Roger D. Launius National Air and Space Museum Smithsonian Institution

1. When Cosmic Tumblers Clicked into Place: Gagarin, JFK, and the Moon Race Roger D. Launius National Air and Space Museum Smithsonian Institution

2. Rocket Builders and Engineers, 1920-1940 • Robert Goddard only one of the dreamers to make significant contributions to rocketry—1st liquid-fuel rocket launch 3/16/1926—but isolated • Wernher von Braun—Germany • Sergei Korolev—USSR • The Caltech team/origins of JPL—USA

3. First Steps into Space • V-2 as a sounding rocket and the origins of space science; V-2 derivatives in the USSR • Development of sounding rockets by JPL and others (WAC Corporal/Aerobee) • Cold War context: how much would have been spent otherwise? • Space promotion: Collier’s, Disney.

4. Eisenhower’s Measured Space Program • ICBM Development as a Crash Effort • Satellite Reconnaissance a Crash Effort • Limited Scientific Activities under NAS • IGY Satellite Effort • Between 1953-1957 spent $11.8 billion on space R&D ($58 billion in 1997 dollars). Projected costs through FY63 was 36.1 billion

5. A Model for Space Exploration • Human Earth orbital flights • Winged reusable spacecraft • Permanently inhabited space station • Human lunar exploration • Human expeditions to Mars

6. The Sputnik Crisis • Friday, 4 October 1957, Sputnik 1, launched at Soviet Union's rocket testing facility near Tyuratam in the Kazakh Republic • Sputnik 1: 22-inch aluminum sphere, four trailing spring-loaded whip antennae, weight of 183 pounds, elliptical Earth orbit every 96 minutes • Small radio beacon provided telemetry to verify exact locations on Earth

7. Korolev’s Giant: the R-7 • World’s first ICBM, launched 1957 • four liquid boosters “stage-and-a-half “ • Sputnik 1957 • With upper stage: Luna, Vostok, Voshkod, Soyuz • In various versions still in use today as 1st stage

8. Launching NASA • National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, signed into law July 29, 1958 • NASA began operating October 1, 1958 • Incorporated NACA, several DOD space assets • JPL (Army) • MSFC (Army) • KSC (Army) • GSFC (Naval Research Lab)

9. Gagarin’s Flight

10. An Engaging Hero

11. Many Myths of Gagarin’s Flight • Gagarin flew because of his solid worker origins. • Gagarin was only a medical test subject. • Gagarin not the first cosmonaut in space. • Gagarin’s flight was not announced until landing. • Gagarin’s plane crash in 1968 was an assassination ordered by Kremlin.

12. Bay of Pigs Invasion

13. JFK’s Decision-making Process • “Do we have a chance of beating the Soviets by putting a laboratory in space, or by a trip around the moon, or by a rocket to go to the moon and back with a man? Is there any other space program that promises dramatic results in which we could win?”—JFK to LBJ, April 20, 1961.

14. The Decision to Go to the Moon • Project Apollo was a result of Cold War rivalry. • JFK Speech, May 25, 1961. • “I believe this Nation should commitment itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.”

16. JFK’s Reconsideration • JFK met Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev at Vienna summit, Jun. 4-5, 1961. • JFK approachedKhrushchev on space exploration “joint venture.” • Khrushchev countered that such decisions should be linked to nuclear disarmament actions.

17. “I’m not that interested in space” • “Now, this may not change anything about that schedule, but at least we ought to be clear, otherwise we shouldn’t be spending this kind of money because I’m not that interested in space. I think it’s good; I think we ought to know about it; we’re ready to spend reasonable amounts of money. But we’re talking about these fantastic expenditures which wreck our budget and all these other domestic programs and the only justification for it, in my opinion, to do it in this time or fashion, is because we hope to beat them and demonstrate that starting behind, as we did by a couple years, by God, we passed them—JFK, Nov. 20, 1962

18. A Great Communicator

19. JFK to UN, Sep. 20, 1963 • “Finally, in a field where the United States and the Soviet Union have a special capacity—in the field of space—there is room for new cooperation, for further joint efforts in the regulation and exploration of space. I include among these possibilities a joint expedition to the moon….Why, therefore, should man's first flight to the moon be a matter of national competition? Why should the United States and the Soviet Union, in preparing for such expeditions, become involved in immense duplications of research, construction, and expenditure? Surely we should explore whether the scientists and astronauts of our two countries--indeed of all the world--cannot work together in the conquest of space, sending someday in this decade to the moon not the representatives of a single nation, but the representatives of all of our countries.”

20. Assassination • JFK Assassination, Nov. 22, 1963, solidified support for Apollo. • NASA officials used POTUS death as argument to continue support. • Cooperative venture lost in aftermath.

21. Culmination of Apollo • $25.4 billion cost. • Six successful landings, 1969-1972. • Three circumlunar flights (Apollo 8, 10, 13). • Technological advance pathbreaking. • Scientific return astounding.