Abstract
On the evening of October 4, 1957, the Soviet embassy feted specialists gathered in Washington, DC to coordinate rocket and satellite launches for the unfolding IGY. Well briefed about America’s IGY satellite plans and still uncertain about the progress of Russia’s program, most guests expected the United States to reach earth orbit first in as little as two months. They were understandably surprised then when Lloyd V. Berkner, the American member of the international IGY coordinating committee, begged everyone’s attention to pass on some stunning news: their hosts had just orbited Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite. The assembled scientists and engineers raised their glasses and applauded this groundbreaking achievement.1 Their ovation was not simply the good etiquette of embassy guests. They cheered Sputnik as a milestone for their professions and a historic juncture for humankind. Closing the door on millennia of earth-bound star gazing, Sputnik heralded a new epoch of cosmic exploration and even human settlement of other worlds.
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Notes
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© 2015 James Spiller
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Spiller, J. (2015). Rising to the Sputnik Challenge. In: Frontiers for the American Century. Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137507877_2
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