Why Sputnik Was NOT the Beginning of the Space Age

Although most people incorrectly assume the launching of Sputnik began the space age, the truth is far more involved. True the Soviet Union successfully launched the first satellite four months before America launched Explorer 1 but that is only the icing on the cake! The V-2 rocket for starters (the first rocket to cross the Karman line), was heavily based on the designs that American rocket scientist Robert Goddard published. Before Sputnik, America also sent the first animals into space, took the first photos of the curvature of the Earth from space and set a record altitude accomplishment using a hybrid V-2 / American manufactured rocket. According to NASA:

'In 1949, the "Bumper-WAC" became the first human-made object to enter space...'

While today we know the V-2 technically crossed the later defined Karman line first, Bumper 5 (Bumper-WAC) was still the first multistage rocket successfully launched into space and a record setting altitude more than double that of the previous record of 110 miles set by the V-2 on December 17th, 1946. Sadly, these amazing U.S. achievements rarely get mentioned though they occurred many years before Sputnik!

Yes Wernher von Braun was still critically important for providing the first stage of the rocket (a modified V-2) but it was really the combination of the V-2 first stage and WAC corporal missile (second stage) that provided the necessary velocity to finally tear through the brunt of the atmosphere into the almost total vacuum of space. Setting a record 393 kilometers altitude (244 miles), the 1949 Bumper 5 launch deserves its place in history though many fail to grasp its significance. The 1949 launch showed the world what a multistage rocket could achieve and paved the way for deeper space missions to occur. Without this capability, man would have never made it to the moon let alone sent probes to the outer reaches of the solar system.

By and large, U.S. achievements in the space race before Sputnik were quite significant and to suggest that Sputnik was the real beginning is highly erroneous. That is not to say Sputnik wasn't a monumental achievement but American contributions to the space race prior to this were quite significant and have been downplayed far too long.

References:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/explorer/bumper.html
http://www.spaceline.org/rocketsum/bumper-wac.html
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/explorer/fast-facts.html
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/profile.cfm?Sort=Alpha&Letter=B&Alias=Bumper%20WAC
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/171684main_Bumper8.pdf

http://roberthaskell.blogspot.com/2015/07/americas-contributions-to-space-race.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animals_in_space

See Also:

http://roberthaskell.blogspot.com/2015/08/is-nasa-making-making-historic-blunder.html