... 1958, Eisenhower ordered the release of a sixteen-page document reporting the four principal reasons motivating space exploration: man's urge to explore, national defense applications, prestige, and science experimentation. Eisenhower Dwight D Flemming Arthur Goodpaster Andrew Johnson Lyndon...

... importance of winning this space race and suggested that the Eisenhower administration had failed to prioritize space exploration adequately. While critics accused Eisenhower of complacency and a lack of leadership, historians have largely validated his restraint, noting that the United States...

...This chapter narrates three successive developments in U.S. space exploration: the Corona project, the Saturn, and the Project Mercury. Beginning in 1955, Eisenhower authorized funding for military satellites equipped with cameras that would take pictures of the earth, and others that would watch...

... into 1958. Ultimately, the chapter examines a brand-new exciting science story that showed up on the horizon: the exploration of space. It then discusses Laurence's atomic angle to the space exploration story: a proposal for developing an atomic-powered spacecraft that could bring astronauts to other...