Word: sputniked
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Explorer itself was a special kind of reality. It was smaller and lighter than the Sputniks (30.80 lbs. v. Sputnik I's 184 lbs., Sputnik II's 1,120 lbs.). But its mere appearance in orbit only 84 days after Defense Secretary Neil McElroy's order to launch proved beyond doubt that the U.S., had it made the sensible policy decisions, could have launched the first satellite a year before as the Army urged (see below)-or 119 days before...
...shoulder-shruggers had a point. The Explorer was a predictable accomplishment-and by no means the last one the U.S. would demand. "We are competing only in spirit with Sputnik so far," said Explorer's Rocket Scientist Wernher von Braun, "not in hardware...
...sophisticated, sleek Jupiter itself. But while other services hooted at its "brute-force approach" to space, Jupiter-C once flew 3,500 miles, once carried the test Jupiter nose cone into space and back again; President Eisenhower displayed the recovered nose cone in his first television speech after Sputnik. The Army missilemen never for an instant lost sight of Jupiter-C as a satellite vehicle in case Vanguard failed-as they were convinced it would. All told, the Army made ten official pleas on behalf of Jupiter-C as a satellite vehicle...
...Defense Secretary-designate Neil McElroy, touring U.S. military bases before taking office, was dining in the officers' club at Huntsville when Wernher von Braun was called from the table to the telephone. Von Braun returned red-faced: he had just been told that the Russians had launched Sputnik I. Next morning Von Braun urged McElroy to put Jupiter-C into the satellite contest. During the next few weeks, McElroy received more than 100 ideas from the services for putting a U.S. satellite into space. Finally, on Nov. 8, McElroy announced his decision: to backstop Vanguard, the Army was ordered...
When Russia shot the first Sputnik into space, Defense Secretary Charlie Wilson, just retired, called it a "nice technical trick." Said Charlie Wilson last week when he heard the news about the Army's Explorer (which he had helped sidetrack while in office): "It is a good technical trick, and I am happy that it is a success...