Medaris was said to be an outspoken commander who never broke discipline, and an excellent manager. He and leading German rocket scientist
Wernher von Braun became close friends during their years at Huntsville. In 1956 Medaris and von Braun formally proposed launching seven satellites during 1957-58 only to be expressly forbidden. A distinguished delegation including Secretary of Defense
Neil McElroy was visiting Redstone Arsenal on 4 October when news flashed that the Soviets had launched
Sputnik 1. As Medaris recalled, von Braun's frustration poured forth in a torrent of words: "We knew they were going to do it!
Vanguard will never make it. We have the hardware on the shelf. For God's sake turn us loose and let us do something. We can put up a satellite in sixty days, Mr. McElroy." Medaris cautiously interjected, "No, Wernher, ninety days." On 3 November the Soviets launched
Sputnik 2 with a payload of 1,100 pounds, proving they now had the capability to visit nuclear destruction on North America. Senator
Lyndon B. Johnson presided over sensational hearings to inquire how it was the United States was losing the "
space race" to the Soviet Union. The Pentagon, under intense pressure, at last gave Medaris authorization to prepare, but still not execute, a satellite launch. The Pentagon finally gave Medaris a green light to launch with a military rocket. The Huntsville team assembled the
Juno launch system, which was a Redstone with small upper stages, at
Cape Canaveral only to be thwarted by high winds until the evening of 31 January 1958, when the countdown was completed and the rocket arced perfectly into the night. Ninety minutes later, confirmation came from the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory's radar station in California that
Explorer 1, America's first satellite, was transmitting from orbit. Medaris became head of the
Army Ordnance Missile Command on 31 March 1958, with full authority over the ABMA,
White Sands Missile Range, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Army Missile Firing Laboratory at Cape Canaveral, and responsibility for all Army programs in missiles and space. During 1958 and 1959 the latter including more Explorer satellites and a series of Pioneer lunar probes. In May 1961 a
Mercury Redstone rocket launched the first astronaut
Alan Shepard on his suborbital flight. As early as December 1957 von Braun had drafted – and Medaris promoted – a space program that called for a soft lunar landing by 1960, a two-man satellite by 1962,
Saturn rockets capable of boosting ten tons into orbit by 1963, an orbiting space station by 1965, a three-man expedition to the moon by 1967, and a permanent crewed lunar base by 1971. That inspired an even more elaborate Army plan called
Project Horizon in June 1959. Medaris testified before Congress, in public appearances, and through the military chain of command. He advocated tirelessly in favor of keeping the ABMA team intact within a single, unified military and civilian space program so as to minimize redundancy, bureaucracy, and waste. The
Eisenhower administration chose instead to divide the space program between military and civilian agencies and among the armed services restricting the Army to short-range rockets. In July 1958 Congress created a new agency, the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and gave it responsibility for all scientific programs and non-military launch vehicles. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory was transferred to NASA in December 1958, and the German rocket team in 1960, which became NASA's
George C. Marshall Space Flight Center. The Army offered Medaris a promotion to three-star general and a desk job in
the Pentagon. Instead, he retired from the Army on 31 January 1960 and wrote a memoir called
Countdown for Decision. ==Personal life and calling to the priesthood==