posted 01-05-2004 03:04 PM            

But, that rivalry had really started a year earlier — in 1956 — when both USA and USSR both announced plans to orbit a satellite in support of International Geophysical Year (IGY).

Also, the knowledge about the Soviet super-rocket was well known in the west even as early as 1953/4 when technical details and the name of the RD-103 engine and its thrust was known at that time. General details were also known and published by west about the Soviet super rocket, which we now know became the Sputnik/Vostok launcher and is still used as the main stage in Soyuz missions.

It was also known that they would attempt to place a satellite into orbit about the earth and even try for the moon. But this knowledge was known only to astronautical engineers (and most probably CIA/MI5) who attended technical conferences.

posted 01-05-2004 04:04 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Philip:
...A4-rockets from White Sands Proving Grounds

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However, this trajectory was ballistic, so I wouldn't count it as the beginning of the space age, even if some adepts of the Peenemündians try make it this way.

posted 01-08-2004 12:22 PM               

Thus, spacecraft clocks could represent mission elapsed time (MET) using fewer bits, using JD 2,436,099.5 as the zero reference.

Of course this is just a round about way of saying that the space age began with the launch of Sputnik.

posted 10-05-2019 08:09 PM            

However, one can make a strong case that Sputnik was the true start of the Space Age due to the panic it caused in the West. The fallout from this event is the spark that eventually led to people visiting the moon plus everything else that followed.

posted 10-06-2019 05:03 AM               

In many ways, we each could give a different answer to this question; it depends on where you think space begins. Personally, I count it as the 400,000ft mark, where spacecraft begin to re-enter the atmosphere.

I know the atmosphere expands and contracts to some degree, but each individual has to draw their own line somewhere.

And yes, I know the so-called "official" line has been set at 62 miles, or 100 kilometres — but just because they make such a pronouncement doesn't make it true. That's why I personally don't count the X-15 pilots as astronauts.

posted 10-06-2019 08:07 AM               

Consider the Wright brothers first flight, which began the age of flight. There had been many other attempts and experiments prior to the first flight, but the achievement of producing sufficient lift and thrust to balance the drag and gravity was achieved at this point.

There were many advancements made post this event, many of which achieved high speed and high altitude flight, and there were many rocket launches conducted, but all failed to achieve the velocity to maintain orbital flight.

Sputnik 1 achieved the velocity to achieve orbital flight. Just like the Wright brothers' first flight, Sputnik 1 was a short flight, but it marks the point in time when orbital flight was achieved.

posted 10-06-2019 08:46 AM               

If you consider previous ages, such as the Copper and Bronze ages, or the Industrial and Information ages, their starts are not marked by a singular event, but are more a general description of when a transition was made on a large-scale order to a new type of material or economy.

While the utilization of space is wide scale, it has yet to have the impact that computers and the internet have had, for example.

posted 10-06-2019 02:07 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Colin Anderton:
Yes, but dreaming about something doesn't make it come true.

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posted 10-07-2019 03:20 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
One could make a case that the "Space Age" is a misnomer and that the true "Space Age" has yet to begin.

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The term "space age" is used to describe many things, including items of design or technology that are considered futuristic or "space aged," as well as a time period whereby humans began operations "in space."

I like to consider many of the past programs to be precursor events to the time when spaceflight is readily available to the masses.

Space is an arena that many businesses used to generate income, including aerospace and telecommunications companies. Space tourism is making signs and noises, if not real progress, and the ISS has been occupied long enough for people born during its construction to now be adults.

posted 10-07-2019 04:44 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Glint:
I was launched (i.e. born) just a few hours before Sputnik.

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posted 10-08-2019 08:39 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
If you consider previous ages, such as the Copper and Bronze ages, or the Industrial and Information ages, their starts are not marked by a singular event, but are more a general description of when a transition was made on a large-scale order to a new type of material or economy.

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The "Atomic Age" began with a singular event: the first nuclear test explosion in July 1945.

posted 10-30-2019 02:45 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Jonnyed:
The "Atomic Age" began with a singular event: the first nuclear test explosion in July 1945.

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I guess the point is sometimes one needs historical perspective to define a beginning.

posted 10-30-2019 07:16 PM               

The phrase "Atomic Age" was coined by William L. Laurence, a New York Times journalist who became the official journalist for the Manhattan Project which developed the first nuclear weapons.

"The Atomic Age, also known as the Atomic Era, is the period of history following the detonation of the first nuclear weapon, The Gadget at the Trinity test in New Mexico, on July 16, 1945, during World War II. Although nuclear chain reactions had been hypothesized in 1933 and the first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction (Chicago Pile-1) had taken place in December 1942, the Trinity test and the ensuing bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended World War II represented the first large-scale use of nuclear technology and ushered in profound changes in sociopolitical thinking and the course of technology development.

posted 11-01-2019 08:14 PM               

To use the term postmodern implies the movement of postmodernism, which followed the movement of modernism. Modernism relates to a sequence of cultural movements that happened in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Postmodernism describes a broad movement that developed in the late 20th-century and focused on philosophy, the arts, architecture, and criticism which marked a departure from modernism.

It would be difficult to divide the Atomic Age and the Space Age, there are numerous technology overlaps, several distinctive fashion and art eras, and similar political and social strategies during these times. We would need to define what the "Space Age" signifies, and I believe that we cannot do that yet because we are still in the infancy stage of spaceflight while the Atomic Age maturity is difficult to identify. As such, we cannot associate the Space Age with any specific cultural movement that has not occurred yet, only the ones that have so far.

posted 11-01-2019 09:03 PM            

I think we are all agreed that the Space Age began with Sputnik 1, but it's a long time since I heard anyone actually referring to either the "Atomic Age" or the "Space Age" except in historical terms. There was a certain "Atomic Age culture" including films such as "Them" or "The Atomic Kid." You haven't seen that sort of thing for a long time.* I wonder if the "Atomic Age" gave way to the "post-Atomic Age" after (most) countries stopped creating mushroom clouds. If so, might we say that the "Space Age" ended with Apollo and gave way to the "post-Space Age?"