1958 - Exploration, Colonization

Exploration, Colonization

Sputnik I reenters the atmosphere January 4 and disintegrates (see 1957). The American Rocket Society and Satellite Research Panel issue a summary of their proposals for a National Space Establishment January 4, asking that it be responsible for the "broad cultural, scientific, and commercial objectives" of outer space development. James H. Doolittle, chairman of the 43-year-old National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), announces January 11 that a special committee on space technology was formed in late November of last year, Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson (D. Tex.) gives a radio address on CBS January 14 urging the United States "to demonstrate its initiative before the United Nations by inviting all member nations to join in this adventure into outer space together," and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles proposes January 16 that an international commission be formed to insure the use of outer space exclusively for peaceful purposes, but the U.S. Navy launches its first Polaris test vehicle from Cape Canaveral, Fla., January 17.

Maryland-born physicist and NACA director Hugh L. (Latimer) Dryden, 59, gives a speech to the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences January 27 stressing the importance of a well-planned and logical space program embracing both civilian and military uses. The first U.S. satellite (Explorer I) is launched January 31; developed by rocket engineer Wernher von Braun and his team at Huntsville, Ala., it discovers the radiation belt around the Earth named for physicist James A. Van Allen, now 43, and marks the start of the U.S. space program.

The U.S. Senate adopts a resolution February 6 creating a Special Committee on Space and Aeronautics to frame legislation for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), President Eisenhower gives approval March 27 to plans for outer space exploration, the Soviet Union puts Sputnik III into orbit May 15 with a total payload of about 7,000 pounds and calls it a "flying laboratory," and President Eisenhower signs legislation (H.R. 12575) July 29, making it the National Aeronautics and Space Act. "The present National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics [NACA] with its large and competent staff and well-equipped laboratories will provide the nucleus for NASA," he says. " . . . The cooperation of space exploration responsibilities with NACA's traditional aeronautical research functions is a natural evolution . . . [one which] should have an even greater impact on our future." Eisenhower asks Congress July 30 to appropriate $125 million to initiate NASA, whose creation has been urged by South Carolina-born presidential assistant (and MIT president) James R. (Rhyne) Killian, Jr., 53. Eisenhower nominates North Dakota-born executive T. (Thomas) Keith Glennan, 52, as NASA's first administrator August 8 and he is sworn in August 19 after being confirmed by the Senate. A former member of the Atomic Energy Commission who headed the U.S. Navy's underwater sound laboratory at New London, Conn., during World War II, Glennan has been president of the Case Institute of Technology; his deputy administrator is former NACA director Hugh L. Dryden. Glennan recruits Wernher von Braun, now 46, and his group to work on space projects, but his intention is to keep NASA small and not compete with the Soviet Union in a space race (see communications [Echo I], 1960; Ranger, 1961).

The British Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the first land journey across Antarctica. Led by English geologist Vivian Ernest Fuchs, 50 (who is knighted for his feat), the 12-man group is sponsored by the Royal Geographical Society; it travels 2,500 miles in 99 days from the Filchner Ice Shelf to McMurdo Sound and makes findings that confirm earlier theories that a single continent lies beneath the polar ice sheet.

Australian polar explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins dies suddenly in his Framingham, Mass., hotel room November 30 at age 70; the nuclear submarine U.S.S. Skate will carry out his last wish next year, scattering his ashes after becoming the first submarine to surface at the North Pole March 17 (see U.S.S. Triton, 1960).