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A Ball, a Dog, and a Monkey tells the remarkable story of America's first efforts to succeed in space, a time of exploding rockets, national space mania, Florida boomtowns, and interservice rivalries so fierce that President Dwight Eisenhower had to referee them.
When the Soviet Union launched the first orbital satellite, Sputnik I, Americans panicked. The Soviets had nuclear weapons, the Cold War was underway, and now the USSR had taken the lead in the space race. Members of Congress and the press called for an all-out effort to launch a satellite into orbit. With dire warnings about national security in the news almost every day, the armed services saw space as the new military frontier. But President Eisenhower insisted that the space effort, which relied on military technology, be supervised by civilians so that the space race would be peaceful. The Navy's Vanguard program flopped, and the Army, led by ex-Nazi rocket scientist Wernher von Braun and a martinet general named J. Bruce Medaris (whom Eisenhower disliked), took over. Meanwhile, the Soviets put a dog inside the next Sputnik, and Americans grew more worried as the first animal in space whirled around the Earth.
Throughout 1958 America went space crazy. UFO sightings spiked. Boys from Brooklyn to Burbank shot model rockets into the air. Space-themed beauty pageants became a national phenomenon. The news media flocked to the launchpads on the swampy Florida coast, and reporters reinvented themselves as space correspondents. And finally the Army's rocket program succeeded. Determined not to be outdone by the Russians, America's space scientists launched the first primate into space, a small monkey they nicknamed Old Reliable for his calm demeanor. And then at Christmastime, Eisenhower authorized the launch of a secret satellite with a surprise aboard.
A Ball, a Dog, and a Monkey memorably recalls the infancy of the space race, a time when new technologies brought ominous danger but also gave us the ability to realize our dreams and reach for the stars.
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Previews available in: English
Subjects
Space race, Artificial satellites, HistoryEdition | Availability |
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1
A ball, a dog, and a monkey: 1957, the space race begins
2008, Simon & Schuster
in English
0743294319 9780743294317
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2
A Ball, a Dog, and a Monkey: 1957 - The Space Race Begins
September 18, 2007, Simon & Schuster
Hardcover
in English
0743294319 9780743294317
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Libraries near you:
WorldCat
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3
A Ball, a Dog, and a Monkey: 1957---The Space Race Begins
October 1, 2007, Tantor Media
MP3 CD
in English
- MP3 Una edition
1400155037 9781400155033
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Libraries near you:
WorldCat
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4
A Ball, a Dog, and a Monkey: 1957---The Space Race Begins
October 1, 2007, Tantor Media
Audio CD
in English
- Unabridged edition
1400135036 9781400135035
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zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
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5
A Ball, a Dog, and a Monkey: 1957---The Space Race Begins
October 1, 2007, Tantor Media
Audio CD
in English
- Unabridged edition
140010503X 9781400105038
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zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
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- Created April 29, 2008
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August 6, 2010 | Edited by IdentifierBot | added LibraryThing ID |
April 24, 2010 | Edited by Open Library Bot | Fixed duplicate goodreads IDs. |
April 16, 2010 | Edited by bgimpertBot | Added goodreads ID. |
April 14, 2010 | Edited by Open Library Bot | Linked existing covers to the edition. |
April 29, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | Imported from amazon.com record |