The U.S. came fully awake to the fact that its normal best in the cold war is no longer good enough. The U.S. satellite test vehicle, reaching for the sky and falling flat on its pad, was a symbol of the old standards: a hurry-up effort to answer moons with a moon, klaxons of witless pressagentry and, after the flop, yelps of anguish (cried Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson: "How long, how long, O God, how long will it take us to catch up with Russia's two satellites?"). Yet even if Vanguard had been successful in its first try,...
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