President Dwight Eisenhower and others with access to classified information were aware that the "missile gap" was not as large as the public, encouraged by the media and by his political opponents, believed. But the Soviets had attained the high ground for propaganda purposes if not in a military sense. There was a public outcry accompanied by consternation in Congress. When was United States going to catch up?
Actually, America could have gotten into orbit first if priority had been placed on doing so during the preceding years. A team of German scientists under the leadership of Wernher von Braun had willingly surrendered to American forces at the end of World War II, and had been brought to the United States to continue the rocket work they had been forced to do by the Nazis. Although these men's real interest had always been in space flight rather than in military applications, even in America the funding for their work had come from military sources. By 1956 they had perfected the Jupiter-C Redstone rocket and were eager to use it to launch a small satellite.
This is a free page. This page contains 177 words. This
article contains 2,158 words (approx. 7 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Article with our Space Race Access Pass.
