Fifty years ago this week, Americans were smacked awake on space by the orbiting wonder called Sputnik. The Soviets were up there. We were not. And only a first foot on the moon could ease the shock. America was number one in space.
Fast forward to 2007, and the high frontier is looking like nobody’s backyard and everyone’s. China, India, Japan, Europe, even oil-rich Russia — they’re all talking about the moon, and more. President Bush has targeted Mars, but there’s fear the US could end up in the backseat of this century’s lift-off.
This hour, On Point: fifty years after Sputnik, the new race in space.
-Tom Ashbrook
Guests:
Joan Johnson-Freese, department chair of national security studies at the U.S. Naval War College, is author of “Space as a Strategic Asset.”
Andrew Chaikin, science writer and author of “A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts.”
Bill Anders, Apollo 8 astronaut, executive secretary of the National Aeronautics and Space Council under President Richard Nixon, and former CEO of General Dynamics.
Tags: NASA, science, space, Sputnik
