At the beginning of the twenty-first episode of CBS’s television series Men into Space, Colonel Edward McCauley, played by actor William Lundigan, presented a powerful but human side to space exploration: "No matter where he travels, one thing will always be the same: man himself. Human nature will not change in the strange outposts of space. There will always be love and hate, courage and fear” (Neufeld 10). Yet, in 1960 when the program first aired, the astronauts were not the ones who experienced the thrill of space, but rather the 180 million Americans ingrained with an utter sense of awe, fear, excitement, and admiration at the possibilities of American space exploration. The emerging television culture of the 1960s enabled Americans to
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On October 4, 1957, a Soviet R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile launched Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite, into orbit. In a single ambitious act, the Soviet Union surged ahead of the United States in technological capability in space, and redefined the way information was distributed across the world. Frank O’Rourke, an American man from rural Oklahoma who had witnessed Sputnik that night, remarked that “nothing man made had ever been so global” (DeGroot 71). Indeed, with the help of television news, “Sputnik” became a worldwide phenomenon and was quickly incorporated into the American vocabulary as an object of fascination, panic, and surprise. For weeks, nightly news programs that aired on the Westinghouse Broadcasting Company (WBZ), the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), and the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) warned that the Soviet Union might possess an “ultimate weapon,” a long range ballistic missile that could reach the United States (DeGroot 68). As a result, Sputnik sparked an unprecedented state of pandemonium across the United States, and citizens who had once taken comfort in America’s perceived technological superiority now feared that the nation was in danger of attack. Public fears worsened on December 15, 1957 when the United States attempted to launch its first …show more content…
Kennedy, rose to the occasion. President Kennedy utilized television culture and highly romanticized propaganda to revitalize public morale after stunning defeats to the Soviet Union, which transformed America’s anger, frustration, and fear into an impetus for meaningful change in the country’s space program. In a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961, President Kennedy unveiled perhaps the boldest challenge ever issued by an American leader: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth” (Kennedy, Special Message to the Congress). According to John Jordan of Michigan State University, Kennedy was one of the first U.S. presidents to effectively harness the emerging broadcast medium of television to speak directly to the American people (Jordan). Television provided Kennedy with a national stage that was essential in motivating an entire country to pursue such an ambitious and unprecedented challenge. In his speech, Kennedy reinvigorated national pride when he firmly declared “It will not be one man going to the moon ... it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there” (Kennedy, Special Message to the Congress). Through television, Americans themselves now felt part of the space challenge and were more willing to embrace the country’s ambitious space endeavors. But more importantly, Kennedy’s televised
On October 4, 1957, a Soviet R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile launched Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite, into orbit. In a single ambitious act, the Soviet Union surged ahead of the United States in technological capability in space, and redefined the way information was distributed across the world. Frank O’Rourke, an American man from rural Oklahoma who had witnessed Sputnik that night, remarked that “nothing man made had ever been so global” (DeGroot 71). Indeed, with the help of television news, “Sputnik” became a worldwide phenomenon and was quickly incorporated into the American vocabulary as an object of fascination, panic, and surprise. For weeks, nightly news programs that aired on the Westinghouse Broadcasting Company (WBZ), the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), and the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) warned that the Soviet Union might possess an “ultimate weapon,” a long range ballistic missile that could reach the United States (DeGroot 68). As a result, Sputnik sparked an unprecedented state of pandemonium across the United States, and citizens who had once taken comfort in America’s perceived technological superiority now feared that the nation was in danger of attack. Public fears worsened on December 15, 1957 when the United States attempted to launch its first …show more content…
Kennedy, rose to the occasion. President Kennedy utilized television culture and highly romanticized propaganda to revitalize public morale after stunning defeats to the Soviet Union, which transformed America’s anger, frustration, and fear into an impetus for meaningful change in the country’s space program. In a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961, President Kennedy unveiled perhaps the boldest challenge ever issued by an American leader: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth” (Kennedy, Special Message to the Congress). According to John Jordan of Michigan State University, Kennedy was one of the first U.S. presidents to effectively harness the emerging broadcast medium of television to speak directly to the American people (Jordan). Television provided Kennedy with a national stage that was essential in motivating an entire country to pursue such an ambitious and unprecedented challenge. In his speech, Kennedy reinvigorated national pride when he firmly declared “It will not be one man going to the moon ... it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there” (Kennedy, Special Message to the Congress). Through television, Americans themselves now felt part of the space challenge and were more willing to embrace the country’s ambitious space endeavors. But more importantly, Kennedy’s televised