basic sputnik

Ray Bradbury
USA
THE BASIC SPUTNIK
Ray Bradbury (Raimond Douglas Bradbury) is a world-renowned
author of science-fiction short stories, novels, screenplays, plays and
also poetry. He has published more than 600 short stories over a period
of sixty years.
He was born 1920, lives in Los-Angeles.
His best known works are The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated
Man, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and in its 50 th anniversary
year, Fahrenheit 451.
A new novel, Farewell Summer, which is the sequel to Dandelion
Wine, was published in October 2006. 2007 will see the release of a
double offering from Bradbury, Somewhere a Band is Playing and
Leviathan’99.
In 2001 The National Book Award was given to Bradbury for his
contribution to American literature and in 2004 he was awarded the
National Medal of Arts by President Bush and the National Endowment
for the Arts.
S.P. Korolev, I.V. Kurchatov, M.V. Keldysh, V.M. Mishin. Moscow, 1959
The first light
of immortality…
I was out in Palm Desert, California, at a friends
house the first night that Sputnik flew over in the sky. I looked up and thought that
the future of mankind was ensured. That little light that swiftly passed from one
direction to the other in the sky was the future of mankind because the Russians may
very well have been leading the way, but I knew that we soon would follow and that
we’d be ensured a place in the air and then on the Moon and finally on Mars. The
immortality of mankind was ensured by that light in the sky. We couldn’t stay on
Earth because some day the Earth might die from cold or too much heat. Mankind
was destined to become immortal and that light in the sky above me was the first light
of immortality.
I blessed the Russians for their endeavor and I looked forward to President Eisenhower
forming NASA shortly thereafter.
Participants of development of first intercontinental missile and AES-1.
Notions by G.Yu. Maximov
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