Jess Lurkin NULL wrote in news:Xns9D8AED8D8266BIPHIDEinuseALERT@
74.209.136.81:

Mitchell Holman wrote in
30:

snip



Of course, for a whole year after Sputnik the
US orbital rockets kept blowing up on the launch pad,
showing just how "able" the US was..........



Painting with a wide brush there, pilgrim. Refine your
searches. Read more (recently printed) history books.
Quit using Hollyweird as a source (your comment sounds
suspiciously close to a verbatim quote from the script
of "The Right Stuff"). One of these days you may
actually learn the full extent of what was really going
on back in those days.

Just in the last few years has some of the records/info seen
the light of day. Much of what you may believe as history
might actually have been a govt. subterfuge.




"As the first tangible effort to counter the apparent Soviet
leadership in space technology, the White House announced that
the United States would test launch a Project Vanguard booster
on 6 December 1957. The media was invited to witness the launch
in the hope that it could help restore public confidence, but
it was a disaster of the first order. During the ignition sequence,
the rocket rose about three feet above the platform, shook briefly,
and disintegrated in flames. John Hagen, who had been working
feverishly to ready the rocket for flight, was demoralized. He felt
even worse after the next test. On 5 February 1958, the Vanguard
launch vehicle reached an altitude of four miles and then exploded."

http://tinyurl.com/2fyfpp5