Ted Molczan wrote:
> Congratulations to our Russian friends on the 50th anniversary of the launch of
> Sputnik 1.
> I encourage one and all to share your thoughts on the significance of Sputnik 1,
> or your stories about tracking the early satellites.
I remember Friday, October 4 1957. About 7:30 pm. Listening to Rock N Roll
on radio station 1010 WINS, in my bedroom in The Bronx, NYC. My parents were
out shopping. The news came on and I heard that Russia had launched the
first satellite. I had been anticipating a satellite for years, but that was
to be called Vanguard, not Sputnik. This was a complete, but exciting
surprise!
When my folks came home, I was jumping around yelling, the first earth
satellite has been launched. They asked something like, "what's an earth
satellite?"
With me around, it didn't take them long to find out.
Unfortunately, I never got to see it. My first satellite sighting was
Sputnik 3 rocket in summer 1958 while on vacation in Pennsylvania.
There had been a prediction in the newspaper so I got up in the morning to
see a flashing light rising in the south, culminating 1/3 - 1/2 way up in
SE, setting in the east. That was first of a couple thousand different
satellites observed. Obviously, still one my of my most memorable sightings.
Some members of the astronomy club claimed the whole thing was a hoax. The
Russians couldn't possibly be good enough to put something into orbit.
It was infuriating that supposedly smart people (astronomy club members)
could be so stupid. I pointed out that, following predictions, a light had
been tracked moving across the sky from several places in the world. It
would be harder to have a phony light move around the planet at the right
apparent speed and direction, than to actually launch a real satellite. So
if it was a hoax, the Russians were smarter than if they had launched a
satellite.
Another memory, a year or 2 earlier, was a seminar at the American Museum of
Natural History in NYC. The one topic I remember was discussion of where to
launch Vanguard from. White Sands was mentioned as a possibility, but
reasons were presented favoring some place in Florida called Cape Canaveral.
I managed to get autographs of 2 people in attendance. Willie Ley and Von
Braun. I've often thought about, but don't know whatever became of those
autographs.
--
Jay Respler
ADVANCED BUSINESS MACHINES CO.
732-431-1464
--
JRespler@superlink.net
SKY VIEWS & TYPEWRITERS ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA
http://uweb.superlink.net/jrespler
Freehold, New Jersey
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