The Race For Space

you are the first Americans to see this launching of Sputnik 1 from the desert of kizel Kum in the Soviet Union the date October 4 1957 [Music] I'm Mike Wallace our title the race for space means the contest between the United States and the Soviet Union for propaganda and Military Advantage our program will show that contest and you will see American films and also Soviet rocket films never before seen by anyone outside the intelligence services but more important our program will show show you that the race for space has always involved a great ideal a dream that existed long before the Cold War one of man's oldest dreams a trip to the Stars to understand the fascination of the Stars to understand why the dream of the exploration of space has so completely captured the mind of the modern world you must let your imagination soar soar like a rocket if imagine not only the White Sands desert of New Mexico far below but all the deserts of the world like Africa's Fame Zahara imagine all these deserts and all the other Sandy wastelands of the world and now realize that for every single grain of sand on earth there is a star in the sky think of it for every single grain of sand a star in the sky [Music] is it any Wonder space is man's next [Music] Frontier man's ceaseless striving to leave his own world and to explore other worlds his search for other forms of life has always been his Destiny his Greatest Adventure The Real Race for space [Music] in 1898 the 20th century science of space travel was founded by this Russian school teacher Constantine eduardovich silovsky there have been many Russian claims of Firsts in science but it's been authenticated that 60 years ahead of his time sovi stated that the development of rocketry would lead to space flights and in 193 he designed and built this model spaceship he also coined a new word for the artificial Earth satellites whose creation he predicted he called them Sputnik the Russian word for fellow Travelers this is modern kuga zov's birthplace where today we are able to hear one of his granddaughters Marie samburova [Music] grandfather had many visitors scientists correspondents and authors Grandpa would tell them fascinating stories of how people would someday fly to different planets all day long he would work in his study making models of rockets sometimes on Starry Nights my grandfather would go to the roof of his house and dream of the day when people would fly to the planets they were far more than dreams see lov's ideas were the first scientific theories on space travel it is interesting that it has always been these two Nations Russia and the United States that have from the very beginning led the way in this race for space for it was an American Dr Robert Goddard of Wester Massachusetts who turned modern rocketry from a theorist's dream into an engineering actuality Dr Godard began his rocketry researches as early as 1913 and in scientific circles he soon won respect but it cost money which he paid out of his limited salary as a college professor to conduct this historic test in this scientific pamphlet published just after World War I he proposed using Rockets to carry scientific instruments to the upper atmosphere and to the Moon we have with us today the Widow of this great rocket Pioneer Mrs Robert Goddard Mrs Gard your husband was a dedicated man of science but I understand that after the publication of the Smithsonian report many people called him the moon Rocket Man I have here these clippings from The New York Times of January 12th and 13th back in 1920 in which the times editorial writer implied that your husband didn't even know High School physics and that his Smithsonian report was no more scientific than the science fiction novels of Jules Vern how did your husband feel when he'd see articles like that of course this kind of publicity hurt especially when it appeared in something like the New York Times but he had spent many years working on the mathematical theory that underlies jet propulsion he felt that the mathematics indicated that the things he the predictions he had made the things he looked for were about to come true therefore he did not let such things deter him from his experiments I think that our audience should realize Mrs Goddard that you were the cameraman who photographed all of Dr gard's great firsts in rocketry do you remember this historic shot oh yes indeed I do this was at Auburn Massachusetts in 1928 it was one of the first flights of a rocket using liquid propellants the rocket had become so large and the flight so long that we knew it was becoming dangerous to test them in any densely populated area so we moved to Roswell New Mexico where this new test stand was [Music] built and it was here not far from today's White Sands Proving Ground that Dr Goddard established many of the Great firsts in rocketry during these tests there was always so much to do and never enough hands or time to do it with with this flight and many other successful flights his rocket sometimes attaining nearly supersonic speeds of 700 mph Dr Gard established rocket history during these years Dr Goddard developed the 214 patents that firmly established his reputation as the pioneering Genius of the new 20th century science Dr Robert H Gard died in August of 1945 while serving as director of research in jet propulsion for the US Navy Mrs Gard did your husband receive much recognition while he was alive from fellow scientists yes and also in those days it was possible to buy a copy of a patent for 10 cents I understand there was a standing order for all goded patents that standing order came from Germany thank you for being with us Mrs Gard in post World War I Germany there were a handful of idealists who'd heard of zovsky and Dr Godard and who believed in the dream of travel to the Stars the leader of this group was a distinguished theorist Dr Herman Ober he along with a few others formed the German Society for space space travel one of the most enthusiastic members of this little group was this 18-year-old boy destined to become one of the Giants of the American Space Program his name Werner Von Bron using some of godard's ideas and many of their own the Germans experimented with the rocket in all sorts of ways the [Music] [Applause] [Music] but after many failures they were learning what Goddard had already shown that the greatest future for the rocket was in space flight like Goddard and many other scientists the German space club members were in financial trouble and were about to disband at this desperate moment Germany's most distinguished motion picture director Fritz Lang came to their rescue he was about to make the world's first modern science fiction movie fra IM mon or woman in the moon would the club members serve for money as the movie's technical advisers the answer was yes you are now looking at actual scenes from this German classic produced in 1928 to make the launching more dramatic Lang hit on the idea of counting backwards until the actual moment for firing the German rocket Pioneers then spread the dramatic notion of the countdown throughout the [Music] world most important of all in addition to money the space travel Club was also paid with all the props they could walk off with these props were then used as the actual components in the space travel society's Rockets but it wasn't long before the movie proceeds to had all gone up in smoke and desperately the club began to look around for a new source of funds it soon marched on the scene the German space Fanatics wanted to get to the Moon Mars Venus the Milky Way this German ftic merely wanted to get to England the veride treaty had forbidden the conventional rearmament of Germany but it failed to Outlaw Rockets because back in 1918 there was no such thing as a military rocket so to the German rocket club the fura and his AIDS proposed a deal the Army would Finance all their experiments in rocketry provided first priority was given to the creation of a longrange weapon they had little Choice the gapo informed them they must assist the army or be drafted to do the same work this is Punda a remote fishing Village along the Baltic Coast by 1936 the Nazis had moved most of the members of their German space travel Society here they had installed them in these top secret Laboratories quickly assembling the leading technical brains of Germany they appointed the youthful Werner Von Bron as civilian chief of research Von BR had selected the site of Punda and designed and built these tremendous Test [Applause] Facilities but now that the German space travel scientists had bigger and better money and Facilities they had bigger and better failures [Music] but soon there were a few successful test launchings propaganda Minister Geral gleefully named the new weapon Vengeance number2 or just plain V2 by 1943 the V2 was nearly operational but occasionally one of the new Birds would wander crazily out of control One landed accidentally in neutral Sweden and the wreckage was forwarded to the Allies another landed in Poland alongside a stream where the huge pieces were discovered by polish Patriots that night the Polish underground radioed the Allies who immediately sent out a plane which brought the V2 wreckage back to Alive Supreme headquarters in London now with both the Swedish and the Polish wrecked V2s in their hands the allias quickly reassembled them they now realized what sort of Terror weapon they were up against and that they had no defense whatever against it the Allied High command knew that if the Germans could build up a big enough supply of these Rockets they could destroy London and so pulverized the English reports that the allias could not use them for the invasion of France day after day the Allied reconnaissance planes scoured the European [Music] continent luck was on the alive side when an RAF Patrol bomber on recon over the Baltic Coast snapped an aerial photograph of the Obscure fishing Village of [Music] Punda at Raf intelligence headquarters this Photograph was developed and enlarged one of the German Terror weapons was plainly seen on a launching pad the target for that night August 17 1943 was Punda 300 British heavy bombers took to the air [Music] [Music] they' plastered Punda with, 1500 tons of high explosives and thousands of [Music] incendiaries the August 17th raid shattered Punda the Germans were forced to quickly move much of their production equipment from Punda to a huge new V2 assembly plant in the East German city of nordh Housen the scientists stayed behind to carry on their research in underground Laboratories but it was on the Mad mind of Adolf Hitler that the massive Allied Air Raids on Punda had their greatest defect one night he had a terrible nightmare he dreamed the V2 would never land on England he quickly summoned field Marshall Herman guring and confided his terrible dream to [Music] him then deura summoned the rest of his staff and in a decision that could very well have changed the course of world history Hitler signed the cancellation order for the entire rocketry project effective immediately what 300 British bombers and thousands of tons of high explosives could not achieve Hitler as the result of one bad dream did but at Punda when the Army informed Von braon and his associates of Hitler's decision they would not give up in past moments of desperation the space travel enthusiasts had made a movie very well now they would make another movie furiously several reel of film were put together featuring only the successful rocket launchings at staff headquarters they set up a special showing of this carefully edited success story and they persuaded Hitler and his aids to attend and in what may have been history's most important Motion Picture preview an audience of one saw the picture heard the voice of the weapons Creator Von Bron serving as narrator you are now watching the actual scenes taken from this historic film no picture has ever played to a more receptive audience with his Mania for power the very notion of a terror weapon from space he found irresistible as he left the screening Hitler uttered these prophetic words from now on he said Europe and the world will be too small to contain a war with such weapons Humanity will be unable to endure War he reinstated the V2 project with the very highest [Music] priority within a few months the perfected Rockets were giving live performances to London go the dubious distinction of being the first spot on earth to be bombarded from [Music] space the V2 was indeed a weapon of vengeance the invasion of Europe was now underway but what of the V2 in the words of General Eisenhower if the Germans had succeeded in perfecting and using these rocket weapons 6 months earlier than they did our invasion of Europe would have proved exceedingly difficult perhaps impossible the Allied armies swept through Western Europe the hour of liberation had [Music] come Germany was overrun from the point of view of the German Army in the spring of 1945 the V2 was too little and too [Music] late and soon the American Army from the west and the Russian army from the East met at the river El but even before peace was declared even as these brothers were in each other's arms in the minds of their military leaders not very brotherly thoughts were being born the V2 was ahead of its time though it had no effect on the outcome of World War II it could very well determined the winner of World War I it was at this moment moment that the race for space began in Earnest and there were two immediate prizes the stock of V2 Parts at nordhus and at Punda the test equipment and the juiciest Plum of all the Brilliant Minds who had made the V2 possible as the European War moved into its final weeks the American Army had Advanced close to these prizes but under the agreement for occupation of Germany the United States would have to turn all this territory over to the Red [Music] Army the American officer on the spot was Major General hogar n Toto then a colonel in charge of ordinance technical intelligence in Europe and now Commanding General of The aine Proving Ground in Maryland you had to act fast general toptoy what did you do our our intelligence sources had told us of the role Dr Von Bron and his army Superior General dornberger had played in the development of the V2 program I believe that the brains of these men if we could find them must be put to work on behalf of the United States after all they were the world's only experienced missile team I later cabled Washington and requested authorities to search for and bring 300 of the leading German rocket scientists the United States I found I was championing a very popular idea so before long I was in the Pentagon pleading the case in person I finally succeeded in gaining approval not for the 300 German scientists which I had requested but for only 100 this was the beginning of Operation Paperclip at the same time I ordered my assistant Colonel James P Hamill then a major to get to Nord Housen as fast as he could uhhuh and to move out enough V2 parts to assemble 100 missiles before the Russians took the area over somehow Hamlin his men found enough box cars and quickly loaded them with the V2 component parts when I returned to Germany haml and his men had managed to get these box cars and their Precious Cargo into the American Zone 2 days before the Red Army moved in in terms of the biggest prize the brains who had built the V2 we had previously received bad news our agents had gotten into pinam Mundi found the place stripped and in Ruins and the Red Army in control there was no sign whatsoever of dornberger Von Brown and the other scientists terribly disappointed we presume that they were all Eastward bound we intensified Operation Paperclip in some unoccupied areas we had to parachute our specially trained agents in on the chance that some of the might still be found in other places we set up key roadblocks we found some important scientists but it looked like the ones we really wanted had slipped through our net what we didn't know was that as the Russian army approached pinam Mundi Von Brown and their colleagues had rounded up a few battered trucks they loaded these trucks with plans Blueprints and choice equip they headed for a retreat in the mountains of Southern Germany where they hoped to continue their work finally when it became obvious that Germany had lost the war they decided in the words of Von BR to go with the West General dornberger the V2 scientist and V Dr Von Bron surrendered Dr Von Bron's arm had been injured in an accident while fleeing to Bavaria with the surrender of these scientists and the large number of V2 Parts in our possession Operation Paperclip was a resounding success and so then you arranged passage of the 100 V2 scientists to the United States well actually I took 127 oh this was the lease that I felt could form a completely integrated guided missile development team of truly experienced Specialists what about the scientists themselves weren't there a lot of unfavorable publicity and other problems in bringing them here to the United States yes the president and the Congress were petitioned to return these so-called enemy aliens to Germany post haste but the United States had much to learn about rocketry and these men dedicated and experienced made very fine teachers so we stood firm well General totoy I think our audience should know that for your foresight and dedication to duty and your successful direction of the Army missile program the United States last year gave you its highest peacetime award the distinguished service medal and we surely appreciate your being with us under Hitler there had been 3,000 scientists engineers and workers at pundo most of these men and the heavy equipment fell to the Soviet Union but as a result of Operation Paperclip the cream of the crop in brain power was brought to the United States and so the first round of the race for space wound up a draw the war was over and both sides were starting out even for the United States this was to be the decade for living it up the troops had come home Victorious at a time like this who thinks about Rockets or space a funloving country wanted to get back to normal to home and family these were to be the best years of Our Lives from 1947 to 1957 there were 54 million new cars there were 11 million new homes and over 3 million new graduates from American colleges but what America was doing mostly during these years wasn't work and it didn't require study we were having babies the biggest crop in history 39 million births in 10 years during the same years 50 million TV sets were sold and by 1948 this was America's Best Known face but from the world of Milton Burl to this other world it was quite a change here in grammar and high schools half the curriculum was devoted to [Music] science the Soviet universities were especially booming training each year 150,000 scientists and Engineers both men and women compared to the United States 70,000 the Soviets also tested thousands of their own newly developed missiles these are the first publicly shown films of these Russian research Rockets with the knowledge gained from this rocket research with a tremendous surge of new graduates from the technical and scientific schools it was not long before new missiles rolled along the streets of Moscow in the Union of Soviet Socialist republics there was a new look in America however there were only a few dedicated men who believed in space who kept working kept persuading kept patching together their missile programs with a little money and a lot of hope during the early post-war period as an example of their Patchwork they M this old warhorse V2 out of pamon to Germany with this small young missile called The Wack Corporal fresh out of Pasadena California the V2 whack Corporal combination was America's first two-stage missile it also marked for the first time the blending in action of American and German rocket brains a combination that was destined despite many setbacks to have its Rendevous with history with the firing of this missile and the subsequent development of such Rockets as the Viking and the atlas America's missile program was finally [Music] underway the Soviet scientists were especially interested in space medicine they wanted to know whether a dog could survive in space where there is neither air nor weight but only Uncharted fields of deadly radiation [Music] with a camera placed on board the rocket the Soviet shot this actual footage of their dogs in Space the dogs are here experiencing weightlessness as is shown by the Free Flight of the loose bolt in the foreground this bolt is completely [Music] weightless the dogs returned unharmed the next step place a dog in orbit around the [Music] Earth the Soviets were not secretive about their intention to create Earth satellites with increasing frankness they discussed their plans with anyone willing to listen or read and Premier crop himself in August 1956 officially announced the Soviet development of an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 5,000 miles if the Soviets could send up such missiles they could also send up Earth satellites the target date was 1957 the international geophysical year a United Nations scientific study of the Earth the Russians announced that sometime in 1957 they would send up their Earth satellite the United States too promised to launch an Earth satellite but in our satellite program we Americans got badly bogged down why what happened we had the money the resources and the scientific knowhow unfortunately a series of wrong decisions led us to frustration and failure we present the following facts to salute The Men Who understood the importance of space the failure to heed the advice of these men irrevocably altered the world situation and brought about America's present position in the race for space now we present these facts facts based upon sworn testimony before the United States Senate it is a fact that the United States could have fired the first Earth satellite as early as 2 years ahead head of the Russians by 1955 the scientific team under General totoy and Dr V Bron had developed a new military missile called the Redstone which was highly successful they proposed that a modification of the Redstone called the Jupiter sea launch the promised American satellite at the same time there was another proposal that a brand new rocket the Vanguard be especially created to launch the Earth's satellite even though with a new rocket they were far greater chances of failure the untested Vanguard was chosen on the grounds that the satellite should not be launched by a military rocket like the Jupiter sea but rather by a purely scientific device since it was to celebrate a United Nations event knowing the odds were high against the Vanguard success General James C Gavin Army chief of research and development generals toftoy and maderas doctors V Bron and Pickering and many others kept begging for permission to launch the satellite with the Jupiter sea immediately they were fearful the Russians would launch theirs any day each time they asked they were turned down then on July 29 1957 this order went out to the armed services let me read it to you recent news stories which have described certain projects as space flight projects have resulted in an unfavorable reaction at Department of Defense and Congressional levels in any speeches or public releases planned by you or your staff avoid the mention or the discussion of space space technology and space vehicles and so by the summer of 1957 space had become a forbidden word in Washington as Autumn came in 1957 most of the men who believed in space were silent throughout the country the long hot summer was over and the children had gone back to school in Washington the space program was bogged down in frustration but in the Soviet Union there are dates that school children in the United States are required to memorize like October 12 1492 when Columbus discovered America now there was a new date for Russian youngsters to remember October 4 1957 when Sputnik the first Earth satellite was [Music] launched the new moon circled the globe every 96 Minutes all the people on this fast shrinking Planet heard about it many of them watched it all of them read about it in the history of the earth no other event had captured the imagination of so many people as this first step into space at least the word space was now legal in Washington there were high level meetings there were press conferences and sober analyses of the nation's new position there was prolonged National soul searching by the executive by Congress and by the military meantime the Soviet Union was ready to launch its second punch in a row Sputnik 2 aboard this new satellite Leica was to be the Earth's first traveler into space here is Leica in his capsule which will be placed inside the satellite there were instruments to test his reaction to cosmic rays radiation heat cold and weightlessness in these exclusive Soviet films Sputnik 2 is shown in its pre-launch preparation the Russian satellite weighed 1120 lb 10 times heavier than the first spotnick on November 3rd 1957 commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Russian Revolution the Earth's second artificial satellite went into orbit the second Sputnik was not only a tremendous scientific achievement in itself but in the information received on leica's Long flight into space the Soviets gained a Priceless advantage in any forthcoming race to put a man in space in desperation the United States look to the Vanguard nearly 200 newsmen from all over the world were flown down for the big turkey shoot at the launching site they were given a play-by-play account they witnessed each tiny detail of the usually top secret preparation it was Carnival time at Canaveral all through the day and night thousands of people thronged the nearby beaches and Jetties waiting eagerly for the big moment and inside the Block House the tension steadily [Music] mounted e [Music] America's Prestige had never been lower than at this moment 11:45 a.m. December 6 [Music] 1957 at Huntsville Alabama Major General John maderas Commander US Army Ordinance Missile Command had called a special meeting good morning gentlemen be seated please I have a very important announcement for you we've been assigned the mission of launching a scientific Earth satellite and we will use the Jupiter C configuration as a carrier that we developed along with the jet propulsion laboratory I promised the secretary of the army that we would be ready in 90 days or less let's go Warner for years they had begged for this chance the deadline was 90 days but to put up a satellite within 90 days would require an unparalleled crash program the work was divided into three vital areas the rocket carrier the instrumentation and the upper stage scientific payload each had to be redesigned rebuilt and each had to work right the first time here at Huntsville Alabama the rocket carrier development program was the job of a crack team of over 3,000 scientists engineers and technicians headed by Dr Werner Von BR at the State University of Iowa Phase 2 the instrumentation its development was under the direction of Dr James Van Allen he had already designed some of the complex Electronics instruments that the Vanguard was supposed to have hurled into orbit having anticipated a possible Vanguard failure he had designed his instruments so they could also fit into the tube-shaped satellite that the Jupiter SE would carry into [Music] space at their 150 acre research and development complex at Pasadena California Dr William Pickering and his associates were racing toward the same deadline 90 days to put a satellite in orbit their job phase three build and package the Rocket's upper stages that would take over once the Jupiter sea had lifted the satellite into space assembled the satellite appeared small but if all went well 7 and A2 minutes from the time the giant missile bearing it would leave the Earth the cylinder now called explora 1 would be hurtling independently through space at a little over 18,000 M an hour if all went well Cape Canaveral Florida Wednesday 29 January 1958 8 days before the deadline the Jupiter sea was on its pad in position for launching but on the morning of the 29th the weather was unfavorable with heavy thunderstorms and jet streams are Loft a 24-hour postponement was decided upon Friday 31 January the weather is clear general maderas orders launch at 10:30 that night dwarfed by the giant carrier rocket and the Gantry the Explorer one satellite is carefully fitted into place like a glittering Jewel in a metallic setting at x - 2 hours hyen an exotic and explosive fuel begins to flow into the [Applause] [Music] [Applause] tanks minutes click [Music] past the beams of powerful search lights light up the missile truly the star of one of the greatest suspense dramas of our [Music] time time late evening Friday 31 January 1958 in a block house at Cape canabal Florida here is the actual countdown for Explorer 1 okay we'll start now any fuel loading the man directing the countdown his arm ballistic engineer Robert Moser okay check the utility room fuel Vapors and notify the block housee when we're clear to start generator control volage on gyro on SE lock loading has been completed Roger connect assembly to igniters okay tie down the lead Roger install your protective PA afmc Teter calibration tap on check all operating lights and meters for proper operation power panel check panel okay control panel check pan okay Roger majoring panel check fire transfer test on observe and record all voltages clear for launch clear launch yeah 021 deflection of jet ve number two we've either got a relay kicking out or the there something dropping down on the jet Bane instantaneously here hold telemeter indicates the jet Bane 2 is deflected this is Army scientist Dr Kurt Divas what do you want to do I'll get it okay resume count okay so we go arm complete all right give me R safy uh CL recording on recording on recording on 20 seconds frequency 111 15 seconds 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 fire command Fu tank pressed lock tank pressed missile power IGN let off goad the missile is in flight but the success of its mission is still in doubt it will take another hour on half to know whether the satellite is in Orbit and this is the most tense and agonizing weight of all midnight General maderas calls his assistant Colonel Leonard Orman who has kept a direct Line open to the Secretary of the army hello Len you can send this off to the secretary that our satellite is definitely on orbit now get that off and then I in Washington a new kind of American hero was born men like Pickering Van Allen and Von braa with the scientific ability foresight and determination they had shown were to lead America into the new age of space this dedicated team had LIF our first satellite into orbit in the contest was space the race was by no means tied up the Soviet Union with its tremendous heavy satellites was still ahead but the United States was definitely in the race and ready for the next challenge we'll be back in a moment with the concluding scenes in the race for space now Soviet science has rocketed to the Moon these are the first actual photographs of its hidden face and American satellites from the Vanguard to the Pioneer have given us Priceless information as well but the new contest is the race to put a man into space [Music] these are more than science fiction films produced by the Soviet government they are the actual Soviet blueprints for their space vehicles of the [Music] future now both sides had shot satellites into orbit soon there were to be many more satellites heavier with more complex and advanced electronic equipment but there is no collection of electronic tubes as complex and as advanced as the brain of a man this was to be the next contest the big contest the race to put a man into space for space is man's New Frontier the exploration of other worlds the search for other forms of life is man's Destiny and his Greatest Adventure [Music]