While providing an excellent overview of the space race between Cold War enemies Russia and the United States, this above-average episode of NOVA also reveals how Russia's launch of the first artificial satellite caused major embarrassment for President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The October 1957 launch of Sputnik—as the Russians named their pioneering unmanned satellite—caught Ike with his political pants down, unprepared (due to governmental secrecy) to answer the nation's questions about how the U.S. had apparently "lost" the space race. In taking a closer, retrospective look at this pivotal moment in history, writer-director Rushmore DeNooyer reveals how Eisenhower was, in fact, quite prepared, but had sidelined his initial plans to send up a U.S. spy satellite because he feared (quite rightly) that Russia would respond negatively to an overtly military U.S. space program. This fear led Eisenhower to curtail the efforts of German expatriate Wernher von Braun, leader of the U.S. Army's pioneering rocket development program, who could have attempted a U.S. satellite launch a full year before Sputnik. After Sputnik (and the subsequent failure of the first U.S. satellite), Eisenhower (and later John F. Kennedy) intensified their efforts to win the space race, while Von Braun was elevated to the status of U.S. folk hero. Combining new interviews with recently discovered documentation, Sputnik Declassified tells the true story behind the early space race, offering a welcome example of accurate revisionist history. DVD extras include printable materials for educators. Highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (J. Shannon)
Sputnik Declassified
(2007) 56 min. DVD: $24.95. WGBH Boston Video. PPR. Closed captioned. ISBN: 978-1-59375-795-3. Volume 23, Issue 3
Sputnik Declassified
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