Hidden Figures - Margot Lee Shetterly

little too far out to warrant systematic
consideration and development. The
Rand report gathered dust.
Now, with Sputnik circling overhead
every ninety-eight minutes, Americans
demanded to know how their country, so
dominant in its victory in the last war,
could have been surprised and usurped
by a “backward peasantry” like the
USSR. Panic spread from coast to coast:
was it possible that the satellite was
mapping the United States, with the intent
of locking down targets for missiledelivered
hydrogen bombs? Fear battled
humiliation in the American psyche.
“First in space means first, period,”
declared Senate Majority Leader Lyndon
Johnson. “Second in space is second in
everything.” Could Sputnik signal the end
of the country’s global political