How Did Sputnik Affect The Space Race

The launch of the Sputnik had such a big impact on America because “America thought of themselves as the world’s technological leaders” (Richerme 35). Also “the Soviets, after all, were not supposed to be good at technology” (DeGroot 3). This scared America and brought them into a big crisis or as some call a race. This race was known as the space race and it was a very long and twisted path that it bared on its shoulders.

In the past 50 years, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has sent out many planned space exploration missions which have lead to numerous advantages in society and culture. NASA’s technologies benefit American lives with the innumerable important breakthroughs by creating new markets that have spurred the economy and changed countless lives in many ways. NASA is a federal agency and receives its fundings from the annual federal budget passed by the United States Congress. However, there are conflicting opinions that consider whether or not funding for NASA is a waste of government spending.

On October 4th, 1957 the Soviet Union launched the first ever satellite, Sputnik. The launch of Sputnik sent the United States into a frenzy, beginning the Space Race, and the innovation of technology as a whole. The Space Race most importantly had a major impact on the evolution of the United States’s defense technologies through the launch of Sputnik. The Space Race sparked the United States battle for technological superiority against the USSR, and lead to improvizations in their satellite and satellite defense technologies.

On October 4th, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, a small satellite, successfully into orbit, and the Space Race truly

Have you heard of the “Space Race”? It all began when the Soviet Union sent the first artificial satellite “Sputnik 1” into space. After that the United States rushed to catch up with the Soviet Union’s technological advances, and the Space Race started. The Space Race finally ended in 1969, when we sent the first man to land on the moon. The Space Race had many impacts on the Cold War.

Russia launched Sputnik, a satellite to orbit the earth, into outer space on October 4th, 1957. With tensions already running high in the Cold War, Americans panicked at the thought of the Russians building space and nuclear energy, fearing it could be used on them. The conflict now called the Space Race resulted in Americans creating NASA and pushing the sciences in school.

The Space Race has impacted the political, social, and economic aspects of the US society greatly. It mainly affected the political aspect. A way that the lead of the Soviet Union in the Space Race affected the US Society is “the Vanguard rocket was prepared for launch at Cape Canaveral. On December 6/1957, the slender, delicate instrument was fired, began to rise, and then sank back down on itself, crushing its engines and erupting into a huge fireball. The pathetic collapse was carried live on television, right in front of the world. This was what we were capable of, while the Russians rode the heavens (from Document F).” Another reason why the US was very shocked is because that “it took them four years to catch up to our atomic bomb and nine months to catch up to our hydrogen bomb. Now we are trying to catch up to their satellite (from Document B).”

The first major way the space race reflected the situations was politically. The Soviet Union was extremely proud of the Sputnik 1 satellite. Sputnik was a simple satellite that became the first human made object to orbit the Earth on October 4, 1957 (Document E). In

The Space Race was a competition between the Soviet Union and the United States to see which nation could achieve spaceflight dominance before the other. The Race began on August 2, 1955 and ended nearly 40 years later in December of 1991. The Space Race began because of two major factors that would carry it until its end. The Soviet Union’s announcement that they were going to began building and using satellites to use in space days before the United States planned to announce the same thing helped fuel the fire for the competition. The Cold War also played a very influential role in the competitiveness between the countries and would inspire them to be better and work harder than their rival. The general public also played a key role in the race. Reinforcing your country’s involvement in the race gave them the all clear to spend money to build these space crafts, satellites and other technology in order to not only win, but to please the people. If a country has the support of its people they can accomplish anything. Propaganda like posters became a great way of encouraging the people to get involved and stay involved. Posters depicted great spaceships only seen in movies, engrained a hatred for the opposing country, the influence the race had on the future, and astronauts as real life superheroes like Superman. Most importantly the Space Race was a time of great inventions that carry on to

The NASA Space Program is one of the most, if not, the most known space program that is currently active. One of the most successful projects was the “Space Race”. In this essay I will discuss what happened on the political side, the economical side, and the social/public side of this event and race to beat and get ahead of Russia and their launch of Sputnik 1.

“Sputnik marked the beginning of the "space race," a period of nearly twenty years during which fierce US and Soviet competition spurred both countries to make rapid progress in aeronautic engineering,” (Lee). This period of time birthed a new program from the American government, called the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA. NASA has been building rockets, training astronauts, and studying space for the benefit of science, the government, and the people of America since 1958. Unfortunately, many people don't realize how important NASA is, and there have been efforts made to stop the government from funding NASA. This program is essential for increasing knowledge of outer space, protecting planet Earth, and creating

Along with the economic changes came the controversial technology. And no long after, the “Sputnik 1” was launched into space by the USSR, October 4 1957, while the whole world marveled. Except for maybe the American population, for they didn't want be in second place behind their Cold War rival. the whole world was entering a new era, one filled with curiosity on what was coming for them next. President Eisenhower of the United States urged the navy to develop their own space conquest in the near future.

With that being said, we must re-evaluate the established paradigm that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) role in the Cold War. NASA did not exist for the sole purpose to beat the Soviet Union into space and establish a monopoly of power in space. This was a byproduct. NASA’s genesis was a genuine intention to increase the knowledge of mankind. In many ways NASA can be seen as a miracle of mankind because it was born out of a state of war, but evolved into an organization shaped for peace and discovery. By looking at NASA, it is an exemption from the warlike nature of the Cold War. We can observe this evolution from its wartime genesis, and its transition

The Soviet Scientist that created Sputnik 1 knew little about outer space when designing it. Upon its launch in 1957, the Soviet Union became pioneers in space as Sputnik 1 because the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth. Additionally, Sputnik 1 helped the Soviets expand their knowledge about space as the learned about the density of the atmosphere from Sputnik 1’s orbit. Consequentially, the launch of Sputnik 1 had geopolitical effects as it initiated the now infamous “Space Race” between the United States and the Soviet Union. America would respond by launching Explorer 1 into in 1958, and both sides researched and developed their satellite technology over the next few years.

The United States and the Soviet Union had been in a Cold War for a decade. The two countries had been in an arms race, and there were high tensions between the two. However, on October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik (see image 1), the world’s first artificial satellite. Sputnik was about the size of a beach ball, 22.8 inches in diameter and weighed 183.9 pounds. It took about 93 minutes to orbit the Earth and carried nothing of importance on it. This was a blow to America since the Soviets had beat them into sending a space satellite, but it did not end with just Sputnik. Sputnik II (see image 2) was the second spacecraft sent into space, and was launched on November 3, 1957, under just one month after the launch of Sputnik I. Sputnik II was a 4 meter high cone-shaped capsule, and had a base of 2 diameters.