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The U.S. program is roughly similar. A "soft" instrument landing on the moon may be accomplished in 1960. Putting a man in space will take longer. A protected capsule to bring him back alive is already under development. One of the preliminary research tools toward this project is the X-15 rocket-plane, which will meet its first tests in a month or so. It is designed to start its flights in the atmosphere, then shoot out of it to a probable height of 150 miles. Its descent on stubby wings will build experience for controlled returns from deeper space.
What is the motive for the push into space? This question gets many sharply conflicting answers. Some military strategists believe that a U.S. rocket base on the moon, which could never be destroyed by surprise attack, would provide the supreme deterrent to any earth aggressor. Most scientists do not agree. Nor do they think much of the idea of armed satellite bases. They see little reason to shoot from a satellite when a rocket shot from solid ground can hit any target on earth. But satellites may prove to have value as "eyes in the sky" over enemy territory.
They can also serve as communication relays and act as aids for navigation.
But the rivalry with Russia is not a simple propaganda battle. Says one spaceman: "We could concentrate entirely on our military developments and let the Russians have space to themselves. Would we thus make ourselves impregnable? No, because the rest of the world simply would not believe that we were impregnable. It would look to Russia as the clear leader—and the battle would be lost before it was fought."
Challenge & Response. Simplest and most basic motivation of the drive into space is man's enduring and insatiable drive to explore and know his environment. Space is a challenge simply because, like Mount Everest, it is there. Hundreds of millions of years ago, earth's life ventured from the shelter of the oceans, crept slowly and painfully out on land, into the hostile air and searing sun. Man is venturing forth again into a new element. From the bottom of the air ocean where he has lived so long, the emptiness overhead looks almost impossibly hostile. Its vacuum kills a soft-bodied human in a few seconds; its radiation and heat and cold are almost as quickly fatal. But man has his daring and his intelligence. His body will not have to change. He can take with him into space an artificial environment that simulates the familiar bottom of the atmosphere.
It is supreme adventure for man's spirit as well as his rockets. The stars and the moon have long been symbols of a remote and indifferent universe, a reproach to man's insignificance. Now man for the first time is challenging the planets themselves.
Ultimately, man cannot refuse the challenge, if he is to keep alive the essential spirit that distinguishes him from animals. After all, man's ancestors that stayed in the sea are still fish.