Star-Crossed Orbits

James Oberg

On October 4, 1957, taking the whole world by surprise, the Soviet Union launched its Sputnik satellite into the starry heavens and the great Space Race was on. In the decades that followed, the post-Sputnik boom pitted the U.S. and Soviet space programs against each other in a race for headlines, hasty glories, and real prizes. It was a marathon plagued by misinformation, suspicion, and rumor. And while the headlines have endured in our patriotic memory, the hidden consequences of hollow triumphs still shape our attitudes and beliefs today, in an era of so-called cooperation.With great fanfare, this 36-year Space Race officially ended in 1993, and in its place the U.S.-Russian space alliance was born. But beneath all the official rhetoric of a bold new era of space exploration, the “marriage made in the heavens” has been fraught with the same pitfalls of misunderstanding, suspicion,...

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