Word: space
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Space. But instruments can never bring back as much information as a spaceship with a human crew. The difficulties of manned space flight are still enormous, and they seem to increase the longer they are studied. The recently discovered belt of Van Allen radiation that rings the earth is a serious hazard that was not dreamed of a few months...
...will fly through space, hazards or no hazards. The Russians are known to be planning to put a man up in a satellite. Astronomer Alexander A. Mikhailov, director of Pulkovo Observatory near Leningrad, told a TIME correspondent last week that they are also planning a manned voyage to the moon. The biggest problem, he said, is safe return, and they do not intend to risk a man until they are sure of getting him back alive...
...program is roughly similar. A "soft" instrument landing on the moon may be accomplished in 1960. Putting a man in space will take longer. A protected capsule to bring him back alive is already under development. One of the preliminary research tools toward this project is the X-15 rocket-plane, which will meet its first tests in a month or so. It is designed to start its flights in the atmosphere, then shoot out of it to a probable height of 150 miles. Its descent on stubby wings will build experience for controlled returns from deeper space...
What is the motive for the push into space? This question gets many sharply conflicting answers. Some military strategists believe that a U.S. rocket base on the moon, which could never be destroyed by surprise attack, would provide the supreme deterrent to any earth aggressor. Most scientists do not agree. Nor do they think much of the idea of armed satellite bases. They see little reason to shoot from a satellite when a rocket shot from solid ground can hit any target on earth. But satellites may prove to have value as "eyes in the sky" over enemy territory...
...rivalry with Russia is not a simple propaganda battle. Says one spaceman: "We could concentrate entirely on our military developments and let the Russians have space to themselves. Would we thus make ourselves impregnable? No, because the rest of the world simply would not believe that we were impregnable. It would look to Russia as the clear leader-and the battle would be lost before it was fought...