Birth of the Space Race

In April 1961 a twenty-seven year old Russian Cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, flew the space craft Vostock 1 once around the world in 108 minutes, becoming the first human to fly in outer space. This Russian success drove American President John F. Kennedy to initiate project Apollo, probably the greatest worldwide technological advancement of the twentieth century. In September 1962 at Rice University, President Kennedy made the case for the dangers and cost of the space race. This was just a month before the Cuban missile crisis gripped the world. In a memorable speech President Kennedy declared the necessity of entering space in order to preserve it from international conflict. He spoke of the importance of the lunar adventure as a challenge to the nation.

For Buzz Aldrin the story of NASA is essentially a narrative of true inspiration. He feels that NASA achieved many practical things and raised issues concerning global warming, weather awareness, topography and forestation. NASA really began in response to the practicalities of the Cold War; it was conceived in the Cold War in order to win the space race with the USSR. The ambition of NASA was to land a man on the moon and fly the Stars and Stripes on a new United State of America. Without NASA, we would not have the spectacular photographs of our Blue Planet Earth seen in darkest deep space.

The history of NASA starts in the 1920s at the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, Hampton, Virginia. It was only a few years earlier that Wilbur and Orville Wright conducted flight research on their glider design in October 1902 at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. In the 1920s frustrated Langley technicians turned to actual test flight vehicles. They decided to ask the Langley pilots to conduct a risky series of flights. Using the fast and front line American fighter aircraft of the day - the P-51 Mustang - the flyers risked their lives as they sent the aircraft into steep dives again and again in order to attain the maximum air speed. The resulting data convinced Langley scientists of the need for custom made ‘research aircraft’ capable of penetrating the so-called sound barrier.

Founded in the middle of World War II, the Aeronautical Engine Research Laboratory undertook a broad range of research, from turbines to nuclear and hydrogen propulsion, for aircraft and rockets. In 1946, at the end of the War, General Dwight D Eisenhower spoke at the Aircraft Engine Laboratory in Ohio. Later, as President, he would go on to support advanced research and development for aerial reconnaissance, ballistic missiles and space-based overflight. He understood that under the conditions of intense rivalry with the USSR, aeronautics represented a powerful instrument of national policy.

Nine Chains to the Moon

The Great American inventor R Buckminster Fuller once said that if the human race formed nine chains it could reach the moon. In 1962 at last, John Glenn became the first American to form the first chain and attempted to circumnavigate the world from space. Friendship 7 left Cape Canaveral aboard the Atlas Rocket, but encountered two frightening events. First, Glenn needed to take the controls from a malfunctioning autopilot on two of the three orbits. Then, during re-entry, a faulty switch indicated a loose heat shield. Partly because he surmounted these difficulties, Glenn returned to a degree of adulation unseen since Charles Lindbergh’s epic transatlantic flight almost four decades earlier. Mercury evolved rapidly during the succeeding missions and by the final voyage, in May 1963; Gordon Cooper made twenty-two revolutions around the earth over a period of twenty-two hours.

No one could say what chance the nation stood of realising John F. Kennedy’s goal. Sadly, the President did not live to see the attempt; he was cruelly assassinated on November 22 1963 during a visit to Dallas, Texas. If anything his death added momentum to the project.

The planners of the great Moon project selected a name from the pages of mythology. They chose Apollo, who (as the son of the great god Zeus) stood at the apex of the religious Ziggurat, representing the Sun, music, poetry, prophecy and agriculture to the ancients.

On July 16^th 1969 - not long before President Kennedy’s almost unattainable goal lost out to the clock - Apollo II launched from Kennedy Space Centre, but after a perfect flight, serious problems materialised. As the lunar module Eagle descended toward the moon pilot Neil Armstrong had to cope with two unsettling events. First, the on- board computer indicated that it had become overloaded with commands. Second, and worse, as the chosen landing site in the Sea of Tranquillity came into view, Armstrong found to his dismay a large crater in an area expected to be flat. He decided to take control of Eagle from the computer and search for a suitable landing site. The lunar module had approximately thirty seconds of propellant remaining in the descent fuel tank, leaving very little time for manoeuvre.

Neil Armstrong then took the celebrated “one small step for mankind” along with fellow astronaut Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin; together they climbed down the lunar module’s ladder onto the dusty ageless surface of the moon. With about five months to spare, Americans had succeeded in fulfilling the seemingly impossible objective of President J F. Kennedy. But, as Hugh Dryden, also so instrumental in this astonishing feat, once observed, “The real value of space exploration occurs not in space, but on earth itself.”

Heroes of Challenger

Sadly the space race has not always been without misfortune. On January 22, 1986, in a dreadful period of fifty-nine seconds, the solid booster of the rocket Challenger was engulfed in flames. In a further six seconds the solid booster’s frame would break through the external tank’s skin, causing the immense structure to collapse and fail. At this point, the full horror of events dawned on the viewers at Kennedy and all those watching on television. Seven Challenger astronauts died including two women.

NASA the Complete Illustrated History concludes with an excellent timeline, charting the space race also featuring The Hubble Space Telescope, International Space Station, Orbiter Columbia and the most recent Mars Rovers to The Red Planet. As Buzz Aldrin says “In my judgement, the survival of humans on the surface of Mars is one of the noblest things earthlings could ever witness.”

NASA: the Complete Illustrated History is a wonderful publication, dealing with probably the greatest historical period of technological development in the human race. The book should be of interest to technologists, designers and cultural historians of the twentieth century. It should be on the shelves of all science, design and technology libraries.