Sputnik & International Geophysical Year

In 1955, *both* the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. had announced intentions to
try to orbit satellites in the immediate future. The U.S. said it would
try to launch during the upcoming International Geophysical Year
1957-58; the U.S.S.R. was a bit more vague as to exactly when.

Yet when the U.S.S.R. orbited Sputnik, the whole world, especially the
U.S., appeared to be "shocked" by it. Why? Did everybody think the
Soviets were only making idle boasts?


--
Steven D. Litvintchouk
Email:

Remove the NOSPAM before replying to me.

In article .net,
says...
In 1955, *both* the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. had announced intentions to
try to orbit satellites in the immediate future. The U.S. said it would
try to launch during the upcoming International Geophysical Year
1957-58; the U.S.S.R. was a bit more vague as to exactly when.

Yet when the U.S.S.R. orbited Sputnik, the whole world, especially the
U.S., appeared to be "shocked" by it. Why? Did everybody think the
Soviets were only making idle boasts?

Yeah, pretty much. It's one thing to say you're going to launch a
satellite. It's another to actually do it.

--

Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for | Doug Van Dorn
thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup |

Yet when the U.S.S.R. orbited Sputnik, the whole world, especially the
U.S., appeared to be "shocked" by it. BRBR

There were a number of reasons. The CIA knew the Soviets were working on an
ICBM, but many analysts in the West doubted a Soviet claim that such a rocket
had flown successfully in August 1957. There was also a general feeling that
the Soviets were technically backward types who were still dependent on largely
unimproved German technology and were unlikely to achieve any major technology
firsts, in rocketry or anything else. (This was unjustified, as the Soviets
produced some superb tanks and airplanes in WWII, but it still existed.)
Delays in the US Vanguard program were not viewed with concern because of the
common belief within the US government that Vanguard would be the world's
first satellite regardless of when it launched.
Matt Bille
)
OPINIONS IN ALL POSTS ARE SOLELY THOSE OF THE AUTHOR

"Steven D. Litvintchouk" wrote:

In 1955, *both* the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. had announced intentions to
try to orbit satellites in the immediate future. The U.S. said it would
try to launch during the upcoming International Geophysical Year
1957-58; the U.S.S.R. was a bit more vague as to exactly when.

Yet when the U.S.S.R. orbited Sputnik, the whole world, especially the
U.S., appeared to be "shocked" by it. Why? Did everybody think the
Soviets were only making idle boasts?

The American public believed that the Soviet Union was backward in
sciences and technology and the launch of Sputnik came as a great
shock. The news media had given virtually no coverage on the
USSRs claim that they would launch a satellite during the
Geophysical Year.

Mike Walsh

On Thu, 28 Aug 2003 23:32:02 GMT, "Steven D. Litvintchouk"
wrote:

Yet when the U.S.S.R. orbited Sputnik, the whole world, especially the
U.S., appeared to be "shocked" by it. Why? Did everybody think the
Soviets were only making idle boasts?

Completely unrelated question: with all those geophysicists
crawling all over the world, getting all hot 'n geophysical, how
come the IGY failed to discover continental drift?

--
Shane Stezelberger
sstezel at erols dot kom
Laurel, MD

(Shane Stezelberger) writes:

Completely unrelated question: with all those geophysicists
crawling all over the world, getting all hot 'n geophysical, how
come the IGY failed to discover continental drift?

Well ... unless I'm mistaken, they kind of did. At least the
International Geophysical Year work found the mid-oceanic ridges, which
gave a way to explain the previously unanswerable question of how the
continents could drift through rock without breaking up (they don't; the
rock they sat on drifted). Combined with the data about magnetic ridges
along the sides of the plates and within half a decade continental drift
went from a slightly nutty, Thomas Gold-grade idea, to quite respectable
science.

Besides, like Albert Alligator said, if the geophysicists can't
measure the year more accurately than 18 months, are you going to trust
them when they get through with the tape measure?

Joseph Nebus
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Matt Bille:
Yet when the U.S.S.R. orbited Sputnik, the whole world, especially the
U.S., appeared to be "shocked" by it. BRBR

There were a number of reasons. The CIA knew the Soviets were working on an
ICBM, but many analysts in the West doubted a Soviet claim that such a rocket
had flown successfully in August 1957.
snip

It's not hard to find the old AvWeeks from August '57. They published
definitive articles on how the Soviet ICBM test was successful.

Why the shock in October? It's one thing to learn that you're
vulnerable. It's another to actually *see* it.


~ CT

From Matt Bille:
Yet when the U.S.S.R. orbited Sputnik, the whole world, especially the
U.S., appeared to be "shocked" by it. BRBR

There were a number of reasons. The CIA knew the Soviets were working on an
ICBM, but many analysts in the West doubted a Soviet claim that such a rocket
had flown successfully in August 1957.
snip

It's not hard to find the old AvWeeks from August '57. They published
definitive articles on how the Soviet ICBM test was successful.

Why the shock in October? It's one thing to learn that you're
vulnerable. It's another to actually *see* it.

For anyone interested, here's a post from Sputnik's 45th anniversary
with lots more info on why it was so shocking:

http://tinyurl.com/m8i5

(http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...gle.com&rnum=1)


~ CT