CliffyWorld

If an American happened to be gazing at the stars on Friday, October 4, 1957 they may have noticed an object crossing the evening sky. Radio listeners, too, may have heard a series of “beep, beep, beep” sounds coming from their radios. A momentous event had occurred in the region of the Soviet Union known as Kazakhstan-the Soviets had launched an artificial satellite into orbit around the earth. The satellite named Sputnik, Russian for “traveling companion,” transmitted the beeping sounds as it followed its orbit around the globe. Rather than celebrating this momentous scientific feat, Americans reacted with a great deal of fear. The event came at a period near the end of the McCarthy communist “witch hunts,” a time when schoolchildren were involved in “Duck and Cover” air raid drills, and citizens were encouraged to build their own civil defense shelters. It was widely believed that if the Soviets could launch a satellite into space, they probably could launch nuclear missiles capable of reaching U.S. shores.

Moments after John F. Kennedy was sworn in as president of the United States, he presented a speech that moved most of America. Even today, those that hear a re-play of his inauguration speech feel the same excitement that filled the air on that day in 1961. President Kennedy was an eloquent speaker who appealed to the younger generation of the United States. He wanted to develop a program that would send Americans to the moon first. "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth."

The Kennedy administration began to push the race to the moon as a result of two main factors. First, the Soviet Yuri Gagarin's orbital flight that encircled the earth. This took place on April 12, 1961. The other factor that helped initiate the race to the moon was the belief of a missile gap between the United States and Russia. The communists seemed to be taking the lead in space. Two great powers became entangled in a struggle to prove which one was the superior. This struggle was not only between technologies, but also between democracy and communism.

The Mercury Seven was the group of seven Mercury astronauts picked by National Aeronautics and Space Administration in April 1959. Pilots, Test Pilots, Naval and Air Force officers, War heros, Aeronautical Engineers. Their popularity drew Hollywood into creating the movie "The Right Stuff (1988) Biographing:
Malcolm Scott Carpenter (Mercury-Atlas 7)
Leroy Gordon Cooper (Mercury-Atlas 9, Gemini 5)
John H. Glenn Jr. (Mercury-Atlas 6, STS-95)
Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom (Mercury-Redstone 4, Gemini 3, Apollo 1)
Walter M. "Wally" Schirra (Mercury-Atlas 8, Gemini 6A, Apollo 7)
Alan B. Shepard (Mercury-Redstone 3, Apollo 14)
Donald K. "Deke" Slayton (Apollo-Soyuz Test Project)

Back in the early sixties I remember getting up extra early before I had to leave for school to watch the only newscaster who could report on a rocket launch, Walter Cronkite. So good was his reporting, Nasa awarded him a piece of moon rock. According to NASA’s February 16,2006 press release, the award was explicitly attributed to Cronkite “for his coverage of America’s space program”, and adds that he “is the best remembered journalist for his commentary and enthusiastic coverage of the historic progression of missions from the early Mercury launches, through the ground-breaking Gemini missions, to the Apollo 11 and subsequent moon landings.” Continues the NASA citation: “His marathon, live coverage of the first moon landing brought the excitement and impact of the historic event into the homes of millions of Americans and observers around the world.”

Today the space shuttle Endeavour took off at 0628GMT. There was very little coverage on TV and a small blurb on Google News. As this article is posted many people still don't know about the launch, it's mission and it crew. There seems to be little excitement or promotion for the space program. Most people couldn't even identify the name or the year of the Columbia tragedy occuring on February 1, 2004.

Beginning in late 2005, Dittmar Associates, a marketing research firm based in Houston, focused on space exploration and its perception by Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 years. The results found that young Americans are generally disengaged and cynical about the human spaceflight aspects of the U.S. civil space program. Most important concerns are jobs, the war, and relationships; space ranks near the bottom of the list of personal priorities. Maybe we should hand the space program off to the the producers of American Idol and have Ryan Seacrest host the launches.

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