The Space Race

 

In the 1960s there was a Christian song in the songbook, “Youth Praise” which commenced with the words, ‘We are in a great race to put rockets in space’.  It certainly reflected the reality of the times.  In 1957 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 from Kazakhstan and though it was hardly bigger than a large beach ball it was the first man-made object to orbit the earth.  It was hailed as a great victory for Russia and communism, though the Americans pretended it was of little consequence with President Eisenhower claiming it as ‘a small ball in the air’.  Yet the Americans knew they had lost that initial race as Sputnik 1 travelled overhead every ninety minutes, every day for three months.  The US government’s reaction was to increase the budget of its space programme from $0.5 Billion to $10.5 Billion.

Later the Soviets launched Sputnik 2 with a dog inside named Laila and that was the first animal in space but it did not survive.  America’s attempt two months after Sputnik 1 to send a rocket into space managed to reach  just one metre before it fell back and exploded.  It was sometimes referred to as ‘Flopnik’. In 1959 the Soviets again got a first by sending Luna 2 to the surface of the moon.  That was the first spaceship from earth to reach the moon, though it crashed on landing.  In 1960 with America trying to catch up with space exploration they launched a satellite to study weather patterns. The Soviets launched Sputknik 5 carried two dogs, Belka and Strelka and they both survived the experience.

How will you serve this year?

Omar Nelson Bradley was by any standard or measure a remarkable man.  He was born in Missouri in 1893, and his parents were humble people. Interestingly, he was born on President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, Lincoln is generally considered America’s greatest president, and his memorial in Washington DC is one of the wonders of that great city. Bradley seemed to inherit something of Lincoln’s greatness. 

Bradley learnt early in life the necessity of working hard and of personal integrity. His father died when he was fifteen, and he had to give a lot of help to his mother, who took in lodgers to make ends meet. Despite the work he did at home, he was also a hard-working student, and maybe this trait was due to his late father’s influence as his father had been a school teacher. Bradley graduated from school with high grades and then went to the military training school at West Point. There, he was a hardworking student, an excellent athlete, and a wonderful marksman. Out of a class of 164, he graduated forty-fourth in 1915. Yet he was the first in his class to reach the rank of general.

He was under six feet in height, weighed only 145 pounds, and was prematurely grey. Indeed, he started to go grey in his late teens. He lost some of his teeth in an ice skating accident and had to wear dentures from an early age. Yet he was determined at all times to pursue excellence, and through quiet determination and competency, he rose up the ranks of the army. He spent twelve years as a major, and at times, it seemed he would never rise further, and then he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. He never achieved the rank of full Colonel because  instead, he was made a full General.