Roger D. LauniusNational Air and Space Museum

Smithsonian Institution

Rocket Builders and Engineers, 1920-1940

Robert Goddard only one of the dreamers to make significant contributions to rocketry—1st liquid-fuel rocket launch 3/16/1926—but isolated

Wernher von Braun—Germany Sergei Korolev—USSR The Caltech team/origins of JPL—USA

First Steps into Space V-2 as a sounding rocket

and the origins of space science; V-2 derivatives in the USSR

Development of sounding rockets by JPL and others (WAC Corporal/Aerobee)

Cold War context: how much would have been spent otherwise?

Space promotion: Collier’s, Disney.

Eisenhower’s Measured Space Program

ICBM Development as a Crash Effort

Satellite Reconnaissance a Crash Effort

Limited Scientific Activities under NAS

IGY Satellite Effort Between 1953-1957 spent

$11.8 billion on space R&D ($58 billion in 1997 dollars). Projected costs through FY63 was 36.1 billion

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A Model for Space Exploration

Human Earth orbital flights Winged reusable spacecraft Permanently inhabited space station Human lunar exploration Human expeditions to Mars

The Sputnik Crisis Friday, 4 October 1957,

Sputnik 1, launched at Soviet Union's rocket testing facility near Tyuratam in the Kazakh Republic

Sputnik 1: 22-inch aluminum sphere, four trailing spring-loaded whip antennae, weight of 183 pounds, elliptical Earth orbit every 96 minutes

Small radio beacon provided telemetry to verify exact locations on Earth

Korolev’s Giant: the R-7 World’s first ICBM,

launched 1957 four liquid boosters

“stage-and-a-half “ Sputnik 1957 With upper stage:

Luna, Vostok, Voshkod, Soyuz

In various versions still in use today as 1st stage

Launching NASA National Aeronautics and

Space Act of 1958, signed into law July 29, 1958

NASA began operating October 1, 1958

Incorporated NACA, several DOD space assets JPL (Army) MSFC (Army) KSC (Army) GSFC (Naval Research

Lab)

Gagarin’s Flight

An Engaging Hero

Many Myths of Gagarin’s Flight Gagarin flew because of

his solid worker origins. Gagarin was only a

medical test subject. Gagarin not the first

cosmonaut in space. Gagarin’s flight was not

announced until landing. Gagarin’s plane crash in

1968 was an assassination ordered by Kremlin.

Bay of Pigs Invasion

JFK’s Decision-making Process

“Do we have a chance of beating the Soviets by putting a laboratory in space, or by a trip around the moon, or by a rocket to go to the moon and back with a man? Is there any other space program that promises dramatic results in which we could win?”—JFK to LBJ, April 20, 1961.

The Decision to Go to the Moon Project Apollo was a result of

Cold War rivalry. JFK Speech, May 25, 1961. “I believe this Nation should

commitment itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.”

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1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972

Public Support for Apollo

Apollo Worth Cost

Approve of Apollo

Spending Too Much on Space

JFK’s Reconsideration JFK met Soviet Premier

Nikita Khrushchev at Vienna summit, Jun. 4-5, 1961.

JFK approached Khrushchev on space exploration “joint venture.”

Khrushchev countered that such decisions should be linked to nuclear disarmament actions.

“I’m not that interested in space” “Now, this may not change anything about that

schedule, but at least we ought to be clear, otherwise we shouldn’t be spending this kind of money because I’m not that interested in space. I think it’s good; I think we ought to know about it; we’re ready to spend reasonable amounts of money. But we’re talking about these fantastic expenditures which wreck our budget and all these other domestic programs and the only justification for it, in my opinion, to do it in this time or fashion, is because we hope to beat them and demonstrate that starting behind, as we did by a couple years, by God, we passed them—JFK, Nov. 20, 1962

A Great Communicator

JFK to UN, Sep. 20, 1963 “Finally, in a field where the United States and the Soviet

Union have a special capacity—in the field of space—there is room for new cooperation, for further joint efforts in the regulation and exploration of space. I include among these possibilities a joint expedition to the moon….Why, therefore, should man's first flight to the moon be a matter of national competition? Why should the United States and the Soviet Union, in preparing for such expeditions, become involved in immense duplications of research, construction, and expenditure? Surely we should explore whether the scientists and astronauts of our two countries--indeed of all the world--cannot work together in the conquest of space, sending someday in this decade to the moon not the representatives of a single nation, but the representatives of all of our countries.”

AssassinationJFK Assassination,

Nov. 22, 1963, solidified support for Apollo.

NASA officials used POTUS death as argument to continue support.

Cooperative venture lost in aftermath.

Culmination of Apollo$25.4 billion cost.Six successful

landings, 1969-1972.Three circumlunar

flights (Apollo 8, 10, 13).

Technological advance pathbreaking.

Scientific return astounding.