Satellites in the IGY

Abstract

As it became clear at a relatively late stage that satellites would be attempted by more than one country during the IGY, the question emerged of what arrangements would be needed for international cooperation. The IGY’s ‘rules’ for satellites were frequently referred to after the sputniks, but their nature and status remain elusive to this day, partly because in some important respects they were never finally agreed between the two main parties, the Soviet Union and the United States, and partly because few Western authors have discussed them objectively. Historical perceptions have been strongly coloured by the extent to which national interests became involved in this part of the IGY, due amongst other things to the security issues associated with rocket launch vehicles when both superpowers were striving to develop the ICBM and to the high stakes that were being played for in the satellite projects, both in national prestige and in career prospects for the scientists and other professional people concerned.