1957 - President Eisenhower’s 123rd Press Conference & statement re Satellites. 09Oct57 Pt. 1 of 3

1957 - President Eisenhower’s 123rd Press Conference & statement re Satellites. 09Oct57 Pt. 1 of 3 02:00:13 Ike at White House desk reading statement: “In July 1955 there was a WH press conference participated in by representatives of the National Science Foundation & the National Academy of Science. It was announced that plans are going forward for the launching of small unmanned earth circling satellites as part of the United States participation in the International Geophysical Year which takes place between July 1957 & December 1958. At that press conference it was stated that the data which will be collected...will be made available to all scientists throughout the world.... 02:01:57 ...the first of these test vehicles is planned to be launched in December of this year. As to the Soviet satellite, we congratulate Soviet scientists upon putting a satellite into order. The United States satellite program has been designed from its inception for maximum results in scientific research... 02:03:22 Vanguard, for the reasons indicated has not had equal priority with that accorded our ballistic missile work...never been conducted as a race...we are therefore carrying the program forward in keeping w/ our arrangements w/ the international scientific community. 02:04:13 Ext. Executive Office Building. Int. reporters reading news release. Ike enters room. Q: Merriman Smith, United Press: Mr. President, Russia has launched an earth satellite. They also claim to have had a successful firing of the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, none of which this country has done. I ask you sir, what are we going to do about it? 02:04:53 “Well, let's take, first, the earth satellite, as opposed to the missile, because they are related only indirectly in the physical sense, and in our case not at all.” jumps to.. 02:05:07 Ike: “For the Government, the National Science Foundation was made the monitor of the work, for the simple reason that from the beginning the whole American purpose & design in this effort has been to produce the maximum in scientific information. The project was sold to me on this basis. My question was: What does mankind hope to learn? And the answer of the scientists was, "We don't exactly know, & that is the reason we want to do it; but we do hope to learn lots of things about outer space that will be valuable to the scientific world." They did mention such things as temperatures, radiation, ionization, pressures, I believe residual pressures, from such air as would be at the altitude where successful orbiting was possible. That is the kind of information the scientists were looking for, & which they hoped to obtain from this project. Now, in the first instance they thought they would merely put up a satellite, & very quickly they found they thought they could put up a satellite with a considerable instrumentation to get, even during the Geophysical Year, the kind of information to which I have just referred.” jumps to... 02:06:39 Ike: “They expressed themselves as pleased rather than chagrined because at least the Soviets have proved the first part of it, that this thing will successfully orbit. But there are a lot of other things in the scientific inquiry that are not yet answered, and which we are pushing ahead to answer.” jump to... 02:07:01 As to their firing of an intercontinental missile, we have not been told anything about the details of that firing. They have proved again and, indeed, this launching of the satellite proves, that they can hurl an object a considerable distance.” jumps to (see next card)... Space Race; Cold War; 1950s; Science; Scientific Rational; Cutaways of Reporters, Stenotype Machine; Manual Recording; Reporters Listening; Note: This film record only contains what is listed. If desired all three parts (02:00:01 - 02;12:14) sold as a single reel.