How NASA was born 60 years ago from the panic of a "second moon"

The origins of the National Aeronautics and Space Authority go back to the Wright brothers, but the real story happens in less than a year.

This very brief period in the 1950s and the birth of an iconic space agency involves an explosive and embarrassing failure, a "second moon," a canine astronaut and a woman you've never heard of speak.

Sixty years ago, on July 29, 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Law on Aeronautics and Space, paving the way for the official opening of the gates of NASA a few months later, on October 1st. 19659004] The desire to create an American civil space agency began with the shocking revelation of October 4, 1957, that the Soviet Union had defeated the United States and launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, aboard. an intercontinental ballistic missile. The USSR was not reluctant to extol its success by launching the "second moon" of the Earth.

"Sputnik 1 was a phenomenon: you could go see it in your garden," recalls Guy Stever, physicist and engineer at the MIT faculty. at the time, in a 1992 oral history workshop on the origins of the law.

It was the first stages of the Cold War and, suddenly, a demonstration of Soviet technical ability was competing with the premiere of Leave it to Beaver for evening viewing. But it was not only the symbolism of the success of the USSR that raised the concern of the Americans, it was the military implications.

"I remember one of us saying that it was not the satellite that was bothering us, it was what was happening up there," he said. said Gerald Siegel, director of the Senate special committee for space and astronautics. in 1958. "Because if you can achieve a missile launch of this magnitude, you can launch a thermonuclear bomb very easily," he added at the 1992 workshop.

This fear only made to intensify when Sputnik II, bigger and heavier, was launched a month later with a dog named Laika.

"Even the first Sputnik weighed almost nine times more than the one we planned to put in place, so there was a sense of excitement and crisis," recalls Glen Wilson, also a staff member. Senate at the time. oral history project.

Insult was added to the injury when the US attempt to launch its own satellite, Vanguard TV-3, failed with a spectacular explosion that was broadcast live to the world on December 6, 1957.

At this Eisenhower had already made his first public statements calling for a civilian space agency and the cause was taken up by the ambitious Democratic Senator from Texas, Lyndon Johnson, who was known for his mastery of the legislative process and would become himself President five years later.

A few weeks after the launch of Sputnik II, the Agency for Advanced Research Projects was created within the Department of Defense to try to respond quickly to Soviet success. ARPA would continue to lay the foundation of the Internet and become what DARPA is today.

But the need for a civilian space agency became apparent to many in Washington, ultimately including Eisenhower.

"How much benefit has there been in space?", Says Eilene Galloway, Johnson's senior national security consultant in 1958, nicknamed the "great matriarch of the right to l & # 39; space. " "Especially communications, meteorology and navigation, we could not do all these things in the law to the Ministry of Defense, we had to create a civilian agency."

While some were obsessed with the military benefits to be gained in space, the scientific benefits of space exploration became evident with the first successful US launch of Explorer 1 on January 31, 1958. The data collected during this launch led to the discovery of Van Allen's radiation belts of the Earth.

"Outer space could be used for peaceful purposes," Galloway added in the 2006 interview below. "We then saw that instead of fear of war, we could be motivated by the hope of peace."

Less than a week after the announcement of the discovery of the Van Allen Belt, Johnson opened a hearing of the Senate Committee on NASA's Bill:

"L & # 39; Space affects us all and everything we do.We will succeed or fail with respect to our national success to incorporate the exploration and use of space in all aspects of our society and the enrichment of all phases of our life on this earth. "

The first line of the law makes it clear that NASA would serve the vision of peaceful space exploration as Galloway and others The author:

"The Congress hereby declares that the policy of the United States is space should be devoted to peaceful purposes for the benefit of all mankind."

The final version of the law was signed by Eisenhower on July 29, ordering the Committee National Advisory Council for Aeronautics (NACA, started during the First World War in 1915) and its facilities in Ohio, Virginia and California become the base of NASA. a few months later.

Decades later, NASA remains a beacon of peaceful international collaboration, even among rival nations.

"When we walked on the moon, which first congratulated us, the Soviet Union congratulated us," said NASA 's current administrator, Jim Bridenstine, at the same time. an event celebrating NASA's 60th anniversary. "Even today … we have American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts who depend on each other in the International Space Station."

The signing of the act creating NASA in 1958 was just the beginning of a remarkable journey that continues today. This fall, as NASA officially celebrates its 60th anniversary on Oct. 1, we will be back on much of this story and look forward to the next stops on NASA's space-time route.

Stay tuned and keep looking to the sky.

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