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A Ball, a Dog, and a Monkey: 1957 -- The Space Race Begins by Michael D'Antonio (Paperback, 2008)

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A Ball, a Dog, and a Monkey tells the remarkable story of America's first efforts to succeed in space, a time of exploding rockets, national space mania, Florida boomtowns, and interservice rivalries so fierce that President Dwight Eisenhower had to referee them. When the Soviet Union launched the first orbital satellite, Sputnik I, Americans panicked. The Soviets had nuclear weapons, the Cold War was underway, and now the USSR had taken the lead in the space race. Members of Congress and the press called for an all-out effort to launch a satellite into orbit. With dire warnings about national security in the news almost every day, the armed services saw space as the new military frontier. But President Eisenhower insisted that the space effort, which relied on military technology, be supervised by civilians so that the space race would be peaceful. The Navy's Vanguard program flopped, and the Army, led by ex-Nazi rocket scientist Wernher von Braun and a martinet general named J. Bruce Medaris (whom Eisenhower disliked), took over. Meanwhile, the Soviets put a dog inside the next Sputnik, and Americans grew more worried as the first animal in space whirled around the Earth. Throughout 1958 America went space crazy. UFO sightings spiked. Boys from Brooklyn to Burbank shot model rockets into the air. Space-themed beauty pageants became a national phenomenon. The news media flocked to the launchpads on the swampy Florida coast, and reporters reinvented themselves as space correspondents. And finally the Army's rocket program succeeded. Determined not to be outdone by the Russians, America's space scientists launched the first primate into space, a small monkey they nicknamed Old Reliable for his calm demeanor. And then at Christmastime, Eisenhower authorized the launch of a secret satellite with a surprise aboard. A Ball, a Dog, and a Monkey memorably recalls the infancy of the space race, a time when new technologies brought ominous danger but also gave us the ability to realize our dreams and reach for the stars.

Product Identifiers

Publisher
Simon & Schuster
ISBN-13
9780743294324
eBay Product ID (ePID)
96496104

Product Key Features

Book Title
A Ball, a Dog, and a Monkey: 1957 -- the Space Race Begins
Author
Michael D'antonio
Format
Paperback
Language
English
Topic
History, Astronomy
Publication Year
2008
Type
Textbook
Number of Pages
320 Pages

Dimensions

Item Height
214mm
Item Width
140mm
Item Weight
346g

Additional Product Features

Title_Author
Michael D'antonio
Country/Region of Manufacture
United States

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A Ball, a Dog, and a Monkey: 1957 -- The Space Race Begins by Michael D'Antonio (Paperback, 2008)

About this product

Product Information

Product Identifiers

Product Key Features

Dimensions

Additional Product Features

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