332 



sciences and shift attention toward projects supporting the four 

 major goals discussed earlier in section III. To the extent that scientific 

 manpower, technical resources, and available funds were allocated 

 in support of IGY-oriented programs, the earth sciences clearly 

 received high priority. A reflection of this emphasis is contained in 

 the highly international philosophy that appears to have prevailed 

 during the IGY period. Certainly the earth sciences benefited enor- 

 mously, never before having enjoyed especially great largess as 

 compared with more spectacular fields like high-energy physics or 

 atomic energy. As Kaplan remarked, 



The impact of the International Geophysical Year in the geophysieal sciences 

 has been remarkable. In my opinion, the International Geophysical Year has 

 usheied in a new era in geophysics. 105 



Specific Impacts on the United States 



On a more specific level were the large number of national impacts 

 which occurred primarily as a result of the Soviet IGY artificial 

 satellite program. The launching of artificial satellites was an im- 

 portant and integral part of the total IGY effort. 106 Although only 

 two of the 67 participating nations — the United States and the 

 U.S.S.R. — took part in these activities, they represented the world's 

 two most powerful countries, and the proportions of their respective 

 IGY outlays which went into the satellite effort were substantial. 107 



The possibility of launching artificial earth satellites had been 

 discussed long before the IGY, and Van Allen had outlined the 

 scientific usefulness of satellites as early as 1948. 108 In November 

 1953, the president of the Soviet Academy of Sciences told the World 

 Peace Council in Vienna that "science has reached a state when it 

 is feasible ... to create an artificial satellite of the Earth." 109 In 

 view of the optimism regarding the technology available for satellite 

 launching and the ability to make measurements encompassing the 

 globe through their use, it is not surprising that especially serious 

 attention was given the use of satellites as part of the IGY. 



At the Rome meeting of the CSAGI in 1954, a formal proposal 

 was made that those nations able to do so should include artificial 

 satellites within their IGY programs. In particular, it was felt by the 

 CSAGI that use of such satellites should provide information regarding 

 the aurora, the earth's magnetic field, the solar ultraviolet, X-ray 

 and particle radiation, and cosmic ray phenomena that could not be 

 acquired in any other way. As stated by Roberts, "A direct result 

 of the agreement reached at Rome [was] that the United States and 

 the Soviet Union embarked at this time on what was to become per- 

 haps man's most adventurous scientific enterprise . . . destined to 

 produce results far beyond the initial expectations of CSAGI." uo 



">» Testimony in NSF-NAS Hearings: IGY Report, p. 8. 



10 * S unple: U.S., Co enate, Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, Soviet Space 



Programs: Organization, Plans, Goals, and International Implications, s7th Cong., 2d sess., May 31, 1962, 

 p. 123. This staff study calls the launching of Sputnik 1 the tGY'8"mos1 dramatic event" (p. 173). 



""As mentioned eai Her in chap 2, almost half of the $-13 million appropriated by Congress for the 10 Y 

 was used for earth satellite acth ii I 



101 Sullivan, "The I<> V," p. J75. Some discussion took place in military department reports possibly as 

 early as l 



' M Si« P. J. Kroner, Behind the Sjmtniks, A Survey of Soviet Space Science (New York: Public Affairs 

 Press, 1958), p. ■'*. 



»° Roberts, "The IO Y in Retrospect," p. 268. 



