Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

Chapter 4
Imagining an aerospace agency
in the atomic age
robert r. MacGregor
Much has been written about the 184-pound satellite lofted into the
heavens by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957. the story is an
insidiously seductive one; it is the romantic narrative of a small metal ball
usurping the assumed technological authority of the United States. the frenzy
of the media and the swift political backlash seem almost comical in light of the
diminutive physical size of Sputnik.
the launch of Sputnik was one of the most disruptive singular events in
the history of the United States. 1 the temptation to label it a discontinuity
is strong. the year following the Sputnik launch saw the formation of the
advanced research projects agency (arpa), the creation of the new post of
Special assistant for Science and technology to the president and its associated
committee (pSaC), the transformation of the National advisory Committee
for aeronautics (NaCa) into NaSa, and the National Defense education act
(NDea). Walter a. McDougall in . . . the Heavens and the Earth: A Political History
of the Space Age traces the roots of technocracy in america to this “spark”:
Western governments came to embrace the model of statesupported,
perpetual technological revolution . . . What had
intervened to spark this saltation was Sputnik and the space
technological revolution . . . For in these years the fundamental
relationship between the government and the new
technology changed as never before in history. No longer did
state and society react to new tools and methods, adjusting,
regulating, or encouraging their spontaneous development.
rather, states took upon themselves the primary responsibility
for generating new technology. 2
1. For a good overview of the Western reaction to Sputnik see rip Bulkeley The Sputniks Crisis
and Early United States Space Policy: A Critique of the Historiography of Space (London: MacMillan
academic and professional Ltd., 1991).
2. Walter a. McDougall, . . . the Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age (Baltimore,
MD:the Johns hopkins University press, 1985), pp. 6-7.