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https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19980003950 2017-12-03T02:45:01+00:00Z -_/-/-..., NA S A_/T M- 113448 Reconsidering Sputnik: Forty Years Since the Soviet Satellite S. Dillon Ripley Center Auditorium Smithsonian Institution 1100 Jefferson Drive S.W. Washington, D.C. September 30 - October 1, 1997 NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters Office of Policy and Plans National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution Space Policy Institute, The George Washington University Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies, Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars On October 4, 1957 the Soviet Union lofted the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, into Earth orbit. This 184-pound, basketball-sized sphere ushered in the era of the space race. At the height of the Cold War and several months into the International Geophysical Year, the Soviet Union had beaten the United States into space, a symbolically significant achievement. In the immediate aftermath, the American public was greatly distressed and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was created within a year. The real significance of the Sputnik I launch can be seen over the long term, however, as the race for human exploration of the Moon began in the early 1960s, global satellite communications became a reality, and new generations of scientific spacecraft began exploring the universe. The NASA Office of Policy and Plans/History Office, the National Air and Space Museum, the George Washington University Space Policy Institute, and the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies are proud to sponsor a symposium on the impact of Sputnik. Separate panels will address Soviet and American activities prior to Sputnik, immediate ramifications of the launch in the United States and around the world, and some of the long-term consequences. The symposium will take place in the auditorium of the S. Dillon Ripley Center of the Smithsonian Institution at 1000 Jefferson Drive SW, Washington, DC. Attendance at the symposium is open to the public, but seating is limited so early registration is strongly encouraged. There is a $30 registration fee for breakfast, lunch, and refreshments. AGENDA Tuesday, September 30 9:00 a.m. Welcome, Announcements, and Introduction by Alan M. Ladwig, NASA Associate Administrator for Policy and Plans; Roger D. Launius, NASA Chief Historian; and John M. Logsdon, Director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University 9:15 a.m. Keynote Speech: "Was Sputnik Really a Saltation?" by Walter A. McDougall, Professor of I-Iistory and International Relations, University of Pennsylvania 9:45 a.m. The Soviet Union and Sputnik Chair: Marcia S. Smith, Science Policy Research Division, Congressional Research Service "Rising from the Cradle: Soviet Public Perceptions of Spaceflight Before Sputnik," by Peter A. Gorin "Korolev, Sputnik, and the International Geophysical Year," by AsifA. Siddiqi, Department of History, Carnegie Mellon University "Korolev's Triple Play: Sputniks 1, 2, and 3" by James J. Harford, Executive Director Emeritus, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics "State Program, Bureaucratic Entrepreneurship, or Scientific Autonomy? Policymaking Processes and Structures Behind the Launch of Sputnik" by Andrew J. Aldrin, TRW Components International and Department of Politicai Science, California State University at Long Beach 11:00 a.m. Break 11:15 a.m. Space and the International Geophysical Year Chair: Derek Elliott, Department of History, Geography, and Political Science, Tennessee State University "Before Sputnik: National Security and the Formation of U.S. Outer Space Policy, 1953-1957," by Kenneth A. Osgood, Department of History, University of California at Santa Barbara "A Strategy for Space," by Dwayne A. Day, Guggenheim Fellow, National Air and Space Museum "Sputnik and the IGY," by Rip Bulkeley, Oxford, England 12:30 p.m. Lunch (catered box) 1:30p.m.Immediate Ramifications of Sputnik in the United States Chair: John M. Logsdon, Director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University "Sputnik, the Gaither Committee, and the Escalation of the Cold War," by David L. Snead, Richmond, VA "Organizing the U.S. Government for Outer Space: 1957-1958," by Eilene Galloway, Honorary Director, International Institute of Space Law and Trustee Emeritus, International Academy of Astronautics "Sputnik: APolitical Symbol and Tool in 1960 Campaign Politics," by Gretchen J. Van Dyke, Department of Political Science, University of Scranton "Opening the Space Age: A Legacy of the International Geophysical Year," by J.A. Simpson, Enrico Fermi Institute and Department of Physics, University of Chicago 3:00 p.m. Break 3:15 p.m. Immediate Ramifications of Sputnik - International Perspectives Chair: Steven J. Dick, U.S. Naval Observatory "Building a Third Space Power: Western European Reactions to Sputnik at the Dawn of the Space Age," by John Ka-ige, Director, Centre de Recherche en I-Iistoire des Sciences et des Techniques, Pads "Sputnik and France: A 'Mission to Civilize?'," by Guillaume de Syon, History Department, Albright College "The Impact of Sputnik on American Foreign Policy," by Lawrence S. Kaplan, Director Emeritus, Lemnitzer Center for NATO and European Community Studies, Kent State University 4:30 p.m. General Discussion 5:00 p.m. Adjourn Wednesday, October I 7:45 am Breakfast at National Air and Space Museum 9:00 a.m. Welcome and Announcements by Roger D. Launius, NASA ChiefI-Iistorian, and Blair D. Ruble, Director, Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies, Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars 9:15 a.m. Keynote Address: "The Long Term Consequences of the Soviet Union's Investment in Space Exploration," by Sergei Khrushchev, Watson Institute, Brown University 9:45 a.m. Long-term Consequences of Sputnik: Chair: Robert W. Smith, Chair, Space History Department, National Air and Space Museum "Reflections on Sputnik," by Roald Sagdeev, East-West Space Science Center, University of Maryland "Artifacts or Facts?: Soviet Space Historiography in the Last Forty Years," by Cathleen S. Lewis, Department of Space History, National Air and Space Museum Break "Sputnik and the Creation of the Soviet Space Industry," by William P. Barry, Department of Political Science, U.S. Air Force Academy "A Certain Future: American Higher Education and the Survival of a Nation," by John A. Douglass, University California at Santa Barbara and Berkeley Center for Studies in Higher Education "Sputnik and Technological Surprise," by Glenn P. Hastedt, Department of Political Science, James Madison University 12:00 p.m. Adjourn PETER A. GORIN 120-F Waller Mill Road #202, Williamsburg, Virginia 23185 Phone/Fax: 1-757-253-1074 E-mail: [email protected] History Symposium Reconsidering Sputnik: Forty Years Since the Soviet Satellite Paper Proposal March 25, 1997 The Earth is a cradle of human intellect. but one cannot live in a cradle forever... Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky RISING FROM A CRADLE... Soviet Public Perception of Spaceflight Before Sputnik The paper is intended to describe Russian/Soviet public perception of spaceflight in the first half of the 20th century, prior to the launch of the first satellite (1900 - 1957). The purpose of this research is to show that despite the secrecy around Soviet rocket program the public in the USSR was prepared to understand and accept the beginning of the space era. The paper will address the following subjects: • Early proponents of a spaceflight ideas in Russia and the USSR; • Descriptions of future space explorations in Russian/Soviet popular science and science fiction literature; • Knowledge and response of the general public to a possibility of a spaceflight; • Public spaceflight societies in the USSR; • Political exploitation of the spaceflight idea in the 1920s - 1950s. The author will deliberately avoid detailed description of professional rocket research organizations: GDL, MosGIRD and RNII. Although those organizations in many respects created a scientific foundation for the rocket technology in the USSR, their work is more or less known today in the West. They also worked in secrecy, thus having only a marginal impact on a public opinion. Instead, the author will concentrate on activities of the early spaceflight proponents who appealed directly to the public. Apart from the works of the spaceflight pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the paper will provide short accounts on activities of iesser-k_aown Soviet scientists mad writers, such as: Yuri Kondratiuk, Friedreich Tsander, Yakov Perelman, Ari Schternfeld, Nikolay Rynin, Alexander Beliyaev and others. It will show how popular science and science fiction literature deeply influenced public awareness of a possibility of a spaceflight. The author will describe and demonstrate samples of such literature of the 1930s - 1950s. The paper also intend to analyze the origin and trends of how Soviet political leadership exploited spaceflight idea for political propaganda purposes. It will be shown in the paper, that such political exploitation did not start with a launch of Sputnik but goes back to the 1920s. In author's opinion, the research subject of this proposed paper is new for the US public and historians alike. The paper will be based mostly on Russian original materials. The author intends to illustrate his presentation by view-graphs with rare images of how Soviet scientists envisaged space activities before the launch of Sputnik. REPRODUCED AT GOVT. EXPENSE AsifA. Siddiqi © 1997 1 Korolev, Sputnik, and The International