OPENING THE ERA OF OUTER SPACE

[Music] Moscow newspapers were first then headlines around the world echoed the news Russia had blasted a man-made Moon into outer space on every continent and in every land the story of Sputnik 1 dominated the front pages the Soviets scored a scientific first and the Moscow propaganda Mill busily trumpeted the news animation showed what Sputnik 1 with its four Aerials looked like there was a flood of films on studies leading to the missile launching like this scene of a research laboratory the pictures are interesting and revealing but remember they are propaganda carefully edited by the Russians to further the Communist cause the facilities needed to Fire and track the artificial moon are so vast that a scientist at Center screen is almost lost in a giant Russian laboratory Soviet animation reveals that a three-stage rocket like the one America will use Propel Sputnik 1 Skyward in its orbit 560 Mi above the Earth the satellite reached a speed of 18,000 mph circling the globe once every 96 Minutes it was photographed from a plane although only 23 in in diameter and observatories in both hemispheres using powerful telescopes were able to film Sputnik in Flight most important of all were its beep beep beep signals recorded on tape they unlocked secrets of space news of a second spy carrying a dog confirmed the opening of the Space Age enclosed in an air conditioned capsule the dog a female called laa was history's first space passenger the dog had been trained for satellite travel in a series of earlier rocket flights as in her final Ascent the animal was wired with instruments her blood pressure temperature and heartbeat were converted into electrical signals and broadcast to Earth in this preliminary flight two canines were sent Aloft so ding the shock of takeoff acceleration both animals free from gravity's pull adjust themselves to the frightening feeling of floating weightless in space here is evidence that man can step out to reach the moon the planets or even the Stars while the dogs were parachuted safely to Earth in this test there was no way of recovering laa from Sputnik 2 which still circles on Soviet films of student groups tracking the satellite underscore the emphasis on science in Russian schools it is a challenge that President Eisenhower has said America must meet to survive in the space age at the national advisory committee for Aeronautics headquarters United States research scientists are accelerating our rocket program Russia's successful satellite launching has by no means given her a missile Monopoly in the gas Dynamics laboratory new liquid fuel tools are being perfected that may within the next decade Propel Rockets to the Moon here too research goes on in streamlining missiles capable of streaking 7 m a second the speed needed to escape the pull of gravity and reach the moon the complexities of traveling into space and returning are almost endless one obstacle is bringing a Missle back from outer space without its burning up like a meteor in tests such as this America has found the secret Russia still has not it is an achievement that followed tiess study and repeated failures dramatized here by the disintegration of a nose cone under outer space conditions most spectacular of America's missile triumphs was project faride that called for a giant balloon to carry a four stage rocket to a height of 100,000 ft before launching the balloon was set Aloft from en we talk atle in the Pacific with two men riding the Outriggers the launching Carriage Rose into release position Air Force scientists hoped the rocket would reach a th miles but they could not be sure as the balloon drifted into the heavens the ascent seemed painfully slow to the men who watched and waited impatient to trigger the rocket that hung beneath the Giant Gas Bang finally 20 M High the missile is fired streaking into outer space the rocket reaches an estimated altitude of 4,000 M its height is recorded four times that of Sputnik 2 meanwhile testing of mightier and more awesome missiles goes on the greater the rocket size the larger the satellite that can be flung into space telescopes cameras geographical spotting devices and hundreds of other instruments riding and fut Satellites May lift the veil from the universe from the heights that the new missiles command will come information on the length and breadth of the heavens the number of stars and even an understanding of how worlds are born and die someday and it may be in our lifetime man will ride a spaceship similar and designed to today's rocket then interplanetary travel will no longer be a dream these are the horizons unlimited that lie ahead in the Space Age an era of danger of challenge of [Music] opportunity