on
01/27/2011 7:45:04 AM PST
by
decimon
To: DManA
"Parenthetically, anyone my age remembers the another response to Sputnik - a million kids sticking tooth picks into Styrofoam balls and sprinkling them with glitter. Every Christmas tree that year had a Sputnik ornament proudly placed on it." 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.
23
posted on
01/27/2011 7:48:09 AM PST
by
Ditto
(Nov 2, 2010 -- Partial cleaning accomplished. More trash to remove in 2012)
To: musicman
Zer0 IS our sputnik. A commie thing sent to soar in the heavens. The 2010 elections were America’s initial response.
24
posted on
01/27/2011 8:03:04 AM PST
by
Paladin2
To: SlowBoat407
The Sputnik comments shows his mentality and values is not that of an American, but rather someone raised abroad.
25
posted on
01/27/2011 8:09:21 AM PST
by
MNDude
To: DManA
Parenthetically, anyone my age remembers the another response to Sputnik - a million kids sticking tooth picks into Styrofoam balls and sprinkling them with glitter. Every Christmas tree that year had a Sputnik ornament proudly placed on it. Maybe your family did, but my military family and our military neighbors who lived on Chanute AFB had no part of that!
To: Paladin2
27
posted on
01/27/2011 8:52:54 AM PST
by
musicman
(Until I see the REAL Long Form Vault BC, he's just "PRES__ENT" Obama = Without "ID")
To: SlowBoat407
28
posted on
01/27/2011 11:44:20 AM PST
by
DBrow
To: DManA
Every Christmas tree that year had a Sputnik ornament proudly placed on it. I'll guar-on-tee that there wasn't one at my house.
29
posted on
01/27/2011 12:37:16 PM PST
by
Mike Darancette
(The heresy of heresies was common sense - Orwell)
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