Cosmic Challenge

Streaking through space, out of the gravitational pull of man's world, past the moon, toward an orbit around the sun last week went the most breathtaking new object of the century. It was the first man-made planet--a Russian rocket. "On January 2, 1959," Moscow radio proclaimed, "a cosmic rocket was launched toward the moon. The launching again demonstrates to the world the outstanding achievements of Soviet science and technology." The rocket, Moscow added, was a multi-stage rig that weighed 3,245 lbs., with a 796.5-lb. payload of instruments (see SCIENCE) and pennants bearing the U.S.S.R. coat of arms. Its speed: 25,000 m.p.h. The rocket missed the moon by 4,660 miles--about the distance from Moscow to Manhattan.

As impressive as the rocket was its timing--accidental or designed. The shot heralded the mission to Washington of Khrushchev's No. 1 aide, Anastas Mikoyan (see Foreign Relations), dramatically topped the U.S.'s recent Atlas successes and put the U.S.S.R. ahead in the prestige-packed race for space. The cosmic rocket, Moscow said in a dozen languages, was the net result of "the creative toil of the whole Soviet people [in] the development of Socialist society in the interests of all progressive mankind."

Respectful Greeting. An hour or so before Moscow's first announcement, the U.S. got its first notion of the Russian rocket from a monitoring station in Hawaii. There technicians suddenly tensed as receivers detected an unearthly new sound of the century: signals from an unidentified vehicle out in space.

As the word spread and was confirmed by Moscow radio, the U.S. recognized the sweep of the new Communist challenge, greeted it with respect. President Eisenhower, who had sent no message to the U.S.S.R. about Sputnik I, got off congratulations to the U.S.S.R. scientists for "a great stride forward in man's advance." Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson observed that the U.S. is "not going far enough fast enough."

An hour before word of the Russian shot, the House space committee recommended that the U.S. probe the moon with a couple of Thor-Able rockets now lying at Cape Canaveral. Even after the news from Moscow, Montana's Democratic Senator Mike Mansfield disapproved--"a sign of panic." Underlying the absence of excuses--and the absence of panic--was a general public knowledge that the U.S. had already tried to hit the moon, had failed, had been left trailing by the Russians, but not by very much.

U.S. missilemen at the Pentagon and Cape Canaveral studied the figures, agreed that the Russians were ahead in terms of weight of payload, propulsion power, general rocket reliability. The U.S.S.R.'s rocket was also the first far-out Russian rocket detected by U.S. tracking systems. Whatever their secret launching-pad failures, the Russians apparently scored with the first rocket they got off the ground.

One-Point Lead? Many U.S. technicians believe that the Russians have probably long since frozen their basic rocket design upon one model, and it now functions with workhorse reliability. U.S. missilemen take some comfort in the fact that the U.S.'s newer, more sophisticated rockets have intricate and ingenious instrumentation, guidance systems, planet scanners, communication. Another key U.S. claim: the U.S. has succeeded in miniaturizing its instrument payloads--not to mention its military missile warheads.

But in the race for prestige and achievement in space, these complicated virtues have their drawbacks, however temporary. Said German Scientist Hermann Oberth, who had worked on the U.S. missile program: "The Russian rockets remind me of simple alarm clocks--you can throw them on the wall and they'll keep on ticking. American missiles are like expensive ladies' wrist watches that look nice but tend to stop frequently." An old missile hand at Cape Canaveral turned to a football figure. The Russians, said he, are now leading in moon shots by 7 to 6--they have converted after the touchdown. He did not need to add that, operationally speaking, missilery is perhaps the one game where peace and safety can be lost to a one-point lead.

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