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Fifty years ago, the USSR put a 23 inch, 184 pound satellite into orbit around the earth. It was the first manmade satellite from Earth—and it was Soviet, not American. On 3 November 1957, the USSR launched Sputnik 2, a 1,120 pound satellite carrying a dog named Laika. Sputnik 2 failed early in the mission and did not orbit for its hoped-for 10 days. On 6 December 1957, the US made its attempt to put a satellite in space—a six-inch diameter, three pound satellite sitting on top of a Vanguard rocket. It exploded after rising only four feet off the launching pad. But the success of Sputnik 1 and 2 and the failure of the Vanguard propelled America to master space—and it thereby transformed the world. A few facts:
- In January 1958 a Vanguard rocket placed an American satellite into orbit that discovered the Van Allen radiation belts that encircle the globe from pole to pole.
- In March 1958, the SU placed another grapefruit-sized satellite into orbit—and it is still there; the oldest satellite orbiting the planet.
- By Sputnik 1, the US was already working on a satellite program to replace theU-2 airplane for spy missions. As Peter Zimmerman has observed, “Since Sputnik 1 orbited over the US without objection, the right of satellites to pass peacefully was firmly established before the first military spacecraft was launched.” Therefore, the Corona spy satellite launched in August 1960 procured more photos of the USSR than all U-2 flights put together. The US now knew where every Russian missile was located.
- President Kennedy was determined to seize back the space initiative and declared that the US would place a man on the moon before the end of the 1960s, which the US did.
- After Sputnik 1, the US Congress passed the National Defense Education Act, which poured US money into funding the education of scientists and engineers. Zimmerman argues: “The young men and women who studied science during the post-Sputnik boom created our world.” There are now geostationary communications satellites that make intercontinental calls possible and cheap. There are weather satellites that make predictions of the weather cycles possible. The GPS system helps with directions and accuracy during travel. The Hubble Space Telescope and countless missions to Mars, other planets and asteroids, etc. are also the legacy of Sputnik.
Sputnik changed our world. That event in 1957 had unintended consequences that no one fifty years ago could have predicted. But that is the nature of technological change—and the nature of God’s common grace, which enabled humans to understand the science of astronomy, engineering and physics. Psalm 19 states that “the heavens declare the glory of God.” We now have a greater understanding of the majesty of that statement.
See Zimmerman’s helpful article in the Wall Street Journal (1 October 2007). |
