How is the history of rocketry related to "October Sky"?
"October Sky" by Homer Hickam is all about the Rocket Boys, and their story in Coalwood. Professional rocket scientists during the time inspired them to build rockets themselves. In the beginning of "October Sky", the Russians launch Sputnik I. This was a huge milestone in the path of rocketry as well as space exploration. The United States got nervous that another country was getting ahead of them, and the great space race began. As the plot progresses, the reader hears about the history of rocketry from the eyes of Homer "Sonny" Hickam who is fascinated by the whole concept of space travel.
How is the movie different from the book?
Similarities
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Differences
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Quotations
- "...But instead of rock and roll, what I heard on the radio was a steady beep-beep-beep sound. Then the announcer said the tone was coming from something called Sputnik. It was Russian and it was in space... 'We were supposed to launch one this year too. I can't believe the Russians beat us to it!'...'It orbits around the world. Like the moon, only closer. It's got science stuff in it, measures things like how cold or hot it is in space. That's what ours was supposed to do anyway.'" (Hickam 18-19)
- "In December 1957, the United States made its first attempt to put a satellite into orbit with its Vanguard. I saw the result on television. Vanguard managed three tentative feet off the pad, lost thrust, and then blew up. According o the papers, the whole country was shocked and disappointed. I was too. I read some newspaper editorials and listened to television commentary that wondered if perhaps western civilization itself might soon be at an end with the technologically superior Russians taking over..." (Hickam 70)
- "At dawn, I was awake when the picture flickered back on and an announcer said to stand by. I woke the others up and then, without preamble, film of the launch was run. Dr. von Braun's rocket lifted off the pad in a caldron of fire and smoke and went right up into the night sky without a moment of hesitation. We whooped and cheered at the sight of it." (Hickam 90)
- "At the other cape, the one in Florida, business was booming. The Air Force was launching ballistic missiles every week. Most of them blew up, spectacularly but a few wobbled downrange. On February 5, 1958, the hapless Vanguard team tried again for orbit and failed, although this time their rocket managed to at least clear the gantry before it blew up. On March 17, they gave it another shot, and this time orbited a 3.24-pound satellite nicknamed Grapefruit. Dr. von Braun launched another thirty-one-pound Explorer into orbit on March 26. It seemed the United States was on the move. Then, in May, the Soviet Union orbited Sputnik III, weighing in at a whopping 2,925 pounds. Some Americans, the same kind I thought would have deserted at Valley Forge or surrendered after Pearl Harbor, said we might just as well give up on space. Dr. von Braun wasn't giving up, not by a long shot. According to a newspaper report, he was building a huge monster rocket called the Saturn. In the spring of 1958, Congress and the EIsenhower Administration set up the Nation Aeronautics and Space Administration in an attempt to put some order into the space program. I read where Dr. von Braun said he might leave the Army and join NASA. If he did, I knew the new agency was my ultimate goal as well." (Hickam 129-130)
- "One night the following week, Roy Lee, Sherman, and I visited Jake's rooftop telescope. NASA had launched the little thirty-eight-pound Pioneer 1 to the moon. It was America's first attempt to reach the moon, and we were excited about it. We knew we had no chance of seeing such a tiny object, but we just felt closer to it up on that roof. Pioneer 1 arced through space until, sixty thousand mils out, not quite one-quarter of the way, it lost momentum and dropped back, burning up in the Earth's atmosphere. The newspapers called Pioneer 1 a failure, but it wasn't, not for us coal miners' sons on top of the Coalwood Club House...." (Hickam 184)
- "...On February 1, I heard on the radio that the Russians had launced Luna I, the first man-made object ever to break away from Earth's gravity. The velocity required for that was 25,500 miles per hour, or approximately seven miles per second, a distance I could visualize easily because seven miles was the distance between Coalwood and Welch. As the Russians spacecraft streaked toward the moon, I went up on the Club House roof to use Jake's telescope just to see what I could see....The next day, the Welch Daily News said Luna 1 had missed the moon, but by a mere 3,728 miles. The next time they tried, the politicians and editorial writers worried, the Russians might hit it and then what kind of world would we live in?" (Hickam 246-247)