The ultimate high ground - A Centennial of Flight Special Feature - American usage of space technology

Airman, April, 2003 by Orville F. Desjarlais, Jr.

Space technology gave the United States the upper hand during the Cold War, helped President John F. Kennedy make decisions during the Cuban Missile Crisis and continues to serve the United States from its perch in the heavens.

It's difficult to pinpoint exactly when America decided to exploit space. It wasn't like it woke up one morning in the early 1950s and said, "I think I'd like a cell phone, so let's blast a 10,000-pound satellite 22,000 miles into space."

No. It wasn't like that at all. America's reaction to space was more like, "Hmmmm, you say we should invest millions of dollars on unknown space programs when the Soviet Union can drop a hydrogen bomb on us?"

Good point. In 1949, the Soviet Union successfully tested an atomic bomb, and in August 1953 detonated a hydrogen bomb. These events triggered a deep-seated fear of "the bomb."

A poll of Americans taken in the mid-1950s showed more than half believed they were more likely to die in a nuclear attack than from old age, according to Curtis Peebles, author of "High Frontier," published for the Air Force History and Museum Program in 1997. Fueling that fear, the Soviet Union lifted its Iron Curtain in 1954 to reveal a Soviet-built, long-range jet bomber capable of carrying a hydrogen bomb. To many Americans, it appeared the United States was lagging behind in technology.

"The launch of the Sputnik satellite in October 1957 was a crucial event in space history," said Skip Bradley, Air Force Space Command historian. "Even though the United States had been working on a space program, it didn't receive great public interest until the launch of Sputnik."

Unbeknownst to the public, however, in 1946 the Army Air Forces turned to a military think tank known as Project RAND to learn more about building an observation aircraft that couldn't be brought down by the enemy. The military wanted to use it for targeting observation and to learn more about weather over enemy territories.

"In the late 1940s, reconnaissance was close to the top of the list for the first space missions," said Rick Sturdevant, Air Force Space Command deputy historian. "The Army Air Forces asked RAND to report on the possibility of launching an earth-circling spaceship. It wanted such a craft for bomb-damage assessment, weather observation, reconnaissance and communications."

According to the 1946 RAND report, "In making the decision as to whether or not to undertake construction of such a craft now, it is not inappropriate to view our present situation as similar to that in airplanes prior to the flight of the Wright brothers. We can see no more clearly all the utility and implications of spaceships than the Wright brothers could see fleets of B-29s bombing Japan and air transports circling the globe."

However, the study had little influence on space program development. A couple of years later, the Cold War was well under way, and Americans realized they knew less and less about their adversaries. Fear of the unknown left them uneasy.

So, in the early 1950s, the United States began exploring ways to keep a wary eye on its communist foes, as well as to create a deterrent force against possible aggression.

Balloon idea pops

At the start of the Cold War, the United States began probing the borders of the Soviet Union using aerial reconnaissance weather aircraft to sniff out nuclear testing. However, the interior of the world's largest country remained a mystery to the United States.

In 1950, the best idea for peering into the unknown land was to use camera-carrying weather balloons that could reach above the ceiling of enemy jet fighters and ride the jet stream over the 6.6-million-square-mile Soviet Union. The balloons would launch from Europe. Then, once clear of Soviet air space, a radio signal would cut the dangling gondolas free from the balloons. Descending by parachutes, the gondolas would be caught in midair by C-119 transport aircraft or recovered in the ocean.

In early 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower authorized use of the balloons, but the project failed miserably. Of the 448 balloons launched, the U.S. recovered only 40. According to "High Frontier," the 13,813 photos covered a million square miles of the Soviet Union and China, but since the balloons' paths couldn't be controlled, many of the photographs were of trees, cows and such. The program was cancelled.

Fears of a possible Soviet surprise attack deepened. Enter the U-2 aircraft, which America began using in 1956. The American public didn't learn about the U-2 flights, or about two other secrets--missile and satellite development--until much later.

Soviets lead space race

The Soviet Union announced in August 1957 that it had successfully launched the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile. A month later, after four mishaps, a U.S. intermediate-range ballistic missile called Thor completed its first satisfactory flight.

Two months later, although not missile related but even more explosive, the Soviets launched the Sputnik I satellite. Space was smack dab in the face of the American public. Since the Soviets had beaten America into orbit, the U.S. media had a field day with the space program. It was perceived that the United States was years behind the Soviet Union in space technology. Retired Air Force Gen. Bernard Schriever, however, had a different story.