Space on Earth

The successful shot of the Explorer satellite got the U.S. into space, but last week was the week that space got down to the U.S. In Congress, in the White House, at the Pentagon, in politics, diplomacy and planning, space lost its otherworldly quality, was folded into the everyday processes of government.

President Eisenhower demonstrated his own matter-of-factness with an edict at his 126th press conference: "All of the outer space work done within the Defense Department will be under Secretary McElroy himself." McElroy put his thumbprint on an advancing age by setting up an Advanced Research Projects Agency, by appointing General Electric Vice President Roy W. Johnson, 52, to run it (see Defense). Presidential Science Adviser James R. Killian Jr. undertook a classification of ways, means and reasons for space exploration. The armed services and all space dreamers seized the moment to plug for their pet projects (see cut). And the Congress correlated space with politics; Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson's carefully drawn resolution establishing an Astronautical and Space Exploration Committee pained Republicans who recognized good politics when they saw it.

The U.S. is still many a moon from conquering space or even moving beyond the crawling stage of unmanned satellites. But even the week's snarls and snaps were comforting sounds because, like the clear call of the Explorer in its ceaseless cruise, they signaled that the nation was at least gearing up for the conquest.

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