Mutual News – February 16, 1958 – Mutual Broadcasting News On The Hour – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
Donald G.Farrell – probably not a name that instantly comes to mind in the annals of Space exploration, but NASA knew him well and America knew him well on February 16, 1958 when he emerged from a simulated space capsule, having complete 7 days in isolation and in conditions that would be exactly like those of an astronaut, when the day of manned space exploration became a reality and Donald G. Farrell would set the precedent. The Space race was in its formative stages, spurned on by competition with the Soviet Union and lagging far behind as the Russians had already launched Sputnik and put a dog in space. We weren’t there yet. We launched Explorer I, our first satellite, but we were still working on getting a human up in Space. This was at least the first step.
Aside from the news on Donald G.Farrell, there was weather going on – a lot of it and most of it bad. A Nor’easter was developing in the Gulf of Mexico and getting ready to slam into the mid-Atlantic Coast and blanketing much of the east, from Tennessee to New York in snow. Snow was still falling in the Northeast and the Great Lakes Region. Rain was slamming into the West Coast and the Mid-west was getting a dose of cold air from Canada from Minnesota to Florida. In short, a mess.
And efforts were being made to end the French-Tunisian dispute with John Foster Dulles in the process of putting together a proposal to diffuse the situation. President Eisenhower was preparing a letter to Premier Bulganin to arrange a summit meeting between the U.S. and Russia. While President Sukarno arrived in Indonesia to confront his adversaries who were trying to start a revolution, while legislators on Capitol Hill in Washington were trying to correct the economic situation in that region.
A lot going on and much back slapping and congratulations to Donald G.Farrell on what had been described as a big morale boost for America, as reported by Mutual News, this February 16, 1958.
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