The Birth of NASA

In light of the recent announcement of a sixth American military branch, the Space Force,  it maybe interesting to know that all space efforts fell to the Army, Navy, and Air Force prior to 1958. This urged me to discuss the birth of NASA.

There are several contributing factors that led to the formation of the National Astronomical Space Administration. It is easy to identify the Cold War as being the final push into the creation of this administration. Before NASA was “NASA” it did have early roots in aviation and the space age, long before it was formed, and long before the Cold War. The development of rocketry and the goal to put a scientific satellite into orbit threw the Soviet Union and the United States into a “space race” one of the many “competitions” during the Cold War. The launch of Sputnik I from the Soviets, put the United States into a tail spin of defeat and out of great concern for national defense, is when the decision for a single civilian space program came to be, and hence NASA was born.

The NACA

In 1915, when the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA) was founded, it was because the United States at the start of WWI was shocked at how advanced the Europeans aviation was compared theirs. The goal of the NACA was the “scientific study of the problems of flight.” The NACA consisted of 426 people conducting research on every possible subject related to aviation, during WWII that 426 people had turned into 3,000. The launch of Sputnik I changed everything and the need to have a program to direct space studies was critical, the NACA, the Department of Defense (DoD), and the Atomic Energy Commission all had their eyes set on leading the space program, ultimately, when the time came, the NACA was selected to head the new American space program.

Technology Advancements

The Department of Defense had been pursuing rocketry and upper atmospheric sciences since the early 1940s in efforts to keep America ahead of technology development. Rocketry was a significant area study, it was the key to launching a scientific satellite into Earth’s orbit. President Eisenhower approved of such a plan, to learn more about the Earth. Of course, the United States was locked into the Cold War, with the Soviets—which was nothing more than a mere competition—and the Soviets announced their own plan to launch a satellite into orbit. In 1955 the Naval Research Laboratory’s Project Vanguard was chosen to support Eisenhower’s plan. The plan for Vanguard was simple, place an object in orbit and prove by observation it was there, then obtain an orbital track, and finally conduct experiments with the scientific instruments on the satellite. The satellites path would give valuable knowledge about the Earth’s gravitational field and the density of the upper atmosphere. However, Vanguard would not see success, it was technologically too difficult with minimal funding. Even with failure, Vanguard had still given hope to the United States, it was an exciting news story for the American people from 1955 to 1956. On 4 October 1957, any hope or excitement was lost when the Soviets had a successful launch of Sputnik 1, the world’s first artificial satellite.

“Beep, Beep” –Sputnik I

“I am informed by the New York Times that a satellite has been launched and is in orbit at an altitude of nine hundred kilometers. I wish to congratulate our Soviet colleagues.”

–Lloyd Berkner, at the Rocket and Satellite Conference in Moscow, 1957

How could the United States be behind the curve, yet again? News of the Soviets success spread through America, and devastated the people. However, there were those who wanted to know how to tune into Sputnik’s radio signal, and how they could see it. Even though the Cold War was a competition, the advancement of science is still exciting to the world. Scientist went to work using the Soviets success to still learn more about the Earth. They needed to find Sputnik I in orbit, acquire its position and track it to determine the parameters of Earths orbit. They also needed to know the latitude and longitude of the launch site, as well as time, altitude and velocity. This proved to be a difficult task and the information they needed, would be kept secret by the Soviets for another seventeen years after launch. American radio networks were not capable of tracking Sputnik I either, even though every radio operator in the world could hear a distinctive “beep, beep” coming from the satellite. The beeping heard from Sputnik I was thought as propaganda, it was almost as though it was taunting the American people, as they searched for a way to locate it in orbit. The irony here is that the frequency Sputnik I was broadcasting was not sophisticated enough, the United States had developed the tracking for their satellites at 108 megahertz, while Sputnik I was only at a frequency of 20 and 40 megahertz. The capability of the Soviets to launch Sputnik I, followed by Sputnik II only a month later, caused concern for America’s national defense.

Formation of NASA

After the Army’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory took over the responsibility to launch a satellite, America had finally launched their first satellite into orbit—Explorer  1 in January of 1958. The hard lesson learned was that the United States was still behind, and was not putting enough focus in a space program, which translated into a lack of national security. In April of 1958 the Eisenhower Administration presented a bill that would establish a national aeronautics and space agency. Congress passed the bill on 29 July that became the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, and officially establishing NASA.

“An Act to provide research into the problems of flight within and outside the Earth’s atmosphere, and for other purposes.”

On 1 October 1958 NASA began operations only three days’ shy of the year anniversary of the SputnikI launch. NASA took on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, along with the Saturn Project, and a new science center was built–the Robert H. Goddard Space Flight Center. NASA took over Project Vanguard, as well as Project Mercury, which became the program to place a human into space. Majority of the programs that were moved to NASA, came from the military, and suddenly NASA had the biggest role in national security. Let us not forget, that NASA was born out of the Cold War, and with this there was still a competition in space. By the time, President John F. Kennedy took office he promised to put a Man on the Moon by the end of the 60s. Only 10 years after its creation NASA, was proving to be everything the United States needed when the Apollo Program put a man in the Moon in 1968.

The NACA from 1915 had evolved into NASA by 1958, the two programs had similar starts with the United States finding itself falling behind in technology, and needing a program to focus on the advancements of technology. Even though the DoD had several programs developing rocketry, there was not enough funding being provided into one project, and that became evident with the failure of Project Vanguard. The Soviets were pushing the envelope with their rocketry development during the Cold War, and saw success with the launch of Sputnik I and Sputnik II. The fear caused by the Soviets success forced a drastic decision to be made regarding national security. A program that would focus on advancements in space and give America the upper hand in the Cold War’s “space race” congress passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 and established NASA. Since, 1958 NASA has had great success, its also had hard times and failures as well, as for the Cold War and the “space race” their isn’t really a clear winner, which I will write about in a future post. However, America had a great win  with “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” (Said by Neil Armstrong when he stepped out onto the Moon).

References

Graham, John F. Space Exploration: From Talisman of the Past to Gateway of the Future. 1995: NASA.

Garber, Steve. ” A Brief History of NASA .” NASA. Accessed August 12, 2017.

Gavaghan, Helen. Something New Under the Sun: Satellites and the Beginning of the Space Age. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1998.