Cosmonauts, Astronauts, Space Dogs and Monkeys 27 January 2015

Debate Update I have clarified some debate titles, see the syllabus on line. If you have any questions, talk to Morgan or me ahead of time Make sure you are well prepared, as follows: Organize your opening presentation: – State your main point first – Give statements that support your point – Summarize briefly to conclude your presentation Use real sources to support your points – Textbook, other books, magazine and journal articles, speeches

After Explorer 1 success and discovery of Van Allen belts

Birth of NASA Eisenhower could not avoid Sputnik This was a new era where organized manpower was the greatest national asset The Cold War expanded to competing systems: Free enterprise and liberty vs Controlled economy and totalitarianism Even High School physics was affected: PSSC Presidential Science Advisor appointed More Federal dollars a key part of the solution NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) was moribund

Civilian Space Program Eisenhower saw American resources were limited: not poor, but rich from free enterprise; too much government creates a non-competitive shadow economy Distrust of the political and economic power of the ‘Military-Industrial Complex’ Take advantage of existing NACA centers, add military capability (von Braun, JPL) add money NASA established in 1958

Benign Hypocrisy behind Space Race US claimed the more positive term, but took advantage of the latter: ‘Leadership’ vs ‘Imperialism’ Cooperation vs competition Civil vs military program

Space Dogs and Monkeys Naturally the first test flights were with animals Yeager: "a monkey's gonna make the first flight.” Ham ‘the Astrochimp’ flew on Redstone rocket Laika ‘barker’ was a Moscow stray

Ham

Laika

Astronauts and Cosmonauts First men in space became national heroes ‘Our rockets always blow up’: fewer than 1/3 of first 37 launches reached orbit With Alan Shepherd’s flight program seemed off the ground, but still behind USSR 135 million watched Glenn launch (contrast with USSR) Astronauts and cosmonauts personalized the program

Test Pilots

Astronaut Appeal They had the ‘right stuff’, became leading symbols for bravery and patriotism Hearkened to Lindberg, frontier sheriff, military test pilots TV and national press told the ‘Boy Scout’ story, they were like the heroes of 1950’s TV Many marriages held together only by fear of being taken off flights… Like the engineers, they were citizen soldiers in the Cold War

Alan Shepherd

John Glenn

Space Symbolized Technical Power Demonstrated organizational capacity Showed power of science and the national will Space Race balanced the negativism of the ‘Counter Culture’ LBJ: there are few problems that cannot be solved by men (remember his ‘War on Poverty’) We thought technology could win the Viet Nam war, but the 1968 Tet offensive disproved this Lost in Space and Star Trek were modern ‘morality plays’

Summary NASA and the space program were a benign hypocrisy, where we claimed high goals while competing with the Soviets The US program took advantage of military technology while trumpeting the civilian and scientific aspects Animals made the first test flights Humans personalized the space race and became immensely popular heroes