Earth's Fearful Travelling Companion

NATURE|Vol 449|4 October 2007 RUSSIAN SCIENCE BOOKS & ARTS … ALSO OUT NOW Space: The First 50 Years by Patrick Moore & H. J. P. Arnold A Ball, a Dog, and a Monkey: Mitchell Beazley 1957 — The Space Race Begins by Michael D’Antonio Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Simon & Schuster Engineer of War by Michael J. Neufeld Epic Rivalry: The Inside Story of Knopf the Soviet and American Space Race After Sputnik: 50 Years of the by Von Hardesty and Gene Space Age Eisman edited by Martin Collins BEAZLEY & SMITHSONIAN/HARPERCOLLINS MITCHELL National Geographic Smithsonian/HarperCollins FILM Earth’s fearful travelling companion The Fever of ‘57 food being tipped into the sea and the rich hav- test was conducted every three days, includ- directed by David Hoffman ing their pets professionally manicured. ing the largest H-bomb ever detonated above Available on DVD Political tensions heightened a month after ground. And both sides were developing civil Sputnik, when Laika the dog went into orbit in defence programmes. In the Shadow of the Moon a full-bodied spaceship. US news coverage, now Meanwhile, headlines were screaming ‘Sovi- directed by David Sington in colour, shows animal-lovers protesting. ets could claim the Moon’. In 1959 the USSR On general release Eisenhower was loath to seek help from launched three Moon probes. One missed, the army, fearing that military involvement another crash-landed on it (carrying a red flag, Giovanni F. Bignami would stimulate an arms race. The US Army they say); the third sent us the first, breathtak- “Beep-Beep! Beep-Beep! Around the Earth it rocket programme was led by Wernher von ing, image of the hidden side of the Moon. goes! Beep-Beep! Beep-Beep! And that’s how Braun, the designer of Germany’s V-2, which David Sington’s In the Shadow of the Moon science grows…” So warbles the long-forgotten had bombed London and other cities 15 years picks up where The Fever of ’57 leaves off. This Sputnik song over the end credits of The Fever earlier. Finally, von Braun’s rocket launched cinéma-vérité history of NASA’s Apollo prog- of ’57. This rigorous and affecting documen- the first US satellite, Explorer 1, on 31 January ramme splices remastered original footage and tary feature captures the US public’s wonder 1958. James Van Allen put Geiger counters in original interviews with ten Apollo astronauts, — and then fear — on discovering that the it and so discovered the radiation belts around presented by Ron Howard, director of the 1995 Soviets had launched an 83-kilogram film Apollo 13. metal sphere over the world. As in the 1983 movie The Right Stuff, Named in poetic Russian style, Sput- we learn what it took in the pioneer- nik zemli means ‘a travelling companion ing days of manned space missions to of the Earth’. Director David Hoffman become a NASA astronaut. “An unshak- uses rare archive footage, often from able belief in your own infallibility,” says private collectors, to recount the drama one interviewee. The astronauts were all INTL DIRECTIONS VARIED of the launch in the context of the esca- military pilots; more than one felt guilty lating cold war. He contrasts the awe of about training for glamour and fame the man on the street for the majestic while their comrades were dying in the technological achievement with the Vietnam War. political nightmare that began for the Notable for his absence is Neil Arm- Eisenhower administration, already strong. Shown here is the eerie speech by mired in civil-rights unrest. Soviet awe of Sputnik contrasted with US fear and political unrest. President Richard Nixon, recorded for Black-and-white images show worry use in the event that the one-shot ascent etched into President Dwight Eisenhower’s Earth that now carry his name. module motor failed to ignite, leaving Arm- usually reassuring face. His embarrassment in Soon afterwards, Eisenhower created NASA strong and Buzz Aldrin to die on the Moon. being unable to answer press-conference ques- as a civilian space agency. Reluctantly, von “We have yet to return to the Moon,” says tions calls to mind George W. Bush’s demean- Braun joined, developing the Saturn V rocket Sington at the end of his Sundance award- our on learning of the 9/11 attacks. Experts, that eventually brought man to the Moon. In winning mosaic. Today’s white manes and bald including Edward Teller, immediately grasped an extraordinary public-relations coup, Eisen- pates — yesterday’s young men — are the only the implications of getting cargo of this size hower plotted the Scope mission with the people to have hidden the whole Earth behind into orbit: international ballistic missiles. The nascent NASA in secret — not even Congress their thumb. NASA is working on “Apollo on United States, the proclaimed science capital of knew. The satellite bore his 1958 Christmas steroids”, with infinitely better technology than the world, was humiliated. message to the world. 40 years ago. The distance to the Moon, within Hoffman exhumes typical Khrushchev-era The US public was still worried. The Sovi- a few centimetres, remains the same. ■ propaganda — tastefully shot, with a few too ets were pushing farther into space. Both sides Giovanni F. Bignami is president of the Italian many Lenin portraits. Anti-American footage were developing nuclear weapons, as Eisen- Space Agency and is at the Institute for Advance contrasts US prisons and hungry queues with hower had predicted. During 1958, one nuclear Study, 27100 Pavia, Italy. 539.

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