634 



The Soviet achievement carried the implication that the Soviet 

 Union had mastered the primary technology required for an intercon- 

 tinental ballistic missile. At one stroke, this achievement erased the 

 issue of the "Bomber Gap," created a "Missile Gap," rendered obsolete 

 the elaborate early warning system of the United States against bomb- 

 er attack, reduced the warning time of an attack from hours to min- 

 utes, and raised the issue as to whether manned strategic bombers 

 would not soon be obsolete. It gave a practical demonstration of the 

 possibility and advantages of technological surprise. And, finally, it 

 raised the prestige of the Soviet Union as a technological power of the 

 foremost rank. 



The U.S. response was enactment of Public Law 85-568, the N'a- 

 tional Aeronautics and Space Act, approved July 29, 1958. From this 

 point on, the American space program was launched on an arduous 

 and costly technological course for more than a decade of competition 

 with the Soviet Union ; it was to embrace a tremendous range of scien- 

 tific investigations, technological concepts, and practical applications. 

 Most importantly, for the purposes of this study, it was a form of 

 activity of inherent importance in international relations : its achieve- 

 ments were prestigious and enabled the United States to recover and 

 even raise its diplomatic stature ; its operations were obviously global 

 in nature and required the cooperation of many nations; and the ex- 

 ploitation of its technological capabilities offered attractive rewards 

 to many nations, developed and undeveloped alike. 



While space was later to be formally abjured as a military combat 

 regime, satellites obviously offered great advantages for surveillance 

 (which would contribute to the stability of the mutual deterrence 

 evolving between the United States and the Soviet Union). Surveil- 

 lance from space also offered a way out of the awkward impasse 

 presented by Soviet reluctance to admit any form of external inspec- 

 tion as an adjunct of arms control agreements. 



THE SPACE RACE WITH THE SOVIET UNION 



There are many descriptions of the space race that began in 1957 

 and reached a dramatic climax with the first manned lunar landing, 

 in July 1969. Comparison of U.S. and Soviet achievements in this 

 race are difficult because the goals of the two programs are somewhat 

 divergent. 



Among the Soviet goals have been the development of FOBS (a 

 "fractional orbital bombardment satellite"), the achievement of a 

 completely mechanized and unmanned vehicle to obtain geological 

 specimens and return with them from the Moon to the Earth, a heavy 

 emphasis on manned Earth-orbiting satellites to conduct experiments 

 in the near-space environment, and various surveillance and weather 

 satellites as well as some not yet explained. 



By contrast, one set of U.S. goals has included a series of progres- 

 sions all directed toward the climax of landing a man on the Moon 

 and returning him safely to Earth. Another set of objectives has been 

 aimed at making practical use of space technology in the form of 

 satellites to enable global electronic communications, survey the Earth, 

 facilitate navigation, study the weather, and perform various other 

 useful functions. 



