Word: sputniked
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...country forced itself to laugh. Sputnik puns flourished, and even official responses attempted, at the outset, to dilute the Soviet achievement. Both the President and ex-Secretary Wilson tried to minimize the significance of the innovation, but the public found its sense of humor dampened by something that seemed like anxiety but couldn't be; America had never troubled itself over the technological advances of her rivals. Her superiority was too great, her talent too secure...
Citizens immediately contacted police in the belief that it was Laika, from outer space. The police refuse to believe that Sputnik II has jettisoned its canine cargo, and attribute it to some airborne joker...
Boulukos insisted that their scheme was not dreamed up on the spur of the moment. "We've been thinking about it ever since the first Sputnik was launched, and Armistice Day seemed like a logical time to send the wire," he said...
...scientists have figured that if nine-tenths of the weight of Sputnik I were invested in additional fuel, the remainder (18.3 Ibs.) would reach the moon. By the same reasoning, the launching rockets of the second Soviet satellite could put 112 Ibs. on the moon. This is enough weight allowance for a powerful atom bomb, which would make brilliant fireworks if it exploded on the darkened face of the moon, and might stir up a conspicuous storm in the dust that covers its surface...
...Sputnik days, the case of Private Ernest Shult, 24, would probably have been laughed off as a bit of routine Army bungling. Gangling, brown-haired Shult, assistant to a professor at Southern Illinois University, seemed to be just one more recruit when he reported to Fort