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8

War and Space in the 20th Century

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of Chapter 8, you will be able to:

• Describe the ways that science shaped warfare as well as how military conflict shaped science during World War I and World War II.

• Explain how splitting the atom led to today’s nuclear fears.

• Assess the scientific and cultural significance of the space race within the political context of the Cold War.

• Understand the story behind NASA.

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Introduction

The relationship between science and war became increasingly close in the 20th cen-tury, with a transition from a “chemists’ war” in World War I to a “physicists’ war” in World War II. As in our other investigations, the scientific activity did not sim- ply impact the culture at large (in this case, the way war was waged). Throughout his- tory, nations, tribes, and individuals have engaged in warfare in an attempt to protect or impose their rule on the world. In doing so, these leaders have used every military advantage at their disposal, including scientists. The history of the relationship between technology, science, and war extends back millennia. In this chapter we will focus on the 20th century, specifically World War I and World War II, a time when science reshaped warfare, warfare and the political organizations that waged it re-created science, and this reciprocity gave humans the power for the first time to literally destroy the world. There was a reciprocal relationship here too as warfare and the military dramatically shaped the direction of science. With science proven as such an essential component of modern warfare, we then turn to the Cold War, when scientific achievements in space became a measure of the progress, potential, and power of a nation.

8.1 Chemistry and Physics in War

World War I began on June 28, 1914, when a Serbian terrorist assassinated Aus-tria’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. Due to a variety of causes this event was the spark that led the world into its first global war six weeks later. The Central Powers were Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria. Against them were the Triple Entente Powers of Britain, France, and Russia. Four years after the start of the war, the United States entered on the side of the Entente, and its entry helped secure victory by 1919.

World War I was notable for many reasons, one being new technologies. It was a tran- sition point in the history of warfare as the older methods of trench combat met with devastating new weapons of destruction such as machine guns and dynamite. Millions of men starved, froze, and languished in the mud in the hastily dug trenches, barely sur- viving the conditions only to charge bravely into a near suicidal field of combat. Often they met the onslaught of machine-gun fire. With this new weapon, a well-bunkered enemy could decimate the opposing force. First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill said, “The mechanical danger must be overcome by mechanical remedy,” and the Entente forces discovered that remedy with the use of the tank (Churchill, 2005, p. 303). Though the tank was the response to the automatic-fire capability of the machine gun, command- ers used it far less effectively in World War I than they would several decades later in World War II.

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The Nobel Prize

You might have noticed that a number of the scientists mentioned in this book are Nobel Prize winners, and you may be asking what exactly they have won. This is an important question because it highlights our theme of the reciprocity between science and culture. The prize began as the inspira- tion of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel (1833–1896), who made his fortune in the late 19th century as the inventor of dynamite. Nobel himself was born into poverty but through his investigations he discovered a way in which nitroglycerine could be safely detonated. He called this controlled deto- nation dynamite, and his patents brought him extreme wealth; however, neither his achievement nor his scientific and inventive genius brought him satisfaction. The popular press labeled him the “merchant of death” as dynamite became a devastating way to “mutilate and kill,” and this haunted the final days of his life (Fant, 2006, p. 207). In an attempt to turn his deadly invention into a way to benefit world culture, Nobel bequeathed his fortune to create a foundation of prizes that honored physics, chemistry, medi- cine, literature, and peace. Each year since 1901 the Nobel Foundation has

awarded these prizes, which have now become the most prestigious measure of achievement in these fields. Determination of the winners is a complex process—for example, the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by a committee selected by the Norwegian Parliament. The winners, called the laureates, earn far more than a gold medal and a diploma. Along with the prestige comes a huge sum of money that fluctuates each year and in 2011 was over $1.5 million (http://nobelprize.org).

Reflective Question:

1. In what ways do you think that a prestigious and monetarily significant prize like this can serve to influence achievements in science, literature, and peace?

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The Chemists’ War

The war was shaped by scientific weapons as well, so much so that World War I is often called the “chemists’ war” because these professionals dominated the sci- entific experts with their abili- ties to create weaponized gases and explosive devices (Kevles, 2001). The Germans were the first to make large-scale poison gas weapons for use in chemi- cal warfare while U.S. army and navy projects utilized almost 40 different college and uni- versity laboratories throughout the United States in support of new weapons that promised a

During World War I, chemists were hired to create toxic gases to use as weapons. Shown here are workers spreading sand and chloride of lime to neutralize an area contaminated by mustard gas.

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military advantage. Over 1 million people died from poison gas attacks, starting with the first in France on April 22, 1915 (Brown, 2006).

In a significant way an inventory involved with home technologies played a vital war in the chemical battles during World War I—for example, the creation of gas masks. The most notable person in this effort was African American inventor Garrett Morgan (1877–1963), who is also credited with creating the nation’s first traffic lights in Cleveland, Ohio. Though his gas masks did not completely overcome the threat by the chemists’ gas attacks, it did present one very important countermeasure for security.

Biographical Spotlight: Garrett Morgan

In 1907 Garrett Morgan was a sewing machine repair shop owner in Cleveland, Ohio. An inventor, he developed significant mechanical improvements to sewing machines, such as zigzag stitching. In 1912, Morgan, upon hearing that firefighters struggled to breathe while fighting noxious fires, developed a “breathing device,” which he patented two years later as his Morgan Safety Hood. To show off his invention, he traveled the country engaging in publicity stunts that grabbed news- paper headlines. In one of the stunts, he sat inside a tent filled with fumes toxic enough to kill and survived by breathing in his mask. In the South, to overcome racism, he hired white salesmen who pretended to be Morgan, while he traveled along as their “Indian” assistant.

Morgan gained national attention in 1916 after a devastating explosion in a tunnel under Lake Erie. Morgan and his brother donned Morgan Safety Hoods and made four trips into thick toxic fumes and gases to rescue the miners who were trapped inside the tunnel. After that, orders came from police and fire departments across the United States. Unfortunately, reflecting the culture of the time, some departments withdrew the orders upon learning Morgan was African American. During the next year he made modifications, and his gas mask became standard operating equipment for all American troops heading to the trenches of Europe in World War I.

Morgan also is known for his invention of a traffic signal, for which he was granted a U.S. patent in 1923. In 1997 the U.S. Department of Transportation created the Garrett A. Morgan Technology and Transportation Futures Program to encourage students to study engineering.

Morgan is just one of a significant line of African American inventors. Most notable are Lewis Latimer, a General Electric engineer who invented and patented a carbon filament which improved Edison’s lightbulb; Granville Woods, who formed the Woods Railway Telegraph Company and was respon- sible for inventing a telephone transmitter which improved the clarity of sound; Shelby Davidson, an employee of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Post Office, who invented adding machines; and Alfred Cralle, a Virginia businessman who invented the ice cream scoop (Fouché, 2005).

Reflective Questions:

1. Of Morgan’s two main inventions—the gas mask and the traffic light—which do you think was the most significant, and why?

2. Can you think of any other inventors who risked their own lives to sell their ideas? Who are they and what did they invent?

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Atomic Structure

While one of the greatest fears created by scientists in World War I was that of the gas cloud, it would be another type of devastating cloud, this time created by physicists, which defined the horrors of World War II, known as the “physicists’ war.” The physicists’ cloud was the result of gaining remarkable new knowledge about the structure of the atom. The idea that all matter is made up of the discrete particles called atoms represented one of the major discoveries in the history of science. By the 1890s scientists still conceived of atoms as bil- liard balls, irreducible elements that were the basic building blocks of nature, but an entire subatomic universe was nearing discovery (Bowles, 2006, p. 281). Most notably Marie Curie

(1867–1934), a French physicist and chem- ist, and her husband, Pierre (1859–1906), identified and named radioactivity. They also discovered two new elements that like uranium also emitted radiation. They named the first polonium after their native country Poland, and the other they called radium. Marie and Pierre won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 for this work.

Along with radioactivity, scientists began learning more about the inside of the atom. In 1887 J. J. Thomson (1856–1940), a Brit- ish physicist, discovered the existence of the electron. New Zealander Ernest Ruth- erford (1871–1937) identified two differ- ent types of rays in uranium radiation and developed a general theory of radiation, stating that it was actually the disintegra- tion of atoms. Rutherford then probed the atoms with X-rays and discovered that there was a solid mass inside, which he

called the nucleus. The modern atomic model emerged out of his work, and astonishingly it appeared to mirror the way that planets revolve around a sun. The negatively charged elec- trons revolved around the positively charged nucleus, which contained nearly all the mass of the atom in its protons and electrons. This was Rutherford’s model of the atom, called the solar-system model (Bowles, 2006, pp. 281–290). There was one more vital atomic particle yet to be discovered, and the power to manipulate it fundamentally changed the world.

The Neutron

The discovery of the neutron is now considered one of the most significant scientific find- ings of the 20th century. In 1920 Rutherford argued that there was another particle inside the atom that shared space with the protons, and though he called them neutrons no one could experimentally prove that they existed. In 1932 Marie Curie’s daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie (1897–1956), and her husband, Frédéric Joliot-Curie (1900–1958), provided key evidence that led scientists to prove the existence of the neutron. In 1935 Irène and Frédéric won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, thus making Marie and Irène the first mother and daughter to win their own Nobel Prizes.

Shown here are physicists Pierre and Marie Curie in their Paris laboratory. This photo was taken shortly after they won the Davy Medal in 1903.

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Why was the neutron so significant? Leo Szilard (1898–1964) was one of the first to envi- sion a new use for neutrons. He conceptualized the possibility of releasing atomic energy through a chain reaction that began with the bombardment of neutrons. He further specu- lated that a devastating bomb could be made from this process. One year later he fled Nazi persecution in Berlin and immigrated to Britain, where in 1934 he applied for and received a patent on an atomic bomb. In 1937 he moved to the United States where he took a central place in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II. Through Szilard’s work an important transformation had taken place. Theoretical subatomic phys- ics was ready for practical applications. The nucleus of an atom held a tremendous energy reserve, which would be released if the atom could be split (Bowles, 2006, pp. 288–291).

8.2 Atomic Politics Leading to Nuclear Fears

Atomic politics reached critical mass the day that German physicists Otto Hahn (1879–1968), Lise Meitner (1878–1968), and Fritz Strassman (1902–1980) at the Kai-ser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry designed a tabletop device that split a ura- nium atom. In 1938, on the eve of World War II in which the German army led by Hitler began a conquest of Europe, their achievement led many physicists worldwide to begin exploring the implications of this phenomenon, one of which was a nuclear bomb (Kev- les, 2001). When the uranium atom split, not only were large amounts of energy created but also neutrons were released. Scientists like Szilard speculated that if the conditions were set up and controlled correctly, a chain reaction could occur with the expelled neu- trons from the first split atom causing other nearby uranium atoms to do the same. This process could perpetuate itself, and if left unchecked, would unleash a terribly destruc- tive power. As Hitler’s armies continued to subdue European resistance, many elite Ger- man scientists fled to the United States to escape the horrors of Nazi anti-Semitism. These included Enrico Fermi (1901–1954) and Eugene Wigner (1902–1995). By this time Einstein was already living in the United States, having left Europe in 1933, and with his Jewish roots, he had no intention of returning. Once in the United States, physicists like these began a campaign to beat the Germans to the development of a nuclear bomb. After Japan surprised America with a December 7, 1941, attack on U.S. naval bases at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the pace of nuclear experimentation intensified, and efforts to develop a nuclear bomb became known as the Manhattan Project.

Did You Know? Lise Meitner

Lise Meitner (1878–1868) was only the second woman to earn a physics doctorate from the University of Vienna and the first German woman to hold a full professorship in physics. In 1938 she escaped Ger- many because of her Jewish heritage. In 1944, her colleague Otto Hahn won the Nobel Prize in Chem- istry for his work in nuclear fission. Some say Meitner should have won it, too (Fergusson, 2011).

The Manhattan Project American nuclear experimentation actually predated the Japanese attack. At Columbia University in New York City, physicists researched uranium fission and thought that they

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could create a chain reaction using a pile of uranium and graphite blocks, but they lacked both substances to test their hypothesis. The U.S. government stepped in to assist, and in June 1940 President Franklin Roosevelt (1882–1945) formed the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) with MIT engineer Vannevar Bush (1890–1974) as its leader. Several universities also contributed to this work, including Columbia University, Princeton Uni- versity, the University of Chicago, and the University of California. By 1942 the program acquired the code name Manhattan Project and was “unprecedented in its concentrated expenditure of human resources for the manufacture of a single product—atomic bombs” (Hughes, 1989, p. 385). The project began with scientific research at the University of Chi- cago in a place called the Metallurgical Laboratory, which was a code name to disguise its use for nuclear research. The university president suspended the university’s football games for academic reasons and designated the west stands at Stagg Field as the site for the secret nuclear research (Holl, Hewlett, & Harris, 1997). There beneath the football field in the squash court, the research team built the world’s first atomic pile, named Chicago Pile 1 (CP-1).

On December 2, 1942, with an audience of 42 scientists, these physicists created the world’s first nuclear chain reaction. It was small and controlled, and the scientists celebrated by opening a bottle of Chianti and passing it around to those watching the momentous occa- sion. Despite the success no one at the time knew if it was the first controlled chain reaction or not, as the Germans might have beaten them to it. But, after the war was over it became clear that on that cold December day, the squash court was home to the world’s first nuclear research reactor (Bowles, 2006, p. 290). Three years later, after continued intense development work by the Manhattan Project, scientists at Los Alamos in New Mexico readied an atomic bomb for the military. President Harry Truman (1884–1972) authorized the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and then Nagasaki in August 1945. Close to 100,000 people died in each bomb drop, and radiation exposure killed untold thousands more over time. Two days after Hiroshima the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. One day later in the wake of the Nagasaki destruction, the Emperor of Japan offered his sur- render. World War II ended in 1945, but the debate over humankind’s nuclear capabilities was just beginning.

Did You Know? Oppenheimer and the Bhagavad-Gita

Those who worked on the Manhattan Project were well aware of the frightening power they were unleashing. Robert Oppenheimer managed the massive team, and they successfully achieved their goal on July 16, 1945, in Alamogordo, New Mexico, when they detonated the first nuclear test bomb. After the nuclear blast Oppen- heimer recalled: “We waited until the blast had passed, walked out of the shelter and then it was extremely solemn. We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scrip- ture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, ‘Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ I suppose we all thought that one way or another” (Rhodes, 1986).

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Nuclear Utopia

Typically the work of theoretical physicists does not capture widespread attention. But when the public learned about the discovery of radiation, the promise of harnessing the power bound in the nucleus spawned dreams of brave new worlds where radiation would cure diseases and create wondrous utopian atomic-powered cities (Weart, 1988). Soon after the discovery of radiation and the transmutation of atoms, many people believed these events would usher in a new golden age. Frederick Soddy himself did much to fuel this idea. In 1909 he published a popular book called The Interpretation of Radium in which he expressed the utopian possibilities for the future. He wrote, “A race which could trans- mute matter would have little need to earn its bread by the sweat of its brow. . . . Such a race could transform a desert continent, thaw the frozen poles, and make the whole world one shining Garden of Eden” (Soddy, 1909, p. 183). Throughout the early part of the 20th century, some believed radiation to be an elixir. Many scientists who carried a radium substance in their pockets found that it burned their skin. Physicians then began using it to treat skin cancers and tumors. However, by 1937, Rutherford suggested that as opposed to healing rays they might become rays of death as weapons of mass destruction (Weart, 1988, p. 43). World War II demolished the idea of nuclear utopia forever.

Nuclear Power and Catastrophe

There are some very important positive effects of nuclear knowledge, including the ability to generate electricity without atmospheric emissions. Nuclear power is responsible for 14% of all electrical power generation in the world with France the highest, producing 75% of the nation’s needs. However, even though these nuclear plants are clean in the sense that they do not emit pollution like a coal plant, they do come with inherent dangers to society.

The by-product of the nuclear reaction in power plants is radioactive waste, which is hazardous to both

humans and the environment and needs to be stored in underground containers until it decays to a safe level. The time required for it to become safe varies, with some highly concentrated radioactive waste taking thousands of years to decay. There is also a risk of accidents at a nuclear plant.

In the United States the most significant accident was at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979. No one died, but there was a partial core meltdown, and 144,000 people were evacuated. Significant cultural fear was left in its wake, including concerns about the possibility of the continued release of radiation from the damaged reactor and the silent fears about long-term health effects such as can- cer. Further exacerbating these concerns were confusing reports issued by the government regard- ing the amounts of radiation released (Houts, 1984).

There has been a spike in the number of antinuclear protests since the Three Mile Island accident. The medical community is still debating the health effects of exposure to low-level radiation, with some suggesting that while people are living to older ages, the cases of immune system diseases (asthma, cancer, allergies, etc.) are dramatically increasing. Joseph J. Mangano, from the

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(continued)

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CHAPTER 8Section 8.2 Atomic Politics Leading to Nuclear Fears

Nuclear Fear Once the nuclear age began, for the first time humans had the power to destroy the entire Earth. This was an idea that existed in the culture long before it was a reality. Most notably the idea of the mad and dangerous scientist hearkened back to Goethe’s Faust (see Chap- ter 7 Closing). The same concerns of misguided science were a central theme of Mary Shel- ley’s Frankenstein, though readers tend to forget that the title of the book was the name of the scientist, not the monster. This is a telling indication of the sometimes blurred distinc- tion between the symbolic image of scientists and monsters. The image is a familiar one to children as well. For example, in the Batman comics, Professor Radium was a brilliant nuclear physicist who mistakenly transformed himself into an evil monster using radia- tion as a weapon against humanity (Bowles, 2006, pp. 170–176).

Nuclear fear was not just about the atomic bomb. More ominously and invisibly, there was real evidence to prove that radiation was extremely harmful to the human body. Though physicians found that radium was a treatment against cancer, excessive exposure proved deadly. In the 1920s watchmakers experimented with radium on their timepieces because the luminous paint glowed in the dark. “Radium girls” painted the radioactive material on the watches and became very sick from the dangerous exposure (Clark, 1997, p. 1). These sicknesses included anemia, the weakening of bones so arms or legs might snap under normal pressure, and a host of different cancers. The beginnings of radiation toxicology began in the 1930s.

After World War II ended in 1945, nuclear fear continued as the Soviet Union also gained nuclear capabilities. Though the United States and the Soviet Union did not directly

Radiation and Public Health Project, has called this the “atomic era legacy” (Mangano, 1999). Three Mile Island also affected the future of nuclear power in the United States. At the time of the accident there were 47 other nuclear plants in the planning stages, and since 1979 none of those have been built (Gray & Rosen, 2003).

Another significant accident occurred at Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union in 1986. Most recent was the Fukushima accident in Japan in March 2011, which released large quantities of radiation into the atmosphere. Despite the risks, nuclear power is still a viable source of electrical production in the United States, with 104 commercial reactors in existence. Because of the Fukushima accident, though, a slowly growing acceptance of nuclear power dramatically declined. In the wake of this disaster, only 43% of the U.S. population is in favor of nuclear power, as opposed to 57% in 2008 who wanted new nuclear plants (Cooper & Sussman, 2011). As a comparison, in 1977, 69% of Ameri- cans wanted nuclear power.

Reflective Question:

1. With nuclear power, the benefit, or the collective good, that results from it (energy) can serve a wide area. However, the potential risk is quite local. How do we as a society deal with this? Who should make the decision on where nuclear power plants and nuclear waste dumps are constructed?

Nuclear Power and Catastrophe (continued)

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go to war with each other, the open ideological hostilities between democracy and communism kept the world on tense alert during this period known as the Cold War. Nuclear stockpiles in both nations grew in destructive power each year. A statement from President John Kennedy (1917–1963) in 1961 reminding everyone that “[e] very inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when this planet may no longer be hab- itable,” served to heighten these fears and the desire for personal fallout shelters (Weart, 1988, p. 215). In July 1961 Kennedy gave a speech stat- ing that families should do all that they could to protect themselves in case of a nuclear attack and the subsequent lingering effects of radiation. Soon thereafter, news magazines began running advertisements depicting frontier-like heroes liv- ing in their own bomb shelters, and the govern- ment started distributing fallout shelter booklets.

The Environmental Movement

The cultural response to the powers of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy included the rise of the environmental movement and scientific activism. This did not just focus on the perils of nuclear radiation. However, nuclear concerns were a significant part of the environmental movement, including the radiological waste produced by reactors and the potential for a meltdown accident. The “green movement” began to specifically address concerns about nuclear reactors in the 1960s. While the public initially voiced protests over the construction of the new power reactors in 1960, by the early 1970s, some scientists had also entered the movement.

The environmental movement quickly attained political clout and widespread public sup- port, and in the late 1960s and early 1970s, legislators signed new regulations into law (Vaughn, 2011). In 1969 Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act, which required all federal agencies to make official statements about any activities that might adversely affect the environment. The tide was turning against nuclear research.

The term environmentalism did not take its current meaning until 1970 when the first Earth Day celebration was held, which drew 20 million people. Though its meanings are many it is essentially the crusade to save the Earth from perceived threats by humans and their science and technology. The U.S. federal government responded by establishing key reg- ulatory agencies and laws in the 1970s. These included: the Environmental Protection Agency (1970), the Clean Air Act amendments (1970), the Federal Environmental Pes- ticide Control Act (1972), the Safe Drinking Water Act (1974), and the Toxic Substances Control Act (1976). The Atomic Energy Commission itself disbanded in 1975 and was transformed into the new Nuclear Regulatory Agency (Bowles, 2006).

Shown is an illustration from the Department of Defense booklet Fallout Shelter Designs, which was distributed to local and state civil defense organizations in the 1960s.

Department of Defense

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Did You Know? Nuclear Power

Today the United States is the world’s largest producer of nuclear power and accounts for 30% of all nuclear generation of electricity across the globe.

8.3 The Cold War and Space

The political and ideological competition between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War played an essential role in the creation of both nations’ space programs—which eventually became known as the space race. In the 1950s, though these two superpowers had not directly gone to war with each other, they were building stockpiles of nuclear weapons that had the capability of destroying the world. From the experiences in World War II, American political and military leaders knew how important scientific and technological advantage was in tipping the balance of global power.

Soviet Science and Culture

To understand American science in the post–World War II years it is also essential to understand its relationship to the world, and in particular to the Soviet Union. Leading the Communist Party from 1927 to 1953, Joseph Stalin transformed every aspect of the Soviet Union including its science. Stalin considered himself an expert in biology and evolution as well as political science, linguistics, and philosophy and was confident that he could revolutionize Soviet science and develop the strongest political and scientific empire in the world (Bailes, 2008).

Stalin’s reign is remarkable for the contradictory realities it spawned. While the Soviet Union was one of the first nations to realize the importance of science for national power, the government also routinely imprisoned or killed its leading scientists because of ques- tionable commitment to communist-sponsored philosophies of science. In many ways the culture of the Soviet state shaped its science. Scientists frequently balanced the rigors of their profession with the knowledge that their lives were in jeopardy if they promoted opinions unsanctioned by their government. During the years of the Stalin “terror,” many intellectuals who deviated even slightly from the Stalinist vision were outcast to prison camps where they were either shot or condemned to a life of hard labor.

The Soviet scientific and technical elite were decimated by these waves of terror. Targets included the main architect of the Soviet hydrogen bomb, the head of the space program that eventually launched Sputnik, three Nobel Prize–winning physicists, two presidents of the Agricultural Academy, the director of the Pulkovo Observatory, the director of the Leningrad Astronomical Institute, a leading specialist in animal and plant ecology, a director of the Microbiological Institute, directors of the Khar’kov Physics Institute, and the biology dean at Moscow University. These and many others were all victims of the Stalin terror and were sent to Soviet prison camps.

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Not surprisingly, this prison system tremendously restricted the capabilities of Soviet scientists. By 1953 when Stalin died, the Soviets had fallen behind the United States in terms of scientific and technological capability. The areas where Soviet scientists did make impressive gains, such as the H-bomb, were attributable to the individual genius of the scientists themselves who had the rare capability to overcome the repressive system in which they worked (Kitching, 1994).

After Stalin’s death Khrushchev gained power and quickly condemned the Stalin terror. He made the rehabilitation of political outcasts a top priority, and scientists were ele- vated into the new privileged elite in the country as thousands emerged from the prison camps. The Communist government became a leading force in fostering science and tech- nology. Party leaders argued that scientific and technical expertise would help to propel the Russian state into world dominance. As the 22nd Party Congress specifically stated, “[S]cience will play an ever greater role in the building of communism” (Kharatyan, 1962, p. 38). Achieving this would help the Soviet Union to attain its goal of dominating the world both politically and socially. In October 1957, the Soviet Union took a significant step toward achieving that goal.

Sputnik

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, a 23-inch-diameter, 183-pound ball containing a radio transmitter, into space. By doing so the Soviet Union became the first nation to put an object into orbit around the Earth. Sputnik I made 1,440 orbits, each one taking a mere 96 minutes. One month later Sputnik II was launched, along with the

first Earthly creature ever to go into space—a dog named Laika (she also became the first space casualty as the Soviets did not plan for her to ever return to Earth; Siddiqi, 2000).

The Russian success became a cultural watershed moment. As the visible dim blinking of this Soviet craft passed over rural America, it made the Cold War seem more real and heightened a sense of fear that the United States had fallen behind the Soviet Union in the realm of sci- ence. Edward Teller, often called the “father of the hydrogen bomb,” said that Sputnik repre- sented “a battle more important

and greater than Pearl Harbor” (De Groot, 2006, p. 69). This comment was quoted fre- quently by politicians and journalists as a way to convey the magnitude of these Soviet satellites and made all Americans culturally aware of its significance (Gallicchio, 2007).

Laika was the female dog sent to outer space by the Soviets as a passenger aboard Sputnik II. She was commemorated in this stamp.

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CHAPTER 8Section 8.4 From NACA to NASA

8.4 From NACA to NASA

With the launch of Sputnik the “space frontier” opened up, and as with all fron-tiers, to those who reached it first and staked a claim went the potential for power and control. The possibility for Soviet military control of space seemed to point to the surest way for the United States to lose not only the Cold War but also the strength of its democratic way of life. Sputnik became the “shock of the century” (Dickson, 2011). At the time of Sputnik’s launch, the United States did not even have a governmental organization focused on space. The closest agency was the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), founded in March 1915, with a chartered mandate to “supervise and direct the scientific study of the problems of flight with a view to their practical solu- tion” (Bilstein, 2008, p. 100). Though NACA was vital for airplane research, it appeared hopelessly unable to respond to the Sputnik threat.

By the 1950s NACA was one of the leading institutions in the world for aeronautical research, with affiliated centers in Virginia (Langley Research Center), California (Ames Research Center), and Ohio (Lewis Research Center). However, the launch of Sputnik com- pletely changed the priorities of the nation in the skies. A Washington Post article urged the creation of a new “NACA in space,” but many believed the agency to be too conservative and unimaginative to lead the nation into the uncharted territory of space (Anon, 1958). President Eisenhower agreed with this assessment, and eventually, in the wake of Sput- nik he disbanded NACA completely and established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on October 1, 1958 (Bowles, 2010). This date was significant as it was three days before the one-year anniversary of Sputnik I, thus marking the genesis of the American space age.

The Flying Field

In his autobiographical novel Look Homeward, Angel, American novelist Thomas Wolfe (1900–1938) described the summer of 1918 when, as a young man, he went looking for work in Hampton, Vir- ginia. There at a place called the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, commonly known as the “Flying Field,” he observed gangs of workers engaged in “grading, leveling, and blasting from the spongy Earth the ragged stumps of trees” (Wolfe, 1957, p. 121). What these men achieved was the construction of, at the time, the only American civilian aviation laboratory. The laboratory became the first center of the newly created NACA.

The “Flying Field” was named for aviation pioneer Samuel P. Langley, a Harvard professor of astron- omy and secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. He devised incredible flying experiments in the 1890s, but never achieved flight itself. Instead it was two bicycle mechanics from Ohio, Orville and Wilbur Wright, who performed the first controlled, heavier-than-air flight in December 1903. While the Wright brothers were the pioneers of flight, it was the United States government, at the NACA Langley Research Center, that worked to perfect and improve aircraft for commercial and military applications. The Wright brothers continued to innovate after their initial success and sold airplanes to wealthy investors and worked to make them effective weapons for war.

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CHAPTER 8Section 8.4 From NACA to NASA

The Apollo Program

In 1958, the United States launched its first satellite into space—Explorer I. Even with this success, there were continued fears that the United States had somehow lost its scientific edge to the Soviet Union. Many Americans knew the power of science could create vast weapons of mass destruction such as the atomic bomb, and the Soviet Union was catching up to the United States, as evidenced by the detonation of its own atomic bomb in 1949. The Soviets then followed with the Sputnik satellite in 1957, and yet another first went to the Soviet Union on April 12, 1961, when Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (1934–1968) became the first human to travel into outer space. Two years later Soviet Valentina Tereshkova (1937– ) became the first woman in space.

To reclaim its position of leadership, and to give NASA a compelling and ambitious goal, President John F. Kennedy announced a visionary plan a little over a month after

Women in Space

On June 17, 1963, the Soviet Union’s Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to orbit the Earth, and yet NASA simply dismissed the achievement, referring to it as a publicity stunt. In large part the reason was a cultural understanding of gender in the United States. Considered the “weaker sex,” women were to be protected, not put into harm’s way in the dangerous frontier of space. In the early days of the space program NASA never seri- ously considered a woman astronaut because of concern that if a woman died, all public support for the program would erode. The gender roles were very distinct: “Within the civilian space agency, the macho ethos of test pilots and military aviation survived intact. The tacit acceptance that military jet pilots sometimes drank too much (and often drove too fast) complemented the expectation that women wore gloves and high heels—and did not fly spaceships” (Weitekamp, 2005, p. 3).

There was a group of women that sought to challenge these gender distinctions. In the early 1960s, the Lovelace Women in Space Program put 13 women through the same rigorous training and testing regimen as the male Apollo astronauts. One noted participant was Geraldyn “Jerrie” Cobb, who was an accomplished pilot. Unfortunately, NASA withdrew its support for this privately funded project. Cobb and others testified in Washington, DC that they faced sexual discrimination; however, this was two years before the 1964 Civil Rights Act made this illegal. At the same hearing John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, testified that women could not qualify as astronauts. This gender-exclusive policy remained until 1978, when women were first accepted for the Space Shuttle program. Physicist Sally Ride (1951– ) became the first American woman in space in 1983 on the seventh shuttle mission. At 32 years old, she also became the youngest American to go into space at that time. In 1995 Air Force Colonel and former test pilot Eileen Collins (1956– ) became the first woman to pilot a shuttle mission (the sixty- third shuttle flight), and in 1999 she became the first to command a mission. As a tribute to the women who participated in the Lovelace Women in Space Program, she invited 11 of the 13 survivors to her first launch, taking a memento from each into space (http://history.nasa.gov/flats.html).

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Gagarin’s flight into space. On May 25, 1961, Kennedy delivered his “Urgent National Needs” speech to a Joint Session of Congress.

This was a very important speech for several reasons. First, it gave NASA the direction, funding, and commitment it needed to begin pursuing flights to the Moon. Second, it firmly made the association that this was more than just a technical or scientific endeavor, as Kennedy discussed the Soviet Union’s head start and the political and military race to achieve supremacy. Finally, he justified the expense and risk by addressing the nature of humans itself and the cultural ideals embedded in the foundations of the United States that democracy must exist everywhere people went—including space. Though Kennedy himself would not live to see his vision of landing on the Moon realized, as an assassin’s bullet killed him in 1963, his dream lived on—beginning with the Apollo program.

NASA’s Apollo program became the centerpiece of a massive national effort unifying academia and industry, with the goal of reaching the Moon and returning to Earth before 1970. One of the first steps was creating a home for the astronauts on Earth, the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas (it became the NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Cen- ter in 1973). This NASA center took responsibility for training the astronauts, designing the spacecraft, and hosting Mission Control. However, Houston was not where the Apollo craft would eventually launch. Instead, NASA constructed launch facilities at Cape Canav- eral, Florida (later known as the NASA Kennedy Space Center).

Some of the early NASA workers became media stars. One of them was German engineer Werner Von Braun, who gained popular fame when he partnered with Walt Disney in the mid-1950s working first as a technical director and commentator for television films about space. With 42 million viewers, the episode on “Man in Space” is still one of the most watched programs of all time. However, von Braun’s former Nazi associations were diffi- cult to forget. According to his biography, the head of the manned space program, Robert Gilruth, “used to get drunk and complain to others about ‘that damned Nazi’ even after they began working together” (Neufeld, 2008, p. 368). Von Braun loved the United States and for the most part was embraced by the burgeoning Disney media sensation; however, the FBI remained suspicious of him. Von Braun wrote, “I don’t like being treated like a foreign spy. . . . Everywhere I go, the FBI has me followed. I can’t even go to the bathroom without an FBI man tailing me. . . . My telephone is bugged, and the FBI reads more of my mail than I do” (Neufeld, 2008, p. 288).

From NASA, the American people saw a bold, unprecedented adventure to an object in the sky that had elicited wonder for millennia. NASA’s Apollo program became “the ultimate adventure for the American people because it fed into the frontier spirit that imbues much of their society” (Woods, 2011, p. 3). In the process Project Apollo transcended the technical feat itself to become a cultural yardstick to measure the progress of civilization. In its wake, an often used phrase was “If we can put a man on the Moon, then why can’t we [cure can- cer, stop crime, end hunger, etc.].”

Another aspect of the Apollo culture was the astronauts themselves. These were daring test pilots who were used to risking their lives every day as they stepped into the cockpits of advanced aircraft. An example was John Glenn, who became the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20, 1962. NASA achieved greater success when Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the Moon on July 20, 1969. At the moment his foot

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touched the surface, he spoke these famous words: “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind” (Han- sen, 2005, p. 493). In total six Apollo launches landed on the Moon, with 12 astronauts walk- ing on its surface and returning to Earth. Despite this remark- able success, celebrated with ticker tape parades in Times Square for the early returning astronauts, once the race to the Moon was over and the United States claimed victory, public interest in the lunar program slowly diminished.

The Last Apollo Mission

On December 14, 1972, two men awoke on the surface of the Moon to the music of Richard Strauss’s Thus Spake Zarathustra. This was to be the last day that any human would spend on the lunar surface in the 20th century (Bowles, 2006, p. 215–117). NASA had chosen this music for Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt’s wake-up call because of its association with Stanley Kubrick’s science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey, which had premiered four years earlier. The underlying themes of Strauss’s symphony and Kubrick’s film seemed most appropriate for the superhuman effort required for these men to land, walk, play, and perform scientific research on the Moon. After Apollo 17 the government and NASA adopted a new vision of space flight that immediately ended the momentum it had generated since Kennedy declared it a national goal of vital political and technical significance. The new vision was to keep astronauts in low Earth orbit and only send unmanned probes deeper into the solar system. In the wake of this changing vision, the Apollo program came to an inglorious conclusion. Astronaut Cernan said, “Apollo was over and NASA’s golden age of exploration was fast fading into glimmering memory” (Cernan & Davis, 2009, p. 342). Humans abandoned the spaceflight missions beyond low Earth orbit, and the infrastructure that had been built to achieve these endeavors came crashing down.

Reflective Question:

1. How do you think the ending of the Apollo program affected space exploration?

The Space Shuttle

The return of Apollo 17’s crew from the last Apollo mission marked a new era, signify- ing the beginning of a fundamental transformation in NASA’s vision, away from lunar exploration. NASA developed new “unmanned” spacecraft and an idea for a “reusable” rocket that was far different from Apollo. While the Apollo craft offered a one-time voy- age into space with all of its components burning up in the atmosphere except for a small return crew module that splashed down into the ocean, the space shuttle reused nearly everything except its solid rocket boosters. Unlike the ocean splashdown, the space

This image, taken at Tranquility Base during the Apollo 11 mission, shows Buzz Aldrin working at the Lunar Module.

NASA

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shuttle glided down to Earth, landing on a runway like a reg- ular airplane. The other main difference was that the space shuttle could only ascend to low Earth orbit and not ven- ture any further into space. Its first operational flight launched from the Kennedy Space Center on April 12, 1981, and by the time of its last mission in 2011, the 135 launches had focused on deploying satellites, launch- ing interplanetary probes, and conducting zero gravity science experiments.

The Multicultural Shuttle

It is important to note that the shuttle program came to represent the diversity of American society itself. While the early astronauts were all white males, this dramatically changed by the 1980s. In June 1983 Sally Ride became the first American woman in space, and two months later Guion Blu- ford became the first African American in space. Hispanics also made their first ventures off the Earth in this decade with Frank Chang-Diaz’s trip in 1986. By the 1990s minority women began making their presence felt in space as well. In 1992 Mae Jemison became the first African American woman in space, and one year later Ellen Ochoa became the first Hispanic woman. The other important way that the shuttle mirrored American society was with the inclusion of a senior citizen. NASA did so with a notable name from the past as John Glenn became the oldest human to fly in space at age 77. The final multicultural achievement was the 2002 shuttle flight of J. B. Herrington, the first tribal registered Native American to fly in space (http://history.nasa.gov/space_shuttle_firsts.pdf).

Reflective Question:

1. What are other ways you think NASA could have reflected multicultural America in shuttle flights?

The space shuttle has also become a cultural icon, appearing in films such as Moonraker (1979), Armageddon (1998), and Space Cowboys (2000). The Apollo program also gained the attention of Hollywood in 1996 when the film Apollo 13 received nine Academy Award nominations. The U.S. Postal Service has also honored the program on several stamps.

Unfortunately, the space shuttle gained the most public attention during two horrendous accidents. The first was when the Challenger exploded two minutes into its tenth launch on January 28, 1986. It became one of the most traumatic moments ever captured on live televi- sion. This mission included the first “teacher in space,” Christa McAuliffe (1948–1986), and millions of schoolchildren across the nation were watching the launch live on television.

Though the space shuttle returned to operational duty, tragedy again marred the program when the Columbia, during the 107th shuttle mission, disintegrated while reentering the atmosphere over Texas on February 1, 2003. Columbia had been the first shuttle in space.

The space shuttle Challenger touches down on the runway. Note how the landing mirrors that of a regular airplane.

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Reliance on the Soyuz The space shuttle era came to an end in 2011. Although the United States still has astro- nauts and is still participating with the International Space Station (ISS)—which has been continually staffed by international shifts of astronauts since November 2, 2000—the United States ended the space shuttle program without a replacement.

The ISS was built in pieces through many different shuttle voyages and is truly an interna- tional cooperative effort between NASA (United States), the Canadian Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the European Space Agency, and the Russian Federal Space Agency. In the years between the end of the space shuttle and the preparation of the next transport vehicle, the only way that Americans will have to get into space is by relying on the Russian Federal Space Agency’s rocket known as the Soyuz. It is an ironic end to the space race in that for the near future the United States has abdicated its human transport needs into space to an agency from the former Soviet Union. China is also currently active in space with the launch of Shenzhou 5, which carried its first crewed mission in October 2003.

However, NASA and its mission are still alive. Current NASA administrator Charles Bolden said in July 2011, “As a former astronaut and the current NASA Administra- tor, I’m here to tell you that American leadership in space will continue for at least the next half-century because we have laid the foundation for success—and failure is not an option.” Specifically the Space Launch System (SLS) program will develop a launch vehicle designed to take humans beyond low Earth orbit to destinations like the Moon, asteroids, and ultimately the planet Mars.

Biographical Spotlight: Myrna Steele—A Woman at NASA

Myrna Steele was a physicist who worked at NASA’s only nuclear reactor, Plum Brook Station, where she was one of only five women at the male-dominated reactor in the late 1960s. On top of that she was a trained physicist among a group that consisted mostly of engineers and technicians. Her job was to physically set up the experiments in the reactor.

Though she eventually became a respected colleague, she initially had to confront prejudice about her background. She said that at first all of the Plum Brook engineers thought of physicists as “damned useless eggheads,” and Myrna worked hard to dispel this belief.

An even more difficult hurdle for her to overcome was the fact that she was a woman working in a male-dominated culture. Myrna said that when she first began working at Plum Brook the other engineers “picked on me. I blushed on command, which they thoroughly enjoyed.” The men played many pranks on her. For example, there was only one unisex changing room where workers could put on the protective gear to go into the reactor. Sometimes she would return to the changing room after working a 12-hour shift and find her shoes over 100 feet in the air, dangling from the polar crane. She said, “The guys would know whether I had on slacks or whether I had on a dress. If I had on slacks, it never happened.” As the months went on she said that she blushed less often and began to turn some of the practical jokes back on her coworkers. To teach a lesson to some of the more notorious pranksters she baked chocolate-chip brownies with laxative pills in them. The men left her alone after that, and she was considered, in her words, “one of the guys” (Bowles, 2006, pp. 189–190).

Reflective Questions:

1. How is Myrna an example of gender discrimination? 2. If you were in Myrna’s position, how would you have handled the situation? If this situation took

place today, what might be some other ways to address the sexual harassment in the workplace?

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CHAPTER 8Chapter Closing

Chapter Closing

In this chapter we have explored the twin themes of war and space. While seemingly disparate topics, they were intertwined in significant ways during the 20th century as each also impacted the culture at large. World War I and World War II saw the use of new technologies to wage great destruction on the battlefield. Examples such as machine guns and chemical weapons changed the nature of modern warfare. Just as the chemists took the lead in World War I, the physicists developed even more frightening weapons in World War II by taking advantage of the awesome power pent up in the subatomic world. The atomic bombs dropped on Japan ushered in the nuclear age and a corresponding fear that for the first time humans had the power to literally obliterate themselves off the face of the Earth. After this war, in the mid-20th century military and ideological conflicts between the superpowers (the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Repub- lics), known as the Cold War, extended into space. Fearful that a military advantage here might serve as a tipping point in future conflicts, both nations strove to achieve daring feats above the atmosphere. From the Soviet Union’s successful orbit of Sputnik in 1957 to America’s landing on the Moon in 1969, war, space, and the national cultures that sup- ported them became intimately linked.

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CHAPTER 8Chapter Closing

Image copyright Susan Law Cain, 2014. Used under license from Shutterstock, Inc.

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Hemera/Thinkstock

NASA

U.S. National Archives

Image copyright Alan Freed, 2014. Used under license from Shutterstock, Inc.

U.S. Airforce

NASA

1945: Hiroshima

and Nagasaki

1919: World War I Ends

The Manhattan P roject in 1942 leads to the

creation of the atomic bomb. In August 1945,

U. S. President Harry Tr uman authorizes

atomic bombs to be dropped in the

Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Soon

afterwards, Wo rld War II ends.

1958: National

Aeronautics and Space

Administration (NASA)

In October of 1958, NACA is replaced

with NASA and the American space

age begins.

The first world war ends in 19 19 when the countries that formed the Triple Entente (Britain, France, Russia and later, the United States) defeat the Central Pow ers (Germany, A ustria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria). New weapons such as machine guns, poisonous gas and dynamite are used during this war, deeming it the “chemists ’ war.”

NACA is founded in March 19 15 and the scientists that

work for this U. S. gove rnment

agency focus primarily on flight.

1961: Fear of Nuclear Attacks

1957: Sputnik

After Wo rld War II, the fear of nuclear attacks and knowledge of radiation effects makes many families build their own bomb shelters. In July 1961, U. S. President John Kennedy urges families to protect themsel ve s from nuclear attack s in a speech.

1981:

Unlike the Apollo spacecrafts, the Space Shuttle is unmanned and reusable. It is first launched on April 12, 1981 at the Kennedy Space Center and its last trip into space is in 2 011.

In the midst of the Cold War, the Soviet Union wins the “Space Race” when they are the first to launch a demo satellite into space .

1 9 1 5

1 9 8 5

1969: oon

On July 20, 1969, American

astronauts in the spacecraft Apollo 11 land on the surface

of the moon.

1915: National Advisory

Committee for Aeronautics

(NACA)

Timeline 8.1: War and Space

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CHAPTER 8Concept Check

Concept Check

1. Which of the following was not a notable product of an African American inventor? A. gas mask B. traffic signal C. lightbulb D. adding machine

2. Which of the following women was notable for winning a Nobel Prize, as was her daughter?

A. Marić B. McClintock C. Cori D. Curie

3. Who was one of the first scientists to split a uranium atom? A. Lise Meitner B. Albert Einstein C. Marie Curie D. Leo Szilard

4. In which of the following did a fear of radiation not appear? A. Batman comics B. Frankenstein novels C. presidential speeches D. watchmaker paints

5. What was the name of the first American satellite sent into space? A. Sputnik B. Vanguard C. Apollo D. Explorer

Answers 1. C. The answer can be found in Section 8.1, Garrett Morgan.

2. D. The answer can be found in Section 8.1, The Neutron.

3. A. The answer can be found in Section 8.2, Atomic Politics Leading to Nuclear Fears.

4. B. The answer can be found in Section 8.2, Nuclear Fear.

5. D. The answer can be found in Section 8.4, The Apollo Program.

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CHAPTER 8Key Terms to Remember

Key Ideas to Remember

• World War I was known as the “chemists’ war” because scientists during this time created weaponized gases and explosive devices.

• World War II was scientifically defined by the physicists who developed the atomic bomb during the Manhattan Project.

• Though nuclear weapons provide the capability to destroy the Earth, nuclear knowledge enables the creation of inexpensive and clean electrical power (though this comes with the problem of storing nuclear waste and the potential for accident).

• NASA is the U.S. organization tasked with managing the nation’s activities in space as well as performing advanced aviation research. Founded in 1958, it replaced the NACA, which focused solely on airplanes.

• The space race between the United States and the Soviet Union inspired much of the early space activities, including the first orbiting satellites and manned mis- sions to the Moon.

Critical Thinking Questions

1. Do you feel that the knowledge of how to split an atom is good or bad for society? Explain your answer.

2. Does nuclear fear still exist? If so, what are some examples you have seen in the news?

3. Give an example of how the environmental movement has shaped culture and vice versa.

4. What was the importance of landing men on the Moon? Should we go back? Why or why not?

5. Does NASA still have relevance in a post–space shuttle era? What should be its primary mission?

6. If you could meet one of the women scientists discussed in this chapter, who would you select and why? What questions would you ask her?

Key Terms to Remember

Apollo NASA’s program of sending men to the Moon, which it achieved on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface. Apollo ended after its last mission in December 1972.

atom The smallest component of an ele- ment. It has a nucleus at its center which contains positively charged protons and neutrons. One or more negatively charged electrons surround it and are bound through chemical attraction to the nucleus.

chemical warfare The use of chemistry to develop gases and other substances into weapons.

Chicago Pile 1 The world’s first nuclear reactor, which went critical on December 2, 1942.

Cold War The conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1989 that pitted the forces of American democracy against Russian communism. While the nations never directly attacked each other, they clashed militarily in smaller nations such as Vietnam and com- peted to outdo one another in space and in the stockpiling of nuclear weapons.

electrons See atom.

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CHAPTER 8Key Terms to Remember

Lovelace Women in Space Program A short-lived program in the 1960s to train women to be astronauts.

Manhattan Project The name given to the program during World War II in the United States which created the atomic bomb.

NACA The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, founded in March 1915, with a chartered mandate to “supervise and direct the scientific study of the prob- lems of flight with a view to their practical solution.” President Eisenhower disbanded it in 1958 and replaced it with NASA.

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, established on Octo- ber 1, 1958, to coordinate and direct Ameri- can efforts in space and continue aviation research on Earth.

nucleus See atom.

protons See atom.

radiation The process by which energy is emitted as waves or particles from a substance.

Soyuz The Russian Federal Space Agen- cy’s rocket used for sending astronauts into space.

space race The competition between the Soviet Union and the United States to gain superiority in space.

space shuttle NASA’s launch vehicle that replaced the Apollo program. There were 135 space shuttle missions between 1981 and 2011, when the space shuttles were retired.

Sputnik The first satellite to orbit the Earth, launched by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957.