Talk:International Geophysical Year

Untitled
That Trivia note about Fagan and the 'loss of innocence' is excellent! ... just the sort of thing that sets WP apart from the other copycats ;-) Twang 23:28, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

Added Pogo Information
I added the information about Pogo's "G.O. Fizzickle" run of comic strips during the Geophysical Year in the trivia section. Funny stuff if you ever get a chance to read it. Mvblair 12:29, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

Time quotation
It is unclear where the quotation from Time Magazine should end. — Grstain | Talk 18:02, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

More about Space programs
More should be added about the effect of the IGY on the space programs of both the US and USSR. (e.g., both countries planned satellite launches during this period) Paul Dickson's Sputnik: The Shock of the Century has some info in Chapter 4 about this. --zenazn 01:45, 20 May 2007 (UTC)


 * The auspices of the IGY gave the frenzied paranoia of the Space Race the momentary illusion of international cooperation. In my opinion.  Fishal (talk) 03:00, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

The IGY marked the end of the cold war mentality in science. It was the greatest international scientific project ever carried through. In quite a few geo-sciences common international evaluation rules were for the first time laid down. The scientific aspect needs to be stessed. The present text gives the impression "the IGY tht´s the advent of the first satellites" but there were a lot of other noticeable facts, in particular a narrow international cooperation in many projects created after the IGY. kmarawer 22:53, 22 May 2009

Trivia to Popular Culture
Since Wikipedia now has a policy of discouraging "Trivia" sections, I changed "Trivia" to "IGY Reflections in Popular Culture." I think this equally represents the sections. I'll have no objection if someone gets a better name for the section. Mvblair 11:49, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

I removed the subsection titles because they were giving undue weight to this section in the table of contents. Still, it looks like this section is about 50% of the article. That doesn't speak well to quality, if as much can be said of pop culture references as of the IGY itself. JustinTime55 (talk) 14:00, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

US Navy "satellite test to 126 miles" in April?
"April 11, 1957, the U.S. Navy tested a satellite at an altitude of 126 mi." How can this be? What does it mean to "test" a satellite at altitude? By definition, a satellite is an object that orbits the Earth, and Sputnik 1 was the first. I can only interpret this to mean either: Which one is correct? JustinTime55 (talk) 20:41, 18 March 2010 (UTC)
 * They launched a suborbital spacecraft to an apogee of 126 miles, or
 * They ground-tested a planned satellite at a simulated altitude of 126 miles.

NASA has this same source listed here: http://history.nasa.gov/Timeline/1955-57.html I don't mean to cast doubt on the intentions of the original editor who added the citation, but citing the document in question, but not giving the easily available web address of where it can be found, suggests they merely wanted a citation for their addition, but did not want to be burdened with others being able to access what they used. "April 11: U.S.-IGY scientific satellite equipment, including a radio transmitter and instruments for measuring temperature, pressure, cosmic rays, and meteoric dust encounters, was tested above earth for the first time, as a rocket containing this equipment was fired by the Navy to a 126-mile altitude." Without more information it would seem that they fired it up 126 miles and presumably it came straight back down. As it stands the wording is misleading. Kelryn (talk) 16:43, 25 September 2010 (UTC)

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Geographical Error
"Great Britain" is only part of a country, in the UN sense; put "United Kingdom" (UK is short for UK of GB & NI) instead. GB contains three non-UN countries - England, Wales, & Scotland. "Ireland" is correctly listed, being a shortform name of a country which occupies only a part of the island called Ireland. 94.30.84.71 (talk) 13:56, 22 March 2018 (UTC)

Hi, is it true that only 67 countries participated in the IGY?
Because, I have also read that more than 70 countries partook on the IGY.

International Geophysical Year (IGY) | Eisenhower Presidential Library (eisenhowerlibrary.gov)

I really don't know how many at this point. Have the authors who wrote this at the Eisenhower library got it wrong?

j.jhg.2008.05.01620160523-12370-1hb7dc2-with-cover-page-v2.pdf (d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net)

Here it says 67 so... Turtleshell3 (talk) 20:10, 4 September 2021 (UTC)


 * In the article lead, it says, "Sixty-seven countries participated in IGY projects...." Later on, in the "Antarctica" section, "More than 70 existing national scientific organizations then formed IGY committees, and participated in the cooperative effort." I count 69 nations, and their flags, listed in the "Participating countries" section but only 67 at the reference given. There are probably various levels of "participation" and "country" at work here. For example, constituent modern-day countries are given under East Africa in our list but not at the source; and that accounts for that discrepancy. Dhtwiki (talk) 11:59, 5 September 2021 (UTC)


 * Ah, yes. I see now. Thanks! Turtleshell3 (talk) 13:15, 10 September 2021 (UTC)