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| John Glen getting into the hatch of his space capsule |
Mom and I grew up from the beginning of the space age. It started with military missiles and in 1957, in the middle of the cold war, the Soviet Union launched the first satellite, Sputnik. Although the US followed with our own satellite, four months later, there was real national concern about the Soviets being ahead. Then in April 1961, 50 years ago, the Soviets beat us again to launch the first person to orbit the earth. The US did not achieve an orbital launch until almost a year later on February 20th, 1962, when John Glen was sent into orbit for 3 trips around the world.
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| Mercury rocket launch |
The cold war was really a concern to everyone. We really did have drills in school where we crawled under our desks. And, people really did build fallout shelters in their backyard, although not as elaborate as Blast from the Past.
The US was so petrified that the Soviets were ahead, that on 25 May, 1961, to counter the Soviet lead in the space race, President Kennedy announced his support for the Apollo moon program and redefined the ultimate goal of the space race with the famous quote, "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth." This goal held up because the cold war really was threatening and this was seen as pivotal in that war.
More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_race
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