For those in the DC area and (still) interested in Sputnik, this event (author talk) will be taking place at the National Archives here in DC.

Enjoy! Eric W3DQ

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*Wednesday, October 17, at noon Jefferson Room /Red Moon Rising/* To mark the 50th anniversary of Sputnik, Matthew Brzezinski discusses his new book, /Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Hidden Rivalries That Ignited the Space Age. /Using original interviews and new documentary sources from both sides of the Cold War, Brzezinski tells how the Soviet Union created Sputnik in response to its inability to shoot down America’s U-2 spy planes that flew regularly over Soviet territory. The launch, on October 4, 1957, of an artificial satellite that would orbit the earth and cross American skies at will stunned the world. This is a story rich in the paranoia of the time, with combatants that include two future Presidents, survivors of the gulag, corporate chieftains, rehabilitated Nazis, and a general who won the day by refusing to follow orders.