The Red Skies Of October To most of us, October 4, 1957 was just another autumn day. Little did we know that the major happening of that time would be a life changing event for the majority. It had to do with something called Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite, splashed all over the newspaper headlines and broadcast media. The only problem, according to the commentary, was that Sputnik was a Russian space probe, not American. The United States had been upstaged by what we had been led to believe was a backward nation. Backward scientifically and economically, yet intent upon global domination. It was a rude awakening for the American public and leadership. One weeknight in mid October of that year I was outside watching as my father burned leaves in the street gutter. This was from the time when leaf burning was not prohibited by law. Dad pointed to the Northern sky. “There,” he said, “Moving along toward the east.....that’s Sputnik.” I was disappointed, expecting to see an exotic spacecraft, not what appeared to have been a small star creeping across a star studded sky. I failed to comprehend what the big deal was all about. Soon we found out. Much of this had to do with the 1958 Geophysical Year. The US had been planning to be first in space with the launch of a satellite into earth orbit crammed full of scientific instruments to measure things like the earth’s magnetic field, solar radiation, cosmic rays, and ionosphere. Ambitious, but all of our attempts in that endeavor had been disastrous. As a booster rocket, the Navy’s Vanguard missile had been chosen, yet could never achieve lift-off without exploding on the launch pad. The Russians apparently didn’t have that problem, and legions of news reporters were asking why. This was a matter of little concern to me and my friends.....at least until the following Monday morning in Sr. Rosita’s 3rd Grade Class. Sr. Rosita painted a bleak picture of our futures, rising each day with a Soviet artificial moon orbiting several hundred miles above our heads. “For all we know, there could be a bomb inside that thing!” she opined as a couple of the girls began to cry. Dave Kearns quickly put our fears to rest and also seemed to stymy Rosita’s attempt to scare us to death. “That’s not possible, Sister,” he bravely volunteered. “Objects are weightless in space, so it’ll just stay there.” This seemed to allay our fears, but at that point none of us knew about retro rockets and re-entry vehicles. Rosita, her plan to frighten us short circuited, offered no rebuttal, though the concerns about the Russian space achievement continued for several more years. The media was quick to put a name on this new rivalry, calling it The Space Race, and for some time after this were asking the rhetorical question, “How we gonna beat the Russians?” Of genuine concern to military strategists was the fact that if Russia had a rocket capable of launching a satellite into earth orbit, then this meant that they also now had an operational intercontinental ballistic missile. While manned bombers were vulnerable to surface to air missiles and interceptor aircraft, ICBMs in 1957 were unstoppable. Something needed to be done. A solution needed to be found quickly, but first we needed to learn how the extant situation had come into existence. The American education system was examined under a microscope in an attempt to rout out inefficiency and inadequacy. We were told that our science and math programs were under par when compared to several other industrialized nations. It was also suggested that we lengthen the school day, that school should be in session 6 days a week, and that summer vacations be eliminated entirely. Understandably such solutions were not favorably received by a majority of students more concerned with Major League Baseball and Elvis. Even less so in Sr. Rosita’s class. Rosita was always telling us that the atheistic Russians were fierce fighters bent upon killing us. “The Russians want to kill what, class?” “CATHOLICS, Sister Rosita!” we chanted reflexively in unison. Rosita was now swaggering up and down the aisles as she spoke. “That’s right, boys and girls. They’ll want to kill Catholics......and when that day comes you had all better be ready to lay down your life for Baby Jesus!” In hindsight, I think Sr. Rosita should have toned down the politicizing and spent more time on the science and math we so desperately needed. More culpable than the schools in our lagging space program was a lack of funding. The Dwight Eisenhower Administration had made space exploration a low priority, focusing instead on the creation of our Interstate Highway System. This had seemed more practical than probing the workings of the universe via what many felt was merely science fiction run amok. “No bucks, no Buck Rodgers,” Project Mercury astronaut Gus Grissom was quoted as saying in The Right Stuff by author Tom Wolf. In an effort to hold his critics at bay, President Eisenhower took NACA, the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, and rechristened it NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration which would be the federal agency in charge of our space program, and superceding the Army, Navy, and Air Force, which had all been pursuing their own fragmented programs. Having a civilian agency running our space program was a political move intended to placate the world into believing we were not seeking to militarize space. However, the hardware and personnel were all provided courtesy of the United States Armed Forces. It would appear that lack of funding had been the actual reason for our consistent failures in space exploration, yet the media and public’s attention remained locked onto the inadequacy of American science education programs. Understandably most of us who had achieved a modicum of success in the academic arena were funneled into science and math programs and less into the humanities. We were encouraged to study calculus and trigonometry. The physics program at my school, Manchester Central High School, had been upgraded to something called PSSC Physics (Physical Science Study Committee). Chemistry class was invigorated by the Chem Study program and texts. Science and technology would put American students at the forefront in The Space Race with the Russians. Or so we were told. A student might have been better suited for a career as a history teacher or lawyer, but the prevailing wisdom of the day had pushed us in an entirely different direction from what we would have chosen if given a genuine option. Much of this was in the name of national pride if not outright jingoism. Many from this era did well and prospered. A few more were not so fortunate, graduating from college at a time when there were more science majors than there were available positions in science and technology. Things had changed in the interim. The Vanguard missile program was given lower priority. In it’s place was the Jupiter-C, designed by Dr. Werner Von Braun, the former Nazi rocket scientist who had developed the V2 missile which had terrorized London in 1944 from a launch site in the Netherlands. The Jupiter-C put America’s first satellite, Explorer 1, in orbit on Jan. 31, 1958. A mere eleven years later, the Apollo Program put us on the moon via the Saturn V Rocket, again the brainchild of Von Braun. But we left the moon in 1972 and haven’t been back since. We’re also told that we lack the knowhow to launch a return trip today. The Space Shuttle program is finished, America’s manned space program is no more, and we’re left with little more than memories and a slew of great photographs. It appeared that America had won The Space Race at the time of our first lunar landing in 1969. Subsequent events tend to blunt that victory. We were told we would be on Mars by 1980 and on to the moons of Jupiter by 2001. Yet all along we continue to be told that our science education is sub standard. Once again, it would appear that the actual culprit is lack of funding. Additionally, the public has grown bored if not completely disaffected with science. While science may not have all of the answers to our problems in the 21st Century, it’s all that we really have in the pursuit of an objective reality. Paralleling the public’s declining interest in science, we have seen a rise in the occult and mysticism which, in many instances, has taken favor over solid, evidence based research. We see this in the area of healthcare where questionable treatments and products are foisted upon a gullible public who apparently lack the wherewithal to question the pontifications of self appointed experts. This may change when once again we are jolted out of our indolence by another surprise event. Meanwhile, back to those thrilling days of The Space Race......My cousin Joe and I were both in the 5th grade in the spring of 1960. It was on a visit to our grandmother’s nursing home when one of her friends asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up. “I would like to become a priest,” Joe told the group of women, all of whom were well into their 80s. They swooned at Joe’s revelation, and one of them could not contain her enthusiasm. “What a good boy! And won’t your parents be proud at your ordination!” Joe always knew how to say the right thing on such occasions. I, on the other hand, crashed and burned when asked the same question. “I wanna be an astronaut!” A look of befuddlement passed among this group of elderly women. “What’s an astronaut?” When I explained that an astronaut was a pilot who flew rockets into space, the entire group broke out in raucous laughter. I found myself thinking briefly that I might have made a better stand up comic.
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 00:13:27 +0000
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