The Legacy of Sputnik

Charles Krauthammer has a very interesting read on what the ramifications of the Russians launching Sputnik may have been.

We had no idea how lucky we were with Sputnik. The subsequent panic turned out to be an enormous boon. The fear of falling behind the Communists induced the federal government to pour a river of money into science and math education. The result was a generation of scientists who gave us not only Apollo and the moon, but the sinews of the information age — for example, ARPA that created ARPANET that became the Internet — that have assured American technological dominance to this day.

I also find it highly appropriate to be having this discussion today on what would have Robert Goddard's 125th birthday.