America Fears When The Soviets Launch The World's First Satellite, Sputnik

JAKARTA - With one big step, the Soviet Union not only succeeded in launching its first artificial satellite, Sputnik. But at the same time starting a space technology race with the United States (US). In addition, some Americans considered this Soviet achievement a threat.

Sputnik first glided into space right today, October 4, more than half a century ago or in 1957. Citing Space , the achievement surprised the US public who was feeling technological superiority in the midst of the post-World War II economic boom. The launch of a beach ball-sized satellite into Earth's orbit at the same time brought a scourge to US citizens.

"The Americans were afraid that the Soviets - which they believed were behind the US technologically - could launch ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads at the US," wrote NASA on the 60th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik in 2017. The two countries were then locked in a competition for foreign domination. space.

After the great war, the Soviets and the US had indeed started the development of satellites. According to Russian space expert Anatoly Zak who wrote on the Russian Space Web site, the emergence of the satellite project was motivated by the cold war that started from the late 1940s to the late 1980s.

In developing their rocket program, the two countries received assistance from German engineers. Because as we know during World War II, Germany had developed a ballistic missile that was used to launch attacks on London.

After the war ended, the two countries gathered these rocket scientists. Some of the famous German scientists in the US, namely Wernher Von Braun. He later became chief architect of the Saturn V rocket that sent the Apollo astronauts to the moon between 1968 and 1972.

Satellite project race

In the USSR, the first rocket-building attempts were made under the leadership of Mikhail Tikhonravov. He is the deputy head of the secret research institute NII-4 in Moscow. The agency was specially formed to work on the Soviet satellite project.

Tikhonravov's efforts caught the attention of Sergei Korolev, a well-known Soviet rocket designer who was working on the R-3 rocket. Korolev, Tikhonravov and team continued development into the early 1950s.

Then in 1953, longtime Soviet leader Joseph Stalin died. And when Stalin was replaced by Nikita Khruschev, the Soviets ramped up the space project. The Soviets really wanted to show off to the US for its superiority in the aerospace field.

The Soviet Academy of Sciences and several Soviet ministers officially approved the satellite program in 1954, laying the groundwork for a more focused development. The Soviet satellite project was accelerated even more when US President Eisenhower announced in 1955 that America would send a satellite into space in the near future.

The Sputnik project was officially approved by the Soviets on January 30, 1956, also receiving Khruschev's personal approval a few weeks later. The Soviets continued to refine their designs for launch on the R-7 rocket. And a year later Sputnik was launched successfully.

Meanwhile in the US development of satellites began in 1945. At that time the Naval Aeronautics Bureau began working on a satellite design to deliver higher scientific hardware.

A year later the RAND Corporation (under a commission from the Air Force) began research on the "World Circle Space Ship" which could carry satellites into space in early 1951. But the US government was initially a little pessimistic about such projects because they had become complacent. over air power and nuclear power felt in the Cold War with the Soviets.