Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email

2011 April 29 • Friday

Sputnik sent shockwaves through the United States and around the world, but it did not have to be that way. Rocket scientists on both sides of the Iron Curtain had hoped to launch an artificial satellite at some point during 1957 or 1958 as part of an internationally coordinated programme to study the earth and upper atmosphere. They also knew that the Soviet Union was capable of being the first. When the President of the US Naval Academy of Sciences sent a congratulatory letter to the head of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, calling Sputnik "a brilliant contribution to the furtherance of science for which scientists everywhere will be grateful", he was reflecting enthusiasm for what many saw as an international breakthrough, not a particular nation's chance to gloat. Even the Soviet propaganda machine seems to have played down its significance. Pravda's announcement of the launch was relatively mild, below the fold, and emphasized basic technical facts. Above the fold? An article titled "Preparation for Winter is an Urgent Task".

—Ethan Pollock, The Times Literary Supplement, April 15 2011