When Sputnik Hit the Wall

Three of Dr. Goddard's Commandos – J.D., Nestor, and Jacob – gather to bury Moon. Afterward, they reminisce and contemplate retirement. Their mission has been a success. Compare the U.S. and Russia today to where they were fifty years ago. But how exactly did they pull it off? Jacob, who fears that Putin is still trying to kill them – likely at Starbucks with lattes laced with radioactive polonium – gives an explanation, and the other two agree. Two years after the U.S.S.R. launches Sputnik 1, Joe Don realizes that it is up to kids like him to save the world from the Red Menace by building better satellites and rockets than the Russians. It's certainly the thing to do in his hometown of Roswell, NM, where Dr. Robert H. Goddard did his pioneering-rocketry work in the 1930s. What he doesn't understand is why he is required to take more math courses. His friend, Jacob, agrees. "Forget Accelerated Algebra! Dr. G. probably left some old rockets in a shed here in town. Let's fix 'em up in shop class, launch a transistor radio, and bombard Russia with songs like 'Battle of New Orleans.' My dad says that'll scare 'em into peace!" "When Sputnik Hit the Wall" is a humorous, half-century look at the institutions, practices, and prejudices that attempted to shape a group of men and women known as Dr. Robert H. Goddard's Commandos.