Air University Review, May-June 1968
Brigadier General Henry C. Huglin, USAF (Ret)
Our ancestors for thousands of years have gazed on the moon and the stars as beautiful, mysterious parts of the universe in which our planet Earth exists. But now we are reaching out to them, and the solution of some of their mysteries is within our grasp.
We humans have always been the most curious of all beings. We have sought to understand our environment and ourselves. We respond to the challenge of the unknown, of adventure, and of exploration. We have often been more willing and eager to set out on new ventures than to wrestle with the mundane problems of our home environment. And sometimes the knowledge, experience, and new wealth which have come from our explorations have helped to solve the problems that we turned our back on when we ventured forth. So it may well be with space, man’s greatest venture.
Our ancestors always yearned to fly. We achieved and mastered this capability in the air with the airplane in this century. Ten years ago the moment in our technological evolution arrived when the exploration of space became possible. The conjunction of knowledge, techniques, and resources occurred so that we could set out upon exploration of the heavens almost with greater confidence than seafarers centuries ago had when they set out upon the exploration of distant oceans or our air pioneers had when they set out to master flight in the air.
Much of what we are doing in space has been developed from our experience of flight in the air, and in part because of this experience our achievements in astronautics are coming at a much faster rate and in much broader scope than in aeronautics. Our great venture into space is in many ways the most dramatic, difficult, and challenging quest ever undertaken by man, and it may also prove be the most rewarding.
Quite naturally, there are critics, skeptics, and challengers of this great
new venture, as there are of nearly everything new and out of the ordinary.
There were those who criticized Ferdinand and Isabella
for spend money on
There are always more worthy projects than there are funds, resources, and talents to match the needs. But there is no program meet other needs of ours that offers as much glamour, excitement, and prospect of solid achievement in the long term as space; therefore, none is so competitive as to drain away from our space venture its essential resources. This space program of ours, far from be a waste of resources, is likely to prove the soundest, most worthwhile, and, in the long run, cheapest—because of the dividends it, will pay—of all major ventures undertaken by man.
Most of us are now diverted only momentarily by news of another spectacular
space launch from
This quest in space is requiring tremendous scientific, engineering, physical, and financial resources. Yet it will cost us less than one percent of our gross national product and involve less than one-half of one percent our labor force. But its impact is progressively to affect all of us and in fact the whole world.
To better appreciate the scope and depth of this undertaking, we should judge the plans, purposes, achievements, and potential values of our space program in the context of the present world environment and our role in the world.
The World Environment and
Our Role in the World
The security and future well-being of our nation depend in large part upon a combination of our political wisdom, economic strength, military strength and our will to use it, technological competence, and the image we project. Our space activities contribute to each of these essential factors except the first.
Our primary goals are for a peaceful world where we and all other people can live secure from aggression, either direct or indirect by subversion; where diversity can flourish, with all people living under a government of their own free choosing; and where rising expectations of a better life have prospect of fulfillment.
But these goals of ours are now unrealizable because of age-old greeds, animosities, and excessive nationalism which subvert them.
Due also to these age-old negative factors, the United Nations is disappointingly weak, and there is little prospect that it can be significantly strengthened in the immediate future. It is wholly beyond our power as a nation to strengthen the U.N. appreciably because of the contrary objectives and obstructionism of Soviet Russia and the irresponsibility and self-centeredness of many of the new nations in the world—and some of the older ones, such as France.
To preserve our future as well as the future of others who now live in freedom, we must keep strong politically, ideologically, economically, technologically, and militarily.
We did not seek this pre-eminent role of power and responsibility in the world; we were projected into it by the combination of the resources of our land, the talents and industriousness of our people, our system of individual liberty, freedom of opportunity, and the incentive of rewards from our free enterprise system, along with the decline of such older nations as Britain and France and the lack of many of our blessings in Soviet Russia. Since we did not seek this role, the mantle of responsibility which goes with it rests uneasily on our shoulders. Like many parents and community leaders upon whom responsibility devolves, we chafe under our role and have difficulty in accepting it maturely. Yet, like parents and community leaders, we cannot turn back the clock to our national adolescence, nor can we shirk our responsibilities unless we are prepared to see other nations with quite different standards and objectives—many of which are inimical to ours—take over the world and us with it. Thus we have no rational choice but to fulfill responsibly the role into which we have been thrust. So we must explore the frontiers of space because we have the capability to do so. If we do not, Soviet Russia will do it ahead of us and thereby may be able to dominate the world—to our peril and the peril of other people who now live in freedom.
We cannot avoid the fact that we are one of two superpowers in the world today competing in many fields. The other, Soviet Russia, despite her present relative quietude, is basically expansionist and committed to turn the world her way. Through the political wisdom of our policies, our military and economic strength, and the will to use this strength, we have so far succeeded in keeping the Soviets from achieving their purposes either by open aggression or by their promotion of subversion. We are now faced with the Soviet policy of peaceful coexistence, which in their definition means outdoing us without open warfare by all means feasible. In their view this includes trying to create the substance or, if not the substance, the illusion of a superior system to which the other nations of the world will be drawn by power or by coercion. And space is obviously one of the major fields which Soviet Russia has picked for competition.
We have survived as a nation for the past twenty-five years through our technological superiority and the ability to project our strengths where they were vital to our national security. For twenty years our significant superiority in strategic power has been the main deterrent to general war and the main insurer of our security. Today space represents a new arena of capability that is potentially as important as, and perhaps even more important than, previous arenas, including flight in the air. As we have been secure in the past only by excelling in our military, economic, and technological capabilities, so we can be secure in the future only if we also excel in this new arena.
We must recognize that leadership in technology is a prime requirement of our future as a major nation with our way of life. We are in a highly competitive technological age, an age in which technology is advancing very rapidly. We cannot avoid casting the space venture in a seriously competitive atmosphere—an extension of our confrontation and of our competition for survival and for the respect, if not necessarily the allegiance, of the peoples of the world.
Yet, if we were the only nation in the world or the only advanced major nation, we would certainly have undertaken the exploration of space simply because the time for it had come through scientific and technological development. Whenever he has become able, man has tackled the unknown. But had there not been strong competition from Soviet Russia, our space venture would undoubtedly not have been undertaken at the pace and with the scope that it has been. (In the long run, though, our exploration of space may well be less costly and more fruitful for having been pursued at the pace we have set.)
Achievements, Purposes, and
Commitments
The space age was dramatically opened on 4 October 1957 by Soviet Russia’s launching of Sputnik I, weighing 184 pounds, into orbit around the earth. A month later Sputnik II, weighing 1120 pounds and containing a live dog, was successfully orbited. With these two satellites the Soviets pulled off a political, psychological, and technological coup that was to have profound implications. Their brilliant success immediately altered the image in which the Soviets and We had previously been regarded. Many people in the world were led to believe that the Soviets had outdistanced us and that their system was superior to ours in applying science to technological development. Further, their achievements gave the impression that the Soviets were ahead of us in missile development and accuracy and that therefore the balance of strategic power had changed in their favor; thus our previously accepted strategic military superiority was brought into serious question. The psychological consequences were doubts and disarray among our allies and an increase in admiration and respect for the Soviets throughout the world. And the Soviets did their best to capitalize on these changed attitudes.
Further, the Soviets became dazzled by their own achievements. As a result
they overrated their actual strength to the point where they became bolder and
more threatening over places like
We, too, had launched a satellite development program in the early 1950s, but it was short on funds, interest, and priority. Two months after the Soviets launched their first Sputnik a much-publicized effort of ours, Project Vanguard, failed in an attempt to place a 3½-pound sphere into orbit. Finally, on the last day of January 1958, our first successful spacecraft, Explorer I, weighing 31 pounds, was successfully shot into orbit.
Within a year after the Sputnik launchings we had set up the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and started to develop a broad-based, scientifically oriented space exploration program. In the late 1950s, however, our space program was still a relatively modest one, and its objectives seemed to be much more modest than those of the Soviets. Further, a great deal of valuable time had been lost, and the initiative rested for a long time with the Soviets; it was not to be until after 1962 that our achievements would significantly surpass those of the Soviets, to the swing of the political-psychological balance back to us.
Our space program figuratively “got off the ground” in 1961. After the one-orbit flight of Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, President Kennedy set for the nation “the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth.”
This great venture has been strongly supported by the Congress and the American people. In pursuit of this goal, we have made giant strides in space. In many ways we have outdistanced the Soviets, and we have restored large part the image of American technological leadership and dynamism throughout the world. Yet our competition with the Soviets in space remains just as vital as ever, even though it appears currently to have subsided.
After the Cuban missile confrontation the Soviets apparently accepted for
the time being the realities of our strategic missile and bomb superiority.
They have relaxed the pressures
In the past few years the Soviets have markedly increased their expenditure of resources on space work; yet their achievements are not nearly as spectacular as our recent ones. This leads one to suspect that they are striving mightily for some significant space development which would give them the most power or prestige or both.
In Soviet Russia, most of the developments of space technology have been for military purposes, and many domestic references by Soviet leaders to space accomplishments have directly related them to Soviet military power. Clearly, their space activities have been an integral part of their overall military program, this despite the fact that in their propaganda they claim that their space work is solely for peaceful uses and that ours is solely for military purposes. The Soviets are simply not wealthy enough, nor are they so oriented, to spend their somewhat limited resources upon scientific developments for the benefit of mankind. Almost all their efforts in major fields have been related to the building of Soviet power and influence; they strive in almost everything they do for political and psychological advantages.
Therefore, the soundest expectation is that the Soviets are continuing to place the best of their technological resources into achieving a major breakthrough in space which will give them political, psychological, and, hopefully, strategic advantages over us. So, in all prudence, we cannot ignore the fact that a good part of our effort in space is related to our competition with Soviet Russia for superiority in the world, which so vitally affects our future. We must not lose this race. There are no prizes for second-best in this world struggle. A position of second-best to Soviet Russia could mean for us, at the most, a loss of our way of life, or, at the least, a hazardous existence.
This may seem a hard and cynical attitude. It is. But we should remember that there are still much more greed and selfishness in the world than compassion and cooperation. We should lead in compassion, in assistance to the needy, and in holding out our hands in friendship. Yet life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness still come basically from security for our land and people, and this security comes from strength, foresight in keeping this strength, and a clear, demonstrated will to use that strength if necessary. These well-tested factors apply in the realm of space. And wishing it were different will not make it so.
The Soviets and we, through the United Nations, have agreed, along with the
other U.N. members, that outer space will be used only for peaceful purposes.
Under this agreement we cannot place weapons in space. It does not preclude the
development of capabilities for reconnaissance, inspection, and verification of
the nature of objects which are placed in space by others. And this agreement
also does not preclude our developing missile capabilities based on earth to
knock out of orbit any weapons that might be placed there by the Soviets or any
other hostile power. Therefore, we must continue to develop the capability to
destroy or negate any hostile threat that might be placed in space,
irrespective of the U.N. agreement. Naïve trust in another nation’s intentions
and actions has led to national disasters, from the Trojan horse to the
Our space effort is now larger and more fruitful to science on a broader basis than the spectacular exploits of Soviet Russia. The scope—although not the quality—of our achievement was reflected statistically at the end of 1967 by our having successfully launched 514 spacecraft, of which 267 were still in orbit, whereas Soviet Russia had launched 252 spacecraft (less than half as many), of which 63 (less than a fourth as many) were still in orbit. Yet, regardless of our lead, nothing can erase the fact that Yuri Gagarin, not John Glenn, was first to orbit the earth.
Our space activity is now reflecting well our role of pre-eminent power and
responsibility in the world. In this role we need to maintain pre-eminence in
space. We need to continue our broad-based program of space exploration. And we
need to succeed in our goal of being first on the moon. The first man on the
moon will probably be the most famous man of this century, if not of this
millennium. Who remembers the second man to cross the Atlantic after
Potential Values and Dividends
For all our effort, resources, and long-term commitments, what specifically are we really going to gain from space? What are the actual values of the space program to us as a nation and a people? What has been achieved so far, and what is in prospect?
The foremost value will be the preservation of our way of life, our freedom, and the stature and prestige of our nation in its unavoidable pre-eminent position in the world. Space may well be the key element in the future of the world and the key element in our nation’s future. If we are to remain great, if we are to be true to the values, the goals, and the ideals for which we stand, we must continue to accept the challenge of space with an effort commensurate with the greatness of the challenge and with our broad-based, remarkable capabilities.
But beyond our security and prestige, a major value of our space program will derive from the experience our government-industry team is gaining in marshaling and managing on a nationwide basis a complex of resources consisting of highly developed equipment, installations, and skilled people. The rapidly expanding experience from this venture is running deep through our national life. It will pay great dividends as we tackle other great ventures of our society, such as the war on poverty, the renovation of our cities, the reversal of the pollution of our environment, and the exploration and tapping of the vast food and mineral resources of the oceans.
We are profiting from our space achievements in other tangible ways, too. Our meteorological satellites have brought us near to quantum jump in capability to forecast weather around the world. The geodetic satellites have surveyed our earth with more accuracy by far than was possible by any other means. New sensors in satellites are developing the capability to scan the earth for minerals and to survey crops and forest lands. Our scientific satellites are just beginning to acquire a great deal of new knowledge about our solar stem, the sun, the moon, the planets, and the energy that comes from outer space, all of which will help to increase significantly our understanding of this earth we live on and the properties of the universe which affect our environment.
The communication satellites are on the verge of creating a revolution in the spread of information around the world. Within a few years, all the people of the world can be instantaneously in contact through radio and television. No longer should closed societies under totalitarian regimes be readily capable of keeping their people from knowing what the rest of mankind is doing and thinking. The effect upon captive peoples and their leaders can be profound. The potential gain for freedom, for diversity, and for the free competition of ideas should be immense. The political, psychological, social, and economic pacts of this development may well be world-shaking.
In early prospect are satellites for navigation aids to shipping and aircraft and for control of these means of transportation on a regional or worldwide basis.
In the process of creating satellites to do these tasks and to put men into space, we have also developed many new processes and materials and have gained much new scientific knowledge. Microminiaturization of election is one tremendous development. New materials for coping with the heating problem on the re-entry of satellites have already been used in common household items. The biomedical instrumentation of man in space is contributing to the understanding of human physiology. The building of rocket motors and structures for the rockets and their payloads has resulted in new products and new manufacturing processes.
Space has proved to be a vast new frontier for exploration and a great new laboratory for scientific investigation. Our scientific discoveries are changing many theories that could not be tested previously, and these changes will affect our knowledge of the environment in which we live, with inestimable value to us.
Our human urge to explore the unknown and our drive to satisfy our scientific curiosity in the search for answers to national needs provide incentives which converge in our national space venture. And this venture is already having profound effects on the scientific, technical, educational, industrial, and military aspects of our life. Yet our exploration of space is still in its infancy; its effects are going to multiply. The money, time, and resources we will devote to it may well redound a thousandfold to our benefit and to the benefit of all mankind.
Potential Impact on International
Cooperation
A great need of our time is for mankind to surmount the age-old causes of conflict and war: greed for other people’s territory, racial and ethnic animosities, and excessive nationalism. The U.N. does many useful things but has been a disappointment in not fulfilling its purposes, because of the conflicting objectives of many nations that have subscribed to the lofty ideals of the U.N. charter but have not abided by them. Yet in the last twenty years there has been a slowly growing sense of interdependence, and international cooperation in many fields has developed through U.N. agencies, regional alliances, and bilateral action. Technological developments have played a major role in this growth of international cooperation. For example, nuclear weapons have markedly dampened careless or reckless drifting into war and thereby have promoted cooperation. Space exploration and related developments may result in putting strong pressures on mankind, especially on those who live in closed societies with expansionist ambitions, to change their outlook and cooperate for the benefit of all.
In the execution of our space program we have done a great deal to promote
international cooperation. The Soviets and we are cooperating in the exchange
of some information, although not yet to the extent that we have proposed and
hoped for. We have undertaken cooperative sounding rocket programs with twenty
other countries and cooperative satellite programs with
We have tried to share as widely as possible with other nations’ scientists the results of our space discoveries in order that they may profit in their research from our new knowledge. Further, our meteorological, geodetic, and navigation satellites are providing information of benefit to people throughout the world.
The commercial communications satellites that we are in the process of launching under the Communications Satellite Corporation will create a service with a network of satellites that will be offered to many nations; already fifty have joined as potential users.
In many ways our space explorations and achievements should assist our role in the world and promote the attractiveness of our way of life to the rest of mankind. Hopefully, too, our achievements in space will help man-kind bridge the political, social, and ideological gap between the vistas which technological developments are opening up and the archaism of many of man’s attitudes and institutions. Space may well help close the gap between science and society by aiding people to fully recognize their interdependence.
Robert Ardrey, in his book The Territorial Imperative, develops a thesis that man is basically a competitive territorial being, that war in the past has provided a natural outlet for man’s principal drives, and that competition in space may be a useful way to channel this competitive drive into relatively peaceful channels—when nuclear weapons have made major war unprofitable and irrational. If he is right, our competition with the Soviets may, in itself, be serving a vital function.
Our unavoidable pre-eminence in the world requires us to play our role responsibly or else see our society decline. This role involves leadership in scientific exploration, technological development, and steps to insure that no other nation, by a breakthrough, endangers the security of our nation and those dependent upon us.
Missile boosters, guidance systems, and other technological developments have made possible the exploration of space, the greatest unexplored frontier. It is there. It must be explored, and we must lead the venture. As President Johnson has said: “The fate of the free society—and the human values it uphold—is unalterably tied to what happens in other space, as humankind’s ultimate dimensions.”
Our leadership in space is now linked to our leadership in the world. Such leadership should be broad-based, but it also must include leadership in the most dramatic accomplishments. The most dramatic of all is to put a man on the moon. That will be regarded: mankind’s most stupendous scientific and technological achievement in this century and probably in history. The process of achieving it will give benefits to society in many fields, most of which we cannot now conceive; al these alone will justify the effort and the costs many times over.
The overriding objective of our man-on-the-moon effort is a psychological one—Americans, products of a free society, will have performed mankind’s greatest feat. The value of this is incalculable for energize our own society and, equally important, for the respect, confidence, and admiration which it will generate throughout the world.
Human nature is sufficiently basic in the values it cherishes to be attracted to the leader, to the winner, to the one with outstanding skills, devotion, and persistence to excel. Outer space is now our testing ground and our field of opportunity. Man may be infinitesimal compared with the sweep of the universe, but our intelligence and skills applied with wisdom can unlock the secrets of space and enable us to adapt even better to our environment and play our role in the world responsibly.
Our reaching out for the stars can inspire our greatest vision, courage, and ingenuity and can lead to a better era of peace and prosperity on earth. But this can happen only if the exploration of space is led by free men who will apply the benefits for man’s betterment and not for his enslavement.
Acknowledgment
The photographs accompanying this article were furnished by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Brigadier General Henry C. Huglin, USAF
(Ret), is a Senior Military Scientist with TEMPO, General Electric’s Center for
Advanced Studies,
Disclaimer
The conclusions and opinions expressed in this
document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression,
academic environment of
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