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Wednesday, Oct. 4, 1967 Griffin Daily* New*
By RICHARD C. LONGWORTH
MOSCOW (UPD—Ten • years
ago, a Russia just emerging
from the long night of Stalinism
dazzled and frightened the
world by breaking the gravita
tional grip that tied man to his
planet.
The vehicle was Sputnig-T a
ball of metal no bigger than a
toy balloon and no heavier than
a kitchen sink. It hurtled around
the Earth at 18,000 miles per
hour.
The launching put a new word
In the language—“sputnik” be
came a synonym for “satellite."
It meant that the Soviet Union
had won the first lap of the
race for space.
Most important, it served
notice that the Russians owned
a sophisticated science equal to
—and in this case clearly
superior to—anyting in the
West.
Traumatic Experience
For the United States, the
experience was traumatic. The
sound of the Russian “bleep
bleep-bleep” In the skies over
head galvanized American edu
cators and physicists and made
the launching of Sputnik-1 a
national watershed.
For the Soviet Union, the
experlnce was euphoric
“I remember waking up that
morning and hearing the news
on the radio,” one Muscovite
recalls. “There was no dancing
in the streets, of course. But
there were handshakes, and
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Russia Started It With Sputnik
Space Age Is 10 Years Old
kissing, and backslapping. Most
of all, I remember a tremen
dous feeling of pride—that we
had done it—and that we were
first.”
On that day—Oct. 4, 1957—
President Dwight D. Eisenhow
er was in the White House, Just
starting his second term. Nikita
S. Khrushchev ruled with new
strength over the Kremlin,
having Just crushed the "anti
party group” that sought to oust
him.
Cape Kennedy was an empty
sand spit called Canaveral with
barely a motel to its name. Its
Russian counterpart, Baikonur,
was a desert town northeast of
the Aral Sea known only to
geographers.
Predictions Outdated
The great names of the space
age—Glenn and Gagarin, Titov
and Tereshkova, Shlrra and
Shepard—were only unsung
Items on a pilots* roster or a
classroom list. So were those of
the martyrs—Grissom, White,
Chaffee and Komarov.
The advances of the next 10
years were, quite literally,
undreamed of. Those who are
impatient with the pace of
space progress should recall the
predictions—scored by many as
pipe dreams — that preceded
Sputnlk-1.
In 1954, an American expert
said the first unmanned satellite
was at least 15 years away. A
Russian scientist said 10 years
was more like it. Sputnik-1
came within three years.
In 1956, a Russian predicted
an unmanned rocket to the
Moon by 1966. A Soviet rocket
actually got there by 1959.
Another Soviet scientist fore
cast manned flights to the Moon
by the year 2000. Both Russia
and America may do it by 1970.
Early Autumn
It was early autumn and still
warm In Moscow on Oct. 4,
1957. Tass, the government
news agency, made an impor
tant midnight announcement:
“The world’s first man-made
Earth satellite has been con
structed . . . and successfully
launched in the USSR.”
It was 4 p.m. in New York.
By dinnertime, Sputnik - l’s
“bleep-bleep” poured from ra
dios across America.
Reaction was swift In Wash
ington Sen. Stuart Symington
called Sputnik-1 “a technologi
cal Pearl Harbor.” “A most
disastrous blow,” said Sen.
Richard Russell. Sen. Styles
Bridges called on America to
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Amor-ifMH c nm - A * or the three manned-flight projects—Mercury, Gemini and Apollo—have
American Space Capsules grown | arger while ho | ding t 0 a gencra | configuration. At left, technicians
suited up as astronauts are shown with the one-man Mercury and the two-man Germni capsules. At right, pioneer astro
nauts Scott Carpenter, John Glenn and Walter Schirra check out an early mockup of the three-man Apollo.
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Soviet Space Capsules inc,ude the one-man Vostok «•- raft, left, photographed at a Moscow exhibition,
and the two-man Voskhod, < shown being prepared for launching. Yuri Gaga
rin made the first manned flight in a Vostok April 12,1961.
give “blood, sweat and tears.”
Educational Revolution
Russia’s achievement,” a
British reporter wrote, “has
accomplished more in a few
weeks to wake up the American
public and officials to the
importance of scientific re
search and development than
anything else has been able to
do in as many years.”
President Eisenhower found it
necessary to give two reassur
ing televised speeches on
science and national security.
Nonetheless a great popular
demand arose for a national
drive toward scientific excel
lence. Crash science programs
bloomed in colleges and high
schools. Backyard astronomers
proliferated. Alarmed commen
tators called for more physics
and less football.
Sputnik-1, a 184-pound orb
carrying only a radio and a
battery on a trip 560 miles high,
lived a short, noisy life. It made
1,367 orbits, traveled 43 million
miles and burned up Jan. 4,
1958, when the Earth’s gravity
pulled it back into the
atmosphere.
By that time Russia had a
new and bigger satellite up—
Sputnik-2 This weighed 1,120
pounds and carried a passenger,
the famous dog Laika, who
suffocated in orbit.
America’s “Project Va n
guard” had been postponed, to
public disappointment. until
1958. The United States began
the long race to catch up when
it orbited Explorer-1, a 31-pound
satellite, on Jan. 31, 1958.
In the decade since Sputnik-1,
the two most powerful nations
on Earth have been engaged in
an expensive, leap-frogging
space race.
Russia orbited the Sun, hit the
Moon and photographed the far
side of the lunar surface in 1959.
The Soviets brought back
animals from space—the dogs
Strelka and Belka—in 1960, one
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week after the U.S. had
retrieved a satellite from orbit.
In 1961, Russia won the
second lap of the space race. A
shy young test pilot named Yuri
Gagarin made one orbit to
become the first man in space.
On his return, he was enshrined
as a national hero, but banned
from doing the one thing he
wants most—making another
trip into sapce.
Triumphs and Tragedies
Russia held the lead in
manned space travel through
March, 1965, when Alexei
Leonov made the first “space
walk” by spending 10 minutes
outside his orbiting spaceship,
Voskhod-2.
After Leonov’s flight, the
Kremlin decided to scrap the
rest of the “voskhod” series of
spaceships, apparently for budg
etary reasons, and go straight
to the multi-manned “Soyuz”
series.
It took time—two years and
by the time “Soyuz-1 was ready,
the United States had jumped
into the lead in every category
with its “Gemini” series. To
cite just one area, U.S
astronauts logged 259 minutes
of spacewalking, compared to
Leonov’s 10 minutes.
In the meantime, unmanned
exploration forged ahead. Rus
sia crashlanded a rocket on
Venus. The U.S. photographed
Mars. Both nations probed the
soil of the moon and pronounced
it fit for a manned landing.
Nothing seemed impossible.
Every venture, no matter how
difficult, seemed assured of
triumph.
It wasn’t that simple. The
10 th year, 1967, demonstrated
that the conquest of space will
be costly in lives as well as
money.
Three American astronauts
died on the ground, trapped in a
flash fire inside the Apollo
spacecraft. Russians were sym
pathetic, knowing that it could
happen here, too. Three months
later, it did.
Vladimir Komarov, the first
Russian to make two trips into
space, piloted Soyuz-1 into orbit
on orders to link up with a six
man spacecraft to be launched
later. He ran into trouble, began
tumbling, apparently righted
himself, then was ordered to cut
short his trip and re-enter the
atmoshepre
His spaceship tangled in its
parachute cords and plunged
four miles to the Ural
Mountains below. Soyuz-1 had
an ejector seat but, through
choice or necessity, Komarov
elected to ride it down. He died
instantly.
Shrouded In Secrecy
What of the future? Russia
has won the first two laps of the
space race. The third lap a
manned moon landing—is any
body’s race.
The task of predicting what
course the Soviet space pro
gram will take is still more art
than science, due to a maze of
contradictory official state
ments, wishful thinking or
special pleading by unofficial
spokesmen, rumors, the Soviet
mania for secrecy—and proba
ble indecision in the Kremlin
itself about this nation’s long
term space aims. •
For instance, Khrushchev
publicly said in 1963 that Russia
had dropped out of the man-on
the-moon race. If the Ameri
cans make it by 1970, he said,
“I wish them success.” There is
evidence that Khrushchev also
ordered substantial budget cuts
in Russia’s man-in-space pro
gram.
Khrushchev’s successors rev
ersed his policy. There is no
question now that the Soviets
are out to beat America to a
manned moon landing, and
many experts give *them a
chance to get there in late 1969
or 1970 possibly before U.S.
astronauts.
There is considerable differ
ence of opinion over how the
Soviets plan to get there, what
their immediate plans for space
exploration are, and where they
will go after the moon. A study
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of Soviet statements and
American analyses, however,
form a blurry blueprint.
Komarov’s depth threw the
Soviet space program off
schedule by at least six months
Western analysts believe the
Soviet investigators have decid
ed it was an accident. When the
Soyuz spaceship flies again, it is
expected to carry few modifica
tions.
The Soviets have said their
manned flights to the moon and
the planets will leave from a
space platform circling the
Earth in a parking orbit. But so
far, Soviet cosmonauts have
never achieved an orbital
docking—a key step in construc
tion of a platform.
Spacewalker Leonov has said
that exchange of crews on a
"permanent satellite” would
precede any manned moon
landing attempt. In this, Soviet
priorities differ from the
American plan of a direct trip
to the moon. A space station is
central to Soviet moon ambi
tions.
Anatoli Blagonravov, Russia's
leading space scientist, has said
a successful manned landing
will be followed quickly by the
establishment of a “permanent
research station on the lunar
station.”
Most Soviet cosmonauts seem
highly qualified and well
trained. The United States just
now is getting around to
matching the Soviet practice of
sending doctors and scientists
into orbit.
But at least one manned—or
womanned —launching here ap
peared to be mostly propagan
da. That was the 1963 space trip
by Valentina Tereshkova, still
the world’s only cosmonette.
At the time, Russian propa
ganda made much of the fact
that Miss Tereshkova—now the
wife of cosmonaut Andrian
Nikolayev—was almost com
pletey untrained in space flight.
The point was that (1) Soviet
women are equal on land and in
space and (2) space travel isn't
so tough—any good Russian can
do it.
“Orbital Missile” Doubtful
It can be argued that any
Today
venture Into space has military
applications, that a scientific
satellite — either Russian or
American—which can carry a
telescope can also carry a
bomb.
Soviet military men have
encouraged this conclusion with
speeches boasting about a
Russian "orbital missile” that
can go into orbit and descend on
any spot on Earth on command.
As Khrushchev said, “If you
lock the door, it comes in the
window.”
The conclusion of most
experts here is that this claim
Is more bark than bite.
“It’s Inefficient and damned
difficult,” one Western scientist
explained. “Such a rocket
demands delicate guidance to
bring It down at just the right
time. An ordinary rocket fired
from a silo is easier.”
The Kremlin also has signed
International treaties banning
bombs In orbit and the use of
space for military purposes.
Short of a war situation, these
are pledges it cannot afford to
violate too flagrantly.
The Soviet use of space for
scientific purposes resembles, In
many ways, the American
program. There Is one major
difference, however.
Inventions by American space
scientists for space flights have
been adapted regularly and
quickly by U.S. Industry for new
and better consumer goods.
Russian Industry, however, has
benefited little from Russian
advances due to the excessive
secrecy surrounding the Soviet
space program.
And while the American space
program has been a spur to the
U.S. economy, the Russian
program has meant sacrifices
to the U.SS.R.
Americans often ask: Why do
the Russians put up with it?
The easy answer is that they
have no choice, but there is
more to it than that. Soviet
citizens are used to making
cooking up something I
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sacrifices, to putting the state’s
interests first. Also, Soviet
strides in space are a source of
immense pride.
They also know that space
flights have vast military
possibilities. Twenty million
Russians died In the fight
against Hitler, and few of the
survivors are likely to quibble
about money spent to make
sure this never happens again.
Still, a manned sace flight
costs SSOO million—and that is a
lot of shoes, or cars, or wheat.
The younger generation wants
better products on the consumer
market, better food, fewer
sacrifices. The Soviet govern
ment, faced with “a revolution
of rising expectations” and a
new relationship with its people,
may be forced to lower its
sights from the stars to more
immediate problems on the
ground. Or it may decide to
forego groceries for glory.
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attended Unitarian services in
Philadelphia but never joined;
Lincoln attended Presbyterian
services in Washington, but
was not a member; Hayes at
tended the Methodist Church,
but never joined.
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