55 years ago, October 4, 1957 ..Sputnik

[Stuart G]

Who would have known the results of the space race and the advances that came?

What looked like a terrible defeat for American science turned out to be an incredible advance for all in science and technology..
One could easily argue that miniturization and advancement in computers eventually lead to the PC and eventually the internet which we are using right now. The speed up of that development was a direct result of the space race and sputnik. In the areas of health and medicine great advances have been made due to those developments that started with the space race...
and...........................hats off to the old Soviet Union..for moving all of us forward, yes, I know that is not what it was about then, but it turned out ok..
.............

[Eleanors38]

1. I remember that period, lots of experimentation...

There was a cow pasture (now apartments/restaurants) where high-school kids and U. of F. students tried out home-made rockets. It was quite the Thing to fire off your rockets there. A few years later, a NASA representative showed us students the equivalent of a "blooper" reel: Attempts to launch rockets, only to have them blow up or be blown up -- all in living color!

[Stuart G]

2. A documentary movie about that experimentation...and a fiction film sorrouding that period

October Sky

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0132477/

The Iron Giant..
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0129167/

two..completely different,
...but with wonderful ideas behind them, postive and warm for everyone...
all agees, ...I hope no one is offended by putting them up here..
I know people will love October Sky if they haven't seen it..
The Iron Giant is one of the finest animated films ever made..it is really about science, war, and ultimately..peace...

[Ptah]

3. I remember hearing it on the radio