The 119 Days

Just 119 days after the Russians sent Sputnik I into the skies, tearing a wound in U.S. pride and prestige, the Army's Explorer thundered off the launching pad at Cape Canaveral last week, a symbol of a new kind of U.S. strength. "The U.S.," said President Dwight Eisenhower, "has successfully placed a scientific earth satellite around the earth."

The 119 days between Sputnik I and Explorer were as important to the U.S. as perhaps any similar peacetime span in its history. To a few querulous quidnuncs they were a time for crying out, for attributing to Russian technology a gigantic leap in military power, for downrating beyond reason the present-day U.S. ability to keep the peace through unequaled sea and air strength. On an Administration all too satisfied with things as they are, Sputnik forced a review of policies and the uncomfortable discovery that the major shortcomings lay in top-level decision-making and policy-planning. To diplomats the 119 days provided a soul-searing object lesson that free-world diplomacy, for all of its ideals, cannot be successful without clearly evident U.S. strength.

The Explorer itself was a special kind of reality. It was smaller and lighter than the Sputniks (30.80 lbs. v. Sputnik I's 184 lbs., Sputnik II's 1,120 lbs.). But its mere appearance in orbit only 84 days after Defense Secretary Neil McElroy's order to launch proved beyond doubt that the U.S., had it made the sensible policy decisions, could have launched the first satellite a year before as the Army urged (see below)--or 119 days before.

In accidental symbolism the Explorer's success drove the Russian propaganda campaign for a summit meeting off the front pages. Overseas, U.S. allies generally cheered Explorer's success more enthusiastically than did the cautious U.S. itself. At home, TIME correspondents in 22 U.S. cities reported that citizens generally shrugged their shoulders, said they knew it would happen, or said, "It's about time."

The shoulder-shruggers had a point. The Explorer was a predictable accomplishment--and by no means the last one the U.S. would demand. "We are competing only in spirit with Sputnik so far," said Explorer's Rocket Scientist Wernher von Braun, "not in hardware yet."

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