I thought they did a pretty good job. At least Nova is maintaining
a level of quality that I do not see with other similar science-oriented
programs these days. Though I suppose I should be happy that any
science is being shown at all on television, right?

As much as it was sad to see the Huntsville team be held back from
lofting a satellite over one year before Sputnik 1, had they succeeded
and beaten the Soviets, I wonder if we would have tried as hard to
get into space ourselves?

Or maybe things would have gone at a different pace and we would now have a real, serious permanent presence in space, rather than
race to the Moon then can everything and start over from scratch
as we have now.

Or maybe we would have a handful of commercial and military satellites
in Earth orbit, a smattering of vehicles devoted to science, and no
manned presence at all, to say nothing of humans on the Moon.