Our Sputnik Moment

In this post, I defer to my father, Charles Husson, who spent 30 years at NASA’s Langley Research Center as a systems engineer and program manager. From launching test payloads off Wallops Island, VA, in the late 1950′s to troubleshooting the Viking I Lander in the late 1970′s, and subsequently on loan to the Defense Department from NASA in the 80′s, he has been on the cutting edge of technology and has a unique view of how government and industry worked together to move this country into true “high-tech.”

He was particularly fired up about one comment Obama made during the State of the Union address, and I invited him to write his thoughts. The “Sputnik moment” will probably go down as one of the most unfortunate metaphors a president has chosen in an attempt to spur innovation, and one reason is given below.

A SPUTNIK MOMENT – Charles Husson

Using a “ Sputnik” moment to stimulate Americans and possibly Congress to “gird up their loins” and meet the great challenge ahead was a very bad  and grossly incorrect  metaphor.  It was Washington’s fault that this country was unable to launch a satellite when they had the means – many months ahead of Sputnik.

That embarrassment was due to a United States government edict from President Eisenhower that said “no military vehicle would be used to launch a satellite into orbit”; hence, the government-ordered, failure-plagued program “The Vanguard” to build a “peaceful” launch vehicle was created.

Four months later, after numerous launch vehicle explosions on the pad and in mid-flight, Wehrner Von Braun was finally allowed to use a military launch vehicle to put Explorer I into orbit. The Explorer I satellite built by William Van Allen had been put on hold by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Had Washington not interfered, there would be no space race, as we were clearly ahead on orbital launch capability when Sputnik was launched. Their ignorance and misdirection of these facts is wordsmithing of highest caliber. They could teach us “How To Cheat at Cards Without Being Caught”.

This is another example of Washington’s misreading of the technical environment and what it takes to be technically successful. You can build high-speed train systems based on foreign technology, build alternate energy platforms based on foreign technology, and green the environment through foreign technology, but it will not solve the basic industrial R & D infrastructure problem instituted by the United States government in the 1970’s and imposed on its own manufacturing system.

I’ll have more to say on that, but for now it’s enough to know that we can get back on track in five years if the government will take a few simple steps.