Germany gets tangled up in the little things. In order to better manage crises, a major project is needed that everyone can rally behind. For example, a new idea for the energy transition.
Actually, the thing was a joke. A ball 58 centimeters in diameter and weighing just under 84 kilograms. Launched into space with enormous effort to do nothing other than send beeping signals. Sputnik 1, the world’s first satellite, launched from Baikonur in 1957 and burned up in the atmosphere a few months later, was actually anything but a threat. However, the fact that the Soviets now had the ability to reach every corner of the earth via space was a threat to the Western world. And a trigger for the Americans to start and ultimately win the race to the moon.