the space race

[low_delta]

I always knew that the space race was begun when the Russians launched Sputnik, and that the Americans were a bit upset the somebody had beaten them into space. I was talking to a coworker today, who told me that when Sputnik made it into orbit, the people of the United States were held by a mixture of embarrassment, anger and fear. Dennis said (he was seven at the time) his Dad was outraged the the Russians beat us. Our space program had been held up by lack of funding, disinterest and warring factions of scientists.

Comments

[banana.livejournal.com]

Have you heard the story about writing in space? NASA spent millions on a pen that worked in zero gravity. The Russians used a pencil.

Don't know if that's true...

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

I'm sure that whatever NASA did was expensive.

The 50 cent Papermate pens were always pressurized, to write upside down they said. I'm sure those would have been usable in space.