Oh, By The Way

Happy 48th Anniversary, Sputnik I.

In my first year of University, I had an assignment where I had to research the reaction in the western press to one of many possible events during the Cold War. Being a card-carrying space nerd, I chose the launching of Sputnik. It was amusing how bad most of the science writing was - journalists seemed to have no idea what space travel involved. Seeing as space travel had really just been invented, I suppose that's understanding.

One of the most fascinating things was a piece in the Times of London which quoted an anonymous White House source which - only days after Sputnik was launched - predicted that the US government would need to engage in an expensive, Manhattan Project-style program to land a man on the moon.

That was predicted in 1957. Given that some of Eisenhower's advisors were kept on when Kennedy took over - especially the science advisors - I've suspected since I read that piece that Apollo was basically the brainchild of one anonymous guy in the White House.

I really like that thought.