The technological and cultural impact of the "race for space"

50 years ago October 4th, the Soviet Union launched a 183-pound,
basketball-sized, polished aluminum ball into an orbit around Earth.

Sputnik not only ushered in the Space Age, it spurred a massive
investment of intellectual and physical capital into science and
engineering. President Eisenhower created the post of National Science
Advisor. Congress created NASA and tripled funding to the National
Science Foundation. Many youngsters were inspired and enabled to
pursue a career in science and technology.

How is Sputnik relevant today? How did Sputnik and America's vault
into the Space Age that followed affect the course of your life? How
do you see it from the vantage point of 2007?

In anticipation of the 50th anniversary of Sputnik's launch, Weekend
America, a weekly two-hour public radio program, is focusing on the
technological and cultural impact of the event that propelled the Cold
War into the Space Age. To help us tell the story, we're looking for
people who want to share their memories of Sputnik's launch or
describe the significance the race for space had in American life.

To help us with the story, respond he http://americanpublicmedia.publicradio.org/pin/sputnik

Share your personal stories about the impact Sputnik had on careers,
memories, science, or ways of thinking about the world and its future.

Best,

Lea Coon
American Public Media/Minnesota Public Radio
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/pub...ghtjournalism/
(651)290-1442

wrote:
50 years ago October 4th, the Soviet Union launched a 183-pound,
basketball-sized, polished aluminum ball into an orbit around Earth.


COMRADE! Socialism's shining star!
Baby Semyorka rises from its steel cradle! :-)
COMRADE! A salyut to the Hero-Bitch of Soviet Space:
Laika, The Space Bitch!
Flying like a witch!
Flying to the sky!
But this bitch must die!
"My name means Barker!
The sky grows darker!
Barker, Barker to the stars!"
Laika, The Space Bitch!
Now the dog must twitch!
Twitching from the heat!
Soon she'll be dead meat!
"My name means Barker!
My eyes grow darker!
Barker, Barker to the stars!"
Laika, The Space Bitch!
Boiling like hot pitch!
Now all the stars are red!
But that bitch is dead!
"My Name means Barker!
My flesh burns darker!
Darker, darker than the night!
Pravda will not dare tell!
The flight did not go well!
On Pravda's pages I live yet on!

Patsky