Page 61 - Communications Satellites Global Change Agents

2. EVOLUTION OF SATELLITE TECHNOLOGY 37

reliable communications technology, but also allowed the development of the
practical electronic computers. These were needed for applications including cal-
culation of the orbital mechanics for launching a satellite and ultimately the incor-
poration of solid-state components in the satellites.

THE SOVIETS AUNCH "SPUTNIK"
L
AND THE SPACE RACE BEGINS

A little over a decade after Clarke's remarkable article was printed, the space age
began—not in literature, but in reality. In October 1957, the world was surprised
to wake up to the "beep beep beep" of Sputnik. Although the USSR had promised
it would launch a satellite as part of the International Geophysical Year global sci-
entific enterprise, most of the world had been skeptical that this feat would be ac-
complished.
The successful launch of Sputnik was a remarkable scientific and engineering
accomplishment. The Soviet Union's launch of an artificial satellite was per-
ceived by the world—and especially the United States—as a cold war challenge
of military significance rather than of scientific or business importance. At that
time, control of space and the strategic high ground above the earth's atmosphere
was seen as the basis of military superiority in the age of atomic weapons and bal-
listic missiles. In the United States, the race for the presidency in 1960 was domi-
nated by charges that America suffered from a "missile gap" by comparison with
the USSR. President Kennedy's razor-thin victory over Vice President Nixon is
said by many to have hinged on this one issue, although others attributed it to
more mundane matters such as Nixon's sweating and "five o'clock shadow" dur-
ing the crucial TV debates.
In the wake of Sputnik in the fall of 1957, a scramble of U.S.-sponsored space
activities began with the aim of launching an American satellite of any shape or
size. The first attempts were by the military. In particular, the U.S. Army and the
Signal Corps undertook efforts to launch a satellite into space. In the months that
followed, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was cre-
ated by an act of Congress in 1958. The new agency was hastily formed and head-
quartered in Washington, DC. In the process, the new NASA displaced and re-
placed the National Civilian Aeronautics Agency (NACA), then located in
Cleveland, Ohio. Priorities were quickly shifted from developing better jets to de-
veloping space systems.
These early efforts to create an American space program began with an embar-
rassing string of failures. Several attempted launches ended in failure, but then the
U.S. Army finally launched the Explorer satellite that discovered the Van Allen
Belt. On December 18, 1958, the U.S. Signal Corps launched a tiny communica-
tions satellite—"SCORE"—into low orbit with a taped message from President
Dwight D. Eisenhower that broadcast the message "Peace on Earth, Goodwill to