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Quote of the Day: Fake News and the Early Space Program
Roy Anderson recalls the story of tracking Pioneer 4:
Three tracking stations demonstrated the ability to track Pioneer 4 to the great distance: Jodrell Bank in England with its 150-foot diameter antenna, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at Goldstone Lake, California with its 85-foot antenna, and a temporary setup at the GE Research Laboratory, Schenectady [where Roy worked], with an 18-foot diameter parabolic antenna.
…There was immense media interest in our effort. Pioneer 4 was the first object to escape Earth’s gravity. We were besieged with phone calls at all hours of the day and night. With our small antenna we were seen as David against Goliath. On the morning of 6 March, the signal was weak and intermittent. Finally, search as we could, we could no longer get a lock on it.
In mid-morning, a reporter called and said, “JPL announced that they lost a signal. Do you still have it?”
“No.”
“When did you lose it?”
“I don’t know exactly?”
“Can we say that at 10:25 you said that you lost the signal?” It was 10:25.
“Yeah.”
By 10:27 the whole world was informed that GE had tracked the space probe farther than JPL. I went to a newspaper office and asked them to publish a disclaimer. They were not interested. JPL was not pleased.
Here’s an interview with Roy who was a remarkable man. And yes, I knew him.
So, fake news in 1959.
There was quite a lot of it. Many of the folks in the early space program understood that the press had to be handled carefully. Von Braun was a master at it.
I always thought Eisenhower didn’t get enough credit, but after narrating “Eisenhower’s Sputnik Moment” last year, now I have evidence to back it up. Although the fact that Alan Shepard’s flight was only a few weeks into Kennedy’s presidency ought to give you an idea that something was happening in the previous administration.
Ike? Why, he was just an old duffer. Not smart at all. (Only was at the helm for WWII in Europe and such.)
It’s not surprising he was good at it … keeping Hitler and the Generals happy through all the mishaps at Peenemunde..
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Von Braun had personal organs of the finest grade of copper-zinc alloy. He once got part of his crew through an SS checkpoint by painting a nonsense acronym on the side of their railroad car, betting that no one would admit they didn’t know what it meant.
Later, the Army turned down a requisition from his shop for pencil sharpeners. He submitted (and received) a request for “hand operated lathes for pointing 5 millimeter dowels.”
Those are both hilarious stories.