Why Pentagon sabotaged Jupiter C rocket to make sure he did not launch by accident

[Pawelk198604]

I read that Pentagon inspector forced Von Braun to load sandbag to his Jupiter-C rocket to make sure he did not launch satellite in it, why they have such spiteful nature.

Why are they so much I did not want this to happen, it always surprised me.

[Kryten]

At that point it wasn't clear how the international community would respond to satellite overflights. This could have been seen as illegal violation of soviet airspace, which they obviously didn't want; in the end the issue was allowed because the soviets did it first.

[Pawelk198604]

At that point it wasn't clear how the international community would respond to satellite overflights. This could have been seen as illegal violation of soviet airspace, which they obviously didn't want; in the end the issue was allowed because the soviets did it first.

So American intentionally given up and allowed Soviet to launch first satellite?

[Kryten]

Well, the idea was the NRL's Vanguard would go first; as Vanguard was based on a sounding rocket rather than a missile, and NRL was semi-civilian and focused on scientific efforts, it was thought this would have a better international response than something launched on a missile by an army missile research group. But they couldn't get Vanguard to work before Sputnik pipped it.