The Precipitator

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union put into orbit a satellite called Sputnik. It was reputedly only about the size of a basketball, weighed 184 pounds, and emitted beeps that could be monitored by shortwave radio. The world was shocked, and America's preeminence in the world of science and engineering took a huge public-relations hit. And, to make matters worse, on November 3 of that year the Soviets launched the 1,121-pound Sputnik II, which contained a dog named Laika. This occurred before Sputnik I spiraled to Earth and disintegrated, and its effect was profound. Just as the Nagasaki bomb detonated so shortly after Hiroshima, Laika showed that the Russians had the capability to do this regularly, and that it was not a one-shot deal. Even if the timing was calculated precisely to have this effect, the psychological perception transcended objective reality. We were at the height of the Cold War, and the Russians had trumped us badly. For, if they could put a dog in space, was a monkey far behind? And, once a monkey was up there, well, you could figure it out. Nuclear missiles launched from space were now practically a reality. In military terms, the Russians had captured the ultimate "high ground," and our scientific, military, and political leadership figuratively and literally "went ballistic" over it.

Now Sputnik certainly was a barnburner, but it was also an event that triggered other things that turned out to be much more important for the country. Its legacy for John Kennedy included using the "missile gap" to help win the presidential election of 1960, and his subsequent engagement of the entire country in the space race of the 1960s culminated by our putting a man on the moon in 1969. In 12 short years, we caught up and surpassed the Russians, much to the awe of the rest of the world. It was a great example of American "can-do" spirit.

Of course, the physics required dated back to Newton, and the rocketry was, oddly enough, managed by veterans of Germany's V-2 days (at least if the popular myths are to be believed). But Sputnik changed a whole generation because of something more subtleit challenged our educational system to its roots.

Basically, what came out of Sputnik was that we Americans were behind because the Russians had a better educational system and funneled more of their "best and brightest" into science and engineering. While the Americans were kings of mass-producing consumer goods and raising the middle class's standard of living, the Russians were solving the really hard problems and getting ahead of us where it really mattered. Regardless of the reality of the situation, this perception was widely disseminated and accepted as the gospel truth. For a while, it seemed the whole country was in a dither over this. Something had to be done.