Sputnik really freaked out Americans who believed in American exceptionalism. I wonder what other harebrained space stuff that's unknown to the public due to "national security" the US was involved in the early 1960s. "National security" actually meaning "national pride" because even 60 years later - it would be embarrassing for the public to know about it.

I love how Wikipedia paraphrases the concept - "This plan was batshit."

The MOOSE system was nonetheless always intended as an extreme emergency measure when no other option for returning an astronaut to Earth existed; falling from orbit protected by nothing more than a spacesuit and a bag of foam was unlikely to ever become a particularly safe—or enticing—maneuver.

What did MOOSE stand for?

MOOSE, originally an acronym for Man Out Of Space Easiest but later changed to the more professional-sounding Manned Orbital Operations Safety Equipment