Rene-NASA-Mooned-America

Nasa's History & Politics / Chap. 4 p. 25
And its authors Young, Silcock, and Dunn wrote these words.
"Long before the satellite got off the ground, it became the object of political and
military wrangles of the most virulent kind. When it finally reached its destination, it was no
longer a triumph of science. It had been transformed from a box of technical tricks into the
obsessive tool of cold-war politicians. There could have been no apter beginning to the real
history of America's great space adventure." 4
Immediately after Sputnik we were playing a losing game. We could orbit a tiny, tinned
toy and they would answer with a big, heavy, mean machine. They had Cummins diesels and
we had Volkswagens. Our Mercury Program popped Alan Shepard up in ballistic flight for
all of 15 minutes. We hailed this, even though we could not achieve a true orbit. Their
cosmonauts were breathing air at normal atmospheric pressure (14.7 psi), but ours were
forced to use 100 percent oxygen at 5 psi. A shell strong enough to hold normal pressure in
space was much heavier than our rockets could then lift.
The hysteria caused by Sputnik destroyed the logical developmental course we should
have followed in attempting to reach the Moon. In his book, Angle of Attack, Mike Gray,
writes how we should have flown "the X-15 to the edge of space; then build an 'X-16' that
would fly into orbit; then an 'X-17' - a space shuttle - that would carry cargo; use the shuttle
to build an orbiting space station; and then, say about 1985, depart from there on an
expedition to the moon." 5
In due time our second astronaut, Virgil Grissom, spent 16 minutes in ballistic flight. But
two weeks after that the Russians upped the ante by putting a cosmonaut in orbit for over 25
hours. Six months later John Glenn finally boosted into orbit, into fame, and eventually into
politics, by staying up for almost five hours. Three months after that Scott Carpenter
duplicated, almost to the minute, Glenn's ride.
Two months later, on August 11 and August 12, 1962, the Russians really played hardball
by sending up two cosmonauts in two separate birds. They also had the nerve to add a lot of
insult to our injury by staying up for 94 hours and 71 hours respectively. Plus another first
- they made a rendezvous with each other!
Things were quiet for a while, and then on May 15, 1963 we orbited for over 34 hours. A
month later the Russians played "one-upmenship" and within two days sent up another two
birds. The first one stayed up 119 hours, and the second carried the first woman into space,
Valentina V. Tereshkova, who orbited for 71 hours.
Then rub-a-dub-dub the Soviets sent up three men in a big, big tub. Six months later we
got two men up in our own washtub with the first shot of the Gemini Program. But we
finally had the bit in our teeth. We were going to win that space race no matter who it killed
or how much the cost.
The decision to go to the Moon was not made by President Kennedy but by NASA itself.
A man named George M. Low pressured an internal NASA committee into accepting that
goal. 6 It was the tail wagging the dog that day when NASA set its own agenda to start the
Apollo Program. Nothing has changed since!
NASA MOONED AMERICA! / Rene