stronger over. suddenly the us was worried about being vulnerable to attack. people recalled the duck and cover drills from the beginning of the fifty s that provided directions on what to do in the event of a nuclear attack now there were new fears of being exposed to any missile attacks. that cover to kill off the now the russian bear was knocking out the door and all of a sudden he was coming out of the sky to that most attributes of major fields. as the first artificial global satellite was orbiting the globe that backward soviets were leading the space race suddenly people believed they could do anything and everything even the impossible on nov first one nine hundred fifty seven a newspaper reported deal bombed the moon. the author cited cia inside sources and said the soviets were planning to shoot and deccan. a hydrogen bomb on the moon on
you. total four thousand nine hundred fifty seven is a day that will go down in human history on this day the exploration of space began . we are all witnesses to a great development the liberated and conscious work of the people in a socialist society can make the most daring of dreams reality the fact. that over there they say the soviet people are five years ahead yes and they re probably hang on to it because we know absolutely that the conditions for research in the soviet union are much better than they are in america they came by and what do you think about an artificial satellite racing around the globe and. yes you know i didn t believe the russians could do it through at all yeah i believe that what do you think now for example after the soviets have managed to do it ahead of the americans that will give some people pause for thought as i think so too. the view of the soviets pioneering feat was more sober in the west. of
a satellite but officials in the us remained relaxed even when venner from brown was warning about the psychological effects of such a pioneering achievement perhaps he was hoping to revive his own opportunity. a bit of an old open brown had warned people in the summer of one nine hundred fifty seven that the soviets were in the region and he was not alone or a number of experts in the missile business in the united states who watched what the soviets were saying and they said in the summer bunker for tuesday when they gave out the the the frequencies for the first satellite and one brown warned people this is coming is coming they re going to beat us. carly off was planning his space sensation in secret the r seven rocket was scheduled to carry this putting satellite into space on a silver sixth. a
that the u.s. satellite would be launched in the coming year. and it seemed absolutely certain that no one would put up another craft ahead of that. even though there were clear indicators that the soviets were in the race. secret cia information that you two surveillance flights had picked up wasn t being taken all that seriously in the white house in fact about as seriously as official test reports after all they were used to soviet games of bluff and deception. this time however the soviets were right on schedule nevertheless carli off had to rearrange his plans unlike the rocket that would carry it the satellite code named object was still far from ready it was too complex so he swiftly decided to take it out of the program and replace it with a simpler sputnik the constructors had to work a lot of overtime go but i don t think it will ya that always had an eye on the
but there were things we could beat them at. that s more space flight and the peaceful use of nuclear energy for example. we simply showed the world that we weren t a backward country and we weren t second rate on the need to be in the system. it wasn t until several days after the launch that the soviets realized they had achieved quite a coup which is when proctor suddenly went on the offensive. in the us the disappointment was particularly bitter among the people working with preference brown in huntsville alabama when brown had been knocked out of the race or at least was no longer in the running for the winning spot. there was a gathering of. the powers of government and hopeful that at