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On 2002-01-25 16:39, JayUtah wrote:
the Russians launched the first artificial satellite
Sad, but true. This was a major political fumble on our part. Because von Braun was not yet an American citizen and still considered by many to be just another Nazi, there was considerable objection to using his Jupiter rocket to launch the first U.S. satellite. And so the U.S. wasted a lot of time on the Vanguard, a piece of crap rocket cobbled together out of technology whose only redeeming quality was its absence of Nazi contamination.
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My impression was that the objection to the Jupiter was that it was a military program (Von Braun was working with the Army at the time), and that Eisenhower wanted the satellite to be a civilian endeavor.
Word is also that one of von Braun's Jupiters could easily have launched a satellite into orbit in 1956, except that he was under express orders to keep the rocket from doing so. Therefore, the top stage was filled with sand rather than containing a small kick motor that was all that was needed to get the payload into orbit.