metalman wrote:
The Soviets got to spend a few years exulting in the “missile gap.” and demonstrating showy space firsts, the US quietly built a mlitary space-based reconnaissance system to monitor the Soviets.
I despise this rewriting of history to make the US look good on all occasions. The truth is: the Russians beat you, and beat you hard. End of story.
The pride of the US arsenal, Vanguard, crashed and burned on nearly every occasion, and IIRC, was pre-empted by another make of rocket to launch Explorer-1 before it was finally succesful. I find it extremely bad taste that the Russian firsts in space are called 'showy', when they in fact
were firsts, and ones to be justly proud of given the state of technology in those days: first satellite in orbit, first living animal in orbit, first living human in genuine orbit (Alan Shepard just made a big jump, whereas Yuri Gagarin travelled around the world), first woman in orbit (Valentina Tjereskova), first pictures of the far side of the Moon, first lunar landing with succesful deployment of a robotic vehicle, first succesful landing on Venus. In addition, the Russians could handle much heavier payloads, and if it weren't for the genius of Werner von Braun---an ex-Nazi, adding insult to injury---the US would never have gotten its Apollos off the ground.
My, how it must
gall any proud American citizen living in the past that these 'showy space firsts' were not theirs. The only 'showy space firsts' the US have to show for themselves at the time were the discovery of the Van Allen-belts, the first communication sattelite, the first succesful landing on Mars, and the Apollo-project. Quite surprisingly, despite its breathtaking audacity the latter was nothing short of a major and extremely expensive PR stunt to claw back prestige lost to the Russians---in other words, the showiest space first of all was orchestrated by the Americans.
But if it's any consolation: don't worry, you are once again firmly in the lead with space technology. (However, a certain thick-headed president who shall remain nameless sees fit to launch a major showy PR offensive by pouring billions of dollars into a project aiming to get people to walk on Mars. That the radiation and lack of gravity will surely kill them, and the isolation lasting over 3 years will test human physiology and psychology to breaking point, is apparently of no concern.)
