NASA's Origins & the Dawn of the Space Age

 Monographs in Aerospace History # 10


Notes

1. Jay Holmes, The Race for the Moon (London: Victor Gollancz, 1962), pp. 46–47.

2. Constance McLaughlin Green and Milton Lomask, Vanguard: A History (Washington, DC: NASA SP-4202, 1970), p. 186.

3. Arthur C. Clarke, "Memoirs of an Armchair Astronaut (Retired)," in Voices from the Sky (New York: Pyramid, 1967), p. 153.

4. David Anderton, "Satellite's Glow Permeates Barcelona," Aviation Week, October 14, 1957, pp. 29–30.

5. Drawing on this new information, Asif A. Siddiqi has recently published a revealing account of events in the Soviet Union leading up to Sputnik's launch. See Asif A. Siddiqi, "Korolev, Sputnik, and the International Geophysical Year" (http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/sputnik/siddiqi.html). Similarly, R. Cargill Hall used recently declassified U.S. documents to trace the Eisenhower administration policy decisions that reined in the U.S. satellite program in the years immediately prior to Sputnik. See R. Cargill Hall, "Origins of U.S. Space Policy: Eisenhower, Open Skies, and Freedom of Space," in John M. Logsdon, gen. ed., with Linda J. Lear, Jannelle Warren-Findley, Ray A. Williamson, and Dwayne A. Day, Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program, Volume I: Organizing for Exploration (Washington, DC: NASA SP-4407, 1995), pp. 213–29. Together, these articles paint a coherent picture of events in the United States and the Soviet Union leading up to the start of the space age.

6. Siddiqi, "Korolev, Sputnik, and the IGY."

7. Hall, "Origins of U.S. Space Policy," p. 217.

8. Ibid., p. 220.

9. Ibid., p. 221.

10. Siddiqi, "Korolev, Sputnik, and the IGY."

11. National Security Council, NSC 5520, "Draft Statement of Policy on U.S. Scientific Satellite Program," May 20, 1955, in Logsdon, gen. ed., Exploring the Unknown, 1: 308–13.

12. Siddiqi, "Korolev, Sputnik, and the IGY."

13. Ibid.

14. Asif Siddiqi, personal communication.

15. Holmes, The Race for the Moon, p. 51.

16. Green and Lomask, Vanguard: A History, p. 48.

17. Siddiqi, "Korolev, Sputnik, and the IGY."

18. Ibid.

19. "Memorandum of Discussion at the 322d Meeting of the National Security Council, Washington, D.C., May 10, 1957," in Logsdon, gen. ed., Exploring the Unknown, 1: 324–28.

20. Allen W. Dulles, Director of Central Intelligence, to The Honorable Donald Quarles, Deputy Secretary of Defense, July 5, 1957, in Logsdon, gen. ed., Exploring the Unknown, 1: 329–30.

21. Siddiqi, "Korolev, Sputnik, and the IGY."

22. Walter A. McDougall, . . . The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age (New York: Basic Books, 1985), p. 134.

23. John Foster Dulles to James C. Hagerty, October 8, 1957, in Logsdon, gen. ed., Exploring the Unknown, 1: 331.

24. "Impact of Russian Satellite to Boost U.S. Research Effort," Aviation Week, October 14, 1957, pp. 28–29.

25. This was not in fact correct. Only four R-7s were ever deployed as ICBMs, and these were quickly withdrawn from service as too difficult to prepare for launch and extremely vulnerable to attack. The R-7 instead became the most-used Soviet space launcher, and it is still in service today, with more than 1,200 launches to its credit.

26. Roger D. Launius, "Sputnik and the Origins of the Space Age" (http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/sputnik/sputorig.html).

27. Katherine Johnsen, "Senate Group Probes Satellite Progress," Aviation Week, October 14, 1957, pp. 31–32.

28. Robert Hotz, "Sputnik in the Sky," Aviation Week, October 14, 1957, p. 21.

29. Launius, "Sputnik and the Origins of the Space Age."

30. Glen P. Wilson, "How the Space Act Came to Be," unpublished manuscript in NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, p. 1.

31. Green and Lomask, Vanguard: A History, p. 202.

32. Wilson, "How the Space Act Came to Be," p. 4.

33. Green and Lomask, Vanguard: A History, p. 204.

34. "Democratic Leaders Attack Administration Sputnik Reaction," Aviation Week, December 9, 1957, pp. 31–32.

35. Ibid.

36. "Four Objects Reported in Sputnik Orbit," Aviation Week, May 26, 1958, pp. 28–29.

37. J.R. Killian, Jr., "Memorandum on Organizational Alternatives for Space Research and Development," December 30, 1957, in Logsdon, gen. ed., Exploring the Unknown, 1: 628–631.

38. Before Killian's memorandum became public, some attributed the suggestion that the NACA form the basis of the space program to Orval Cooke, the president of the Aircraft Industries Association. In early January 1958, Cooke told a meeting of the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences that key decisions, not new agencies, were the way to a vigorous U.S. space program. He proposed that the NACA be made the U.S. national space agency. The NACA, he said, "has been conducting research and studies in scientific fields leading to man's conquest of space for more than a decade." See "Key to Space," Aviation Week, January 20, 1958, p. 25. At about the same time, the NACA began to promote itself as part of an interagency space program, including the Defense Department, the National Science Foundation, and the National Academy of Sciences. See Robert Rosholt, An Administrative History of NASA: 1958–1963 (Washington, DC: NASA SP-4101, 1966), p. 8.

39. L.A. Minnich, Jr., "Legislative Leadership Meeting, Supplementary Notes," February 4, 1958, in Logsdon, gen. ed., Exploring the Unknown, 1: 631–32.

40. "Congress Draws Battle Lines for Outer-Space Control," Aviation Week, February 3, 1958, p. 37

41. S. Paul Johnston, "Memorandum for Dr. J. R. Killian, Jr., Preliminary Observations on the Organization for the Exploitation of Outer Space," February 21, 1958, in Logsdon, gen. ed., Exploring the Unknown, 1: 632–36.

42. President's Advisory Committee on Government Organization, Executive Office of the President, Memorandum for the President, "Organization for Civil Space Programs," March 5, 1958, p. 3.

43. Ford Eastman, "Doolittle Urges Adoption of Plan for Civil Control of Space Agency," Aviation Week, May 5, 1958, p. 32.

44. "Four Objects Reported in Sputnik Orbit," Aviation Week, May 26, 1958, pp. 28–29.

45. Robert Hotz, "Sputnik III and U.S. Space Policy," Aviation Week, May 26, 1958, p. 21.

46. Wilson, "How the Space Act Came to Be," p. 10.