[October 4, 2015] Just 58 years ago today in 1957 the world entered the Space Age with the launch of the USSR satellite Sputnik 1. But the beginning of humankind’s curiosity about space dates back before recorded history; this being where any story of the new frontier of space begins. From Copernicus to von Braun, science led the thinking and ultimately the leadership that put together the vision and the resources to advance into space.
Vision is a defining feature of imagination and of leadership. Early writers had a special interest in the idea that humans (or aliens) could exist in outer space. Most people have heard of the adventures of Flash Gordon1 and Buck Rogers2. All of us as boys my age, and older, remember growing up listening to radio rebroadcasts of these two series. Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon in 1862 and H.G. Wells’ The First Men in the Moon in 1901 is were where Flash and Buck ideas originated. Our imaginations took off.
After a successful Sputnik 1, things changed for everyone. As a technical achievement Sputnik caught the world’s attention and the American public off-guard.3 In the United States there was fear of a nuclear attack on our home soil from a rocket carrying an atomic bomb. Sputnik’s launch ushered in the US-USSR space race. And, the U.S. Defense Department responded to the political furor by updating their plans for a U.S. satellite.
Sputnik’s launch led directly to the creation of a new U.S. agency called the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Its first administrator was Dr. T. Keith Glennan who used his education and leadership experience to pull together many separate government and military programs and with additional funding gave the U.S. a welcomed push into the space age.
Sputnik 1 was a much needed shot-in-the-arm for the world’s scientific community. Today, due to the humble beginnings of Sputnik, communication, research, navigational, and weather satellites populate the rim of our planet and provide much needed information to help humankind.4 Those advancing this are true leaders who can follow an age-old vision.
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- http://www.hardsf.org/HSF0Flas.htm
- http://www.hardsf.org/HSF0Buck.htm
- http://www.history.nasa.gov/sputnik/index.html
- http://ezinearticles.com/?Types-of-Satellites&id=408061