On Oct 7, 8:43 pm, Pat Flannery wrote:
Greg D. Moore (Strider) wrote:

It is absolutely true that Project Orbiter could have launched a
satellite in 1956. Eisenhower nixed it for very specific reasons. He
did not want America to be first in space.

rand Not true. /rant

Oh, I like that. :-D
People forget that space law was a very hypothetical thing prior to the
launch of Sputnik, and that it set the precedent by being allowed to fly
over the U.S. without complaint...in that satellites were considered to
be similar to ships at sea in international waters from that moment on.
We already knew that Corona was in the future, and we'd learn a lot more
about the Soviet Union via reconsats than they'd ever learn about us via
their Zenits.

Pat

Yeah, I'm not sure what "Not True" is all about. It's not a secret.
It was a calculated move by the President, and not a bad one in
foresight or hindsight.

At the *very* least, Eisenhower wanted the IGY probe to be at least
ostensibly civilian. There was no place for ABMA in that scheme of
things.