As steadfast Darwinists and wannabe titans of global industry, Telstar Logistics firmly believes in the creative power of free-market competition. The scope of this power is vast and transformative — even when the competition itself is provided by an authoritarian regime animated by romantic fantasies about the collectivist march of history and proletarian dominance of the means of production. We're talking here about Communism as practiced in the former Soviet Union, of course, but let us not forget that even Karl Marx was a big believer in dialectics — and what are dialectics, really, but a confident faith in the revolutionary power of sustained competition?
Sorry. We digress. But this is a topic that strikes close to home. You see, today is the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Sputnik satellite, and if it weren't for Sputnik, its entirely possible that Telstar I -- the telecommunications satellite that is also our corporate namesake -- wouldn't exist either.
Sputnik 1 was launched on October 4, 1957. It was an extremely crude satellite — an aluminum sphere the size of a medicine ball, with four whip
antennas connected to two battery-powered transmitters. The transmitters
broadcast a simple "beeping" signal to the Earth's surface for 23 days. Then the batteries died, the signal stopped, and Sputnik 1 burned up upon reentering the atmosphere in Janurary, 1958.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal this week, physicist Peter D. Zimmerman captures how the launch of Sputnik gave America's determination to master the technology of space flight a firm kick in the butt:
Fifty years ago this week Sputnik 1 entered space, and the history books, as the first man-made satellite of Earth. It was a Soviet, and not an American, achievement.
Indeed, weighing 184 pounds and being 23 inches in diameter, Sputnik 1 seemed gigantic. It was almost nine times heavier than the still unfinished Vanguard satellite, which President Dwight D. Eisenhower had promised would be America's flagship contribution to the International Geophysical Year. The IGY was an 18-month period in which the nations of the world would make intense efforts to learn about our planet.
Because it was to be purely scientific, Vanguard was to be launched by a new rocket built without using stages and motors from long-range missiles. It was constructed entirely from rockets adapted from those built for science. In contrast, Sputnik was hurled into space by the Soviets' very large R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile.
We all know what happened next, of course. Although it orbited the Earth for just a short time, the launch of Sputnik was the starting gun that marked the beginning of the Space Race.
That the Soviet Union had orbited a satellite first was a slap in the face that got America's competitive juices flowing — and it's no exaggeration at all to say that the successful landing of Apollo 11 on the moon's surface in 1969 was the culmination of a national effort to purge the sting of the Sputnik humilation. The launch of Telstar 1 in 1962 was one of the small steps taken in the run-up to the giant leap of Apollo 11.
So it's a paradox, really. As much as Telstar Logistics is committed to celebrating the can-do spirit of free enterprise epitomized by Telstar 1, Telstar 1 might not have come into being if the Commie pinko Soviets hadn't orbited Sputnik in 1957. So does that mean that the original mantle of can-do optimism rightfully belongs to the dour Leninists who once prowled the halls of the Kremlin? And if that's the case, should our firm actually be called Sputnik Logistics?
The mind reels! It's like "Mirror, Mirror", that old Star Trek episode where the "evil Spock" from a parallel universe sports a sinister goatee and behaves like a ruthless scoundrel! So very disorienting.
But there is one big consolation: those godless Soviets may have gotten there first, but Telstar ended up with the better theme song.
LINKS:
Sputnik (NASA history pages)
Telemetry from Sputnik 1 (Audio .wav file recording of Sputnik 1's "beep")
Soviet Fires Earth Satellite Into Space (Full text of New York Times article, October 5, 1957)
PREVIOUSLY:
Happy 45th Anniversary, Telstar 1!
Sputnik started the race to space in which United Sates won. However, let's not forget that sputnik was the first artificial satellite to be put in space.
Watch Sputnik's historical launch video
http://www.snupped.com/sputnik
Posted by: Davin | 04 October 2007 at 08:21 AM
Much Ado About Nothing Dep't:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-google9oct09,0,2321354.story?coll=la-home-center>Google
erm, doesn't this blog accept html?
Posted by: Dill Pixels | 11 October 2007 at 10:06 AM