Red Moon Rising Sputnik and the Rivalries That Ignited the Space Age - Matthew Brzezinski [84]
Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri (left) chaired the Air Power hearings in April 1956 to investigate whether the United States was falling behind the Soviet Union. Wealthy, handsome, and quick to score political points, he was considered an early contender for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination. Here he examines early American missile models with Lieutenant General James M. Gavin. (© Bettmann/CORBIS)
Korolev’s archrival, the brilliant propulsion specialist Valentin Glushko, designed virtually all missile motors in the USSR. In 1938 he had provided damaging testimony against Korolev that was used as evidence at the trial that sent the Chief Designer to Siberia, but now they had to work side-by-side again. (From the collection of Peter A. Gorin)
A group photograph of many of the key participants in the Soviet missile and satellite programs. Korolev is in the front row, fourth from right. Others in the front row include Mstislav Keldysh (fifth from left), Leonid Voskresensky (seventh from left), R-7 Commission chairman Vasily Ryabikov (center, with legs crossed), deputy defense minister Mitrofan Nedelin (fifth from right, in uniform), deputy armaments minister Konstantin Rudnev (third from right), Valentin Glushko (second from right), and Vladimir Barmin (far right). (From the collection of Peter A. Gorin)
President Dwight Eisenhower and Vice President Richard Nixon were publicly united during the 1956 campaign. Behind the scenes, however, theirs was a strained relationship. (AP/Wide World Photos)
Walt Disney (far left) visits Wernher von Braun at the Redstone Arsenal before hiring him as a scientific adviser and host for the Tomorrowland segments of his new Disneyland television program. In these broadcasts, many Americans learned about satellite technology for the first time. (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center)
The powerful and staunchly anti-Communist Dulles brothers. Allen Dulles (left), the director of Central Intelligence, and John Foster Dulles, the secretary of state, set the tone for the Eisenhower administration’s aggressive containment policies toward Moscow. (© Bettmann/CORBIS)
Richard Bissell was the man behind the CIA’s top-secret U-2 and satellite reconnaissance programs. (Central Intelligence Agency)
The U-2 was used in reconnaissance missions over the Soviet Union, taking aerial photographs from as high as 70,000 feet. In the mid-1950s, it flew beyond the range of Soviet fighters or missiles, infuriating Khrushchev and helping to spur the development of missiles and satellites. (U.S. Air Force Photo)
Known as the “quiet man,” Mikhail Tikhonravov was the introverted visionary behind the Soviet Union’s satellite breakthroughs. (From the collection of Peter A. Gorin)
The world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile, the R-7, seen here in its Tulip launch stand, was Khrushchev’s bold gamble to redefine the arms race on his own terms. (From the collection of Peter A. Gorin)
The Soviet engineers called their first satellite PS-1, for prostreishy sputnik or “simple satellite.” After its successful launch into orbit on October 4, 1957, it would be known simply as Sputnik. (From the collection of Peter A. Gorin)
President Eisenhower, encountering a hostile press corps, tried to downplay the military significance of Sputnik at an October 9, 1957, press conference. (© Bettmann/CORBIS)
Senator Lyndon Johnson of Texas (second from right), the Democratic majority leader, seized on the Sputnik scare to further his own ambitions, outmaneuvering Symington to hold hearings on “preparedness.” Here he poses with a giant globe as Secretary of Defense Neil McElroy (in bow tie) and Deputy Secretary Donald Quarles point out the location of Sputnik’s launch. Also looking on at far left is Senator Richard Russell of Georgia. (AP/Wide World Photos)
Eisenhower, in a morale-boosting address, tries to reassure Americans