October 3, 1997, Hour 1: Sputnik

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Sputnik:
Forty years after the little beeping ball.

Forty years ago this Saturday, the Soviet Union stunned the world by launching Sputnik 1, the world's first artificial satellite. Although Sputnik 1 was only about two feet in diameter, weighed only 184 pounds, and could only send radio beeps towards the United States as it flew overhead around every ninety minutes, Sputnik 1 had a profound effect on the world.

Shook up by the persisant beep-beep-beep reminder of Russian skill in space, the U.S. government began a crash program to improve America's standing in science, technology, and engineering. Within a year after Sputnik, both NASA and ARPA (the Advanced Research Projects Agency) had been created. The National Defense Education Act provided loans to students and funding for educational programs, especially ones in math, science, and foreign languages. The numbers of students studying for college degrees in scientific fields rose dramatically.

Join guest host David Baron as he takes a look back at Sputnik, its legacy to the world, and whether or not anything today could be "the next Sputnik" sought by some to push the nation into overdrive again.

Listen to this program in RealAudio!

Guests:

Roger Lanius
Chief Historian
NASA
Washington, DC

John Miller
Professor of Political Science
Northern Illinois University
Vice President, Chicago Academy of Sciences
Chicago, IL

James Oberg
Space Engineer
Author, Red Star in Orbit
Houston, TX

Sergei Khrushchev
Senior Fellow of the Thomas Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies
Brown University
Providence, RI

Books/Articles Discussed:

DARPA (a new incarnation of ARPA)
The act that created NASA in 1958

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