Satellite in orbit in 1956?

I knew about von Braun and General Medaris agitating for a Jupiter C
launch of a satellite in 1956. Someone was trying to tell me, last
week, that von Braun apparently conspired to put a satellite in orbit
in 1956! The Jupiter C was being used to do ballistic missile re-entry
tests from Florida; von Braun was going to... kind of sort of ....'by
accident'.. go for a ballistic arc that circled the Earth or even
Earth orbit. Apparently ...General. Medaris was willing to look the
other way, till the Pentagon got wind of it. The DOD told Medaris to
tell von Braun it was verboten! So it never came about. That a space
age myth?

On Oct 4, 7:10 am, Al wrote:
I knew about von Braun and General Medaris agitating for a Jupiter C
launch of a satellite in 1956. Someone was trying to tell me, last
week, that von Braun apparently conspired to put a satellite in orbit
in 1956! The Jupiter C was being used to do ballistic missile re-entry
tests from Florida; von Braun was going to... kind of sort of ....'by
accident'.. go for a ballistic arc that circled the Earth or even
Earth orbit. Apparently ...General. Medaris was willing to look the
other way, till the Pentagon got wind of it. The DOD told Medaris to
tell von Braun it was verboten! So it never came about. That a space
age myth?

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.

There's a reason it only took 90 says to dust off the Jupiter-C to
launch Explorer 1.

"neopeius" wrote in message
ups.com...
On Oct 4, 7:10 am, Al wrote:
I knew about von Braun and General Medaris agitating for a Jupiter C
launch of a satellite in 1956. Someone was trying to tell me, last
week, that von Braun apparently conspired to put a satellite in orbit
in 1956! The Jupiter C was being used to do ballistic missile re-entry
tests from Florida; von Braun was going to... kind of sort of ....'by
accident'.. go for a ballistic arc that circled the Earth or even
Earth orbit. Apparently ...General. Medaris was willing to look the
other way, till the Pentagon got wind of it. The DOD told Medaris to
tell von Braun it was verboten! So it never came about. That a space
age myth?

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


There's a reason it only took 90 says to dust off the Jupiter-C to
launch Explorer 1.


--
Greg Moore
SQL Server DBA Consulting Remote and Onsite available!
Email: sql (at) greenms.com http://www.greenms.com/sqlserver.html

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

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.

"neopeius" wrote in message
ups.com...
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.

It's not true because it's not true. And you answered your own question
below.



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.

This is correct. There's no evidence however though that Eisenhower did not
want the American's to be first though.





--
Greg Moore
SQL Server DBA Consulting Remote and Onsite available!
Email: sql (at) greenms.com http://www.greenms.com/sqlserver.html

On Mon, 8 Oct 2007 14:51:38 -0400, in a place far, far away, "Greg D.
Moore \(Strider\)" made the phosphor
on my monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that:

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.

This is correct. There's no evidence however though that Eisenhower did not
want the American's to be first though.

The administration certainly didn't mind letting the Soviet Union
establish the overflight precedent.

"Rand Simberg" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 8 Oct 2007 14:51:38 -0400, in a place far, far away, "Greg D.
Moore \(Strider\)" made the phosphor
on my monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that:

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.

This is correct. There's no evidence however though that Eisenhower did
not
want the American's to be first though.

The administration certainly didn't mind letting the Soviet Union
establish the overflight precedent.

I'd forgotten about this issue. There was some fear that the Soviet Union
would object to overflights of its country by US satellites, which could
have made proposed military satellites problematic.

Jeff
--
"When transportation is cheap, frequent, reliable, and flexible,
everything else becomes easier."
- Jon Goff

On Oct 8, 12:42 pm, "Jeff Findley"
wrote:
"Rand Simberg" wrote in message

...

On Mon, 8 Oct 2007 14:51:38 -0400, in a place far, far away, "Greg D.
Moore \(Strider\)" made the phosphor
on my monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that:

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.

This is correct. There's no evidence however though that Eisenhower did
not
want the American's to be first though.

The administration certainly didn't mind letting the Soviet Union
establish the overflight precedent.

I'd forgotten about this issue. There was some fear that the Soviet Union
would object to overflights of its country by US satellites, which could
have made proposed military satellites problematic.

Jeff
--
"When transportation is cheap, frequent, reliable, and flexible,
everything else becomes easier."
- Jon Goff

You had better believe that if the US had been first, the Soviets
would have set international track records in the UN screaming about
the overflights of "their sacred motherland" and violation of THEIR
national soveignty. They didn't mind doing it to anyone else, but if
ANYONE, especially the US, did it to them ... This would have set a
VERY bad precident, if it had been backed up.

This level of national hypocracy was quite noticable at the time, even
to a pre-teen which had quite a lot of admiration of the Soviets in
their scientific acheivements.

wrote in message
ups.com...
On Oct 8, 12:42 pm, "Jeff Findley"
wrote:
I'd forgotten about this issue. There was some fear that the Soviet
Union
would object to overflights of its country by US satellites, which could
have made proposed military satellites problematic.

You had better believe that if the US had been first, the Soviets
would have set international track records in the UN screaming about
the overflights of "their sacred motherland" and violation of THEIR
national soveignty. They didn't mind doing it to anyone else, but if
ANYONE, especially the US, did it to them ... This would have set a
VERY bad precident, if it had been backed up.

So at the time, the US didn't mind the Soviets overflying the US? I thought
that the US scrambled fighters to turn such flights away from the US.
Granted, I wasn't even born back then, so I'm going by what I've read in
history books and seen on TV documentaries of the Cold War.

Jeff
--
"When transportation is cheap, frequent, reliable, and flexible,
everything else becomes easier."
- Jon Goff