Baker Institute panel to mark Sputnik anniversary

Baker Institute panel to mark Sputnik anniversary

BY FRANZ BROTZEN
Rice News Staff
 
A panel discussion will mark the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the “space race” between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Several noted U.S. and Russian scientists and space experts will honor the launch of Sputnik Nov. 19 at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy.
 

NASA.GOV

The discussion, titled “Looking Back: The Impact of Sputnik,” begins at 6:45 p.m. A reception before the lecture will begin at 6 p.m.
 
On October 4, 1957, the space race was ignited by a small, 184-pound sphere launched into orbit by the U.S.S.R. This satellite, named Sputnik I, was equipped with a small radio transmitter that sent beeping signals from space. Sputnik took 96 minutes to circle Earth and stayed in orbit for 92 days. Its continuous beep-beep-beep was heard around the world and launched the Cold War’s “space-race.”
 
The Baker Institute program’s panel will include Oleg M. Alifanov, dean of the Moscow Aviation Institute (State University of Aerospace Technologies); Roald Z. Sagdeev, Distinguished University Professor and director of the University of Maryland’s East-West Space Science Center; Vladimir G. Titov, a former cosmonaut; Sergei Leskov, a journalist with Izvestia; and Eugene H. Levy, the Howard H. Hughes Provost and professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University.
 
Neal Lane, senior fellow in science and technology policy at the Baker Institute, will moderate the panel.
 
Ambassador Edward Djerejian, founding director of the Baker Institute, will give the opening remarks. George Abbey, the Baker Botts Senior Fellow in Space Policy at the Baker Institute and former director of the Johnson Space Center, will introduce the speakers.
 
“Sputnik: A Fifty Year Legacy,” a Baker Institute production about the impact of Sputnik on the world, will also be screened.
 
The event will be held in James A. Baker III Hall’s Kelly International Conference Facility. It will be webcast at http://bakerinstitute.org/Event_View.cfm?EID=666.
 
Rice faculty, staff and students who want to attend must R.S.V.P. by e-mail (<bipprsvp@rice.edu>) or by fax (713-348-5993).