Eye in the Sky: The Story of the CORONA Spy Satellites (Smithsonian History of Aviation and Spaceflight) by Dwayne Day

Author:Dwayne Day [Day, Dwayne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781588345189
Publisher: Smithsonian
Published: 2015-07-06T16:00:00+00:00

The Soviets’ launch of Sputnik II on November 5 had an even more profound public relations impact than its predecessor. Sputnik II was not only far larger than Sputnik I, but it also carried a dog, demonstrating a sophistication that belied early administration attempts to downplay the Soviet achievement. The size of the payload was clearly sufficient for the carrying of an atomic bomb, which heightened Americans’ fear that the Soviets could now effectively attack the United States. A little over a month later, the U.S. attempt to launch the Vanguard satellite ended in embarrassing failure. Clearly, in the realm of space exploration, the Soviets had taken a substantial lead. From an international legal standpoint, this should have rendered the subject of freedom of space moot, but it did not.

In November, newly appointed Secretary of Defense Neil McElroy proposed centralizing control of the various American space projects then underway, such as Vanguard and WS-117L, along with advanced ballistic missile development. They would be put in a Defense Special Projects Agency (DSPA), which would be responsible for whatever projects the secretary would assign to it. The idea for the DSPA apparently came from the Science Advisory Council in mid-October, just days after both Sputnik’s launch and McElroy’s nomination.36 Eisenhower himself expressed the opinion that a fourth service should be established to handle the “missiles activity.”37 McElroy said that he was weighing the idea of a “Manhattan Project” for antiballistic missiles. The president thought that a separate organization might be a good idea for this problem as well.38 In testimony before Congress, Quarles, who might easily have been regarded as an Air Force partisan, stated that long-range, surface-to-surface missiles had been assigned to the Air Force because it possessed the targeting and reconnaissance capabilities to use them, not because they accomplished a unique Air Force mission.39 Space could conceivably be treated in the same way.

Although the plan for incorporating ballistic missile development in it was eliminated, the idea of a new space agency proceeded. A Special Projects Agency would act as a central authority for all U.S. space programs and would essentially contract out missions to the separate services, civilian government agencies, and even universities and private industry. “Above the level of the three military services, having its own budget, it would be able to concentrate on the new and the unknown without involvement in immediate requirements and inter service rivalries.” McElroy stated in front of Congress that “the vast weapons systems of the future in our judgment need to be the responsibility of a separate part of the Defense Department.”40 This proposal was placed in a DoD reorganization bill. At this point, it was still assumed that the entire American space program would remain under military control, although at the level of the Secretary of Defense in an office specially created to manage it.

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