The Creation Of Sputnik

In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the satellite Sputnik, and the space race was on. The Soviet’s triumph jarred the American people and sparked a vigorous response in the federal government to make sure the United States did not fall behind its communist rival.

Sputnik I was launched on October 4th, 1957 by Russia, sending panic through Americans. Both the US and USSR were trying to be the first ones into space. So this failure had pushed the US to work harder and led to the creation of NASA.The creation of NASA had lead to the start of the space race. Space race conflicts had lasted over the next 30 years until the Americans had finally claimed the victory in the space race.

The Soviets began quickly on creating new technology as a way to show their military power. On October 4, 1957 they successfully launched a satellite called Sputnik Ⅰ, it was about the size of a beach ball, and became the first satellite to orbit the earth. Soon after Sputnik Ⅰ, Sputnik Ⅱ was launched in November 3, 1957, this is considered the first time life from earth went into space because in that shuttle a dog named Laika boarded. After two successful launches from the Soviets United States became a little frightened, they came to the conclusion that if the Soviet Union had the ability to launch a satellite they could also launch a nuclear missile. Since this era was during the Cold War the thought of the Soviets having greater military power frightened the United States. As a result in January 1958 the United states decided to launch their first satellite called Explorer Ⅰ. Explorer Ⅰ carried scientific equipment that then led to that discovery of the Van Allen radiation belt, but this launch was not enough. After many more satellites being sent to space and the Soviets setting many records such as the first dual man flight, the first space walk, and the first women in space, the United States decided that they needed to go above and beyond just sending a satellite to space to be able to prove that they were

The Saturn V was an important rocket in history. According to NASA, “It was Saturn V’s job to take men from the earth to the moon “ (The Worlds). The power of one Saturn V is enough to place in

The world experienced very many huge moments, such big moments in which sometimes you don’t think it’s really happening. October 4, 1957, was one of those days. It was the day of the Sputnik launch. Sputnik was a Soviet satellite that orbited in the earth’s rotation 584 miles above the earth and traveling at about 18,000 mph. It took approximately 98 minutes for it to rotate the earth which meant it passed the United States seven times a day. The sputnik had a diameter of 22 inches and 184 pounds. It’s visible with binoculars before and after sunrise, sputnik transmitted radio signals back to earth strong enough to be picked up by amateurs radio operators. The Sputnik changed many things in the world like the view on the Soviets and their ability to produce technology. Since the United States saw that the Soviet Union was the first to launch their satellite they ask themselves that why haven’t they become the first to launch? So since the day Soviet Union launch the United States responded so they created NASA to improve education to train future engineers, and developing technology to win the Space Race.

On october 4, 1957, in the midst of the cold war, the soviet union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to be sent into orbit sparking the space race, as well as marking the beginning of the space age(Gaber).The space race was a competition between the two biggest rivals in the world, the United States and the Soviet Union. During the space race, the United States and the Soviet Union competed to conquer space exploration. The soviet union ran two main mission Sputnik and Luna and the United State had three, Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.The space race brought on many scientific discoveries.

Forty-five years ago, a shiny aluminum sphere made its way into Earth orbit, stunning Americans and changing history. This Earth-orbiting satellite, weighing a mere 184 pounds, was called Sputnik. This started a space race between the U.S. and the USSR.(History.com soviet union launches sputnik).

On July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 launched from Cape Kennedy. Just a few days later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped foot on the moon for the first time in American history. Although Neil was the first to do so, Buzz was not long after him. Armstrong made a huge impact on how other countries would see America after stepping foot on the moon.

The space race began during the Cold War in 1957, when the USSR launched Sputnik 1, an artificial satellite that orbited the earth for 21 days (M​intz)​. The USA tried to launch a satellite as well and failed. They eventually were able to launch their first satellite, Explorer 1, four months later. The USSR launched the first manned spaceship into orbit in 1961, with Yuri Gagarin, and five years later they were the first to land an unmanned vehicle on the moon. America felt vulnerable because they had always thought of themselves as ahead in technology so JFK made the announcement that they would be the first to land a man on the Moon, launching the Apollo program. The Gemini program was

This was a time during the Cold War when the U.S. was involved in military tensions with the Soviet Union, and research along with the creation of long-range ballistic missiles was taking place. Sputnik I’s missile that rocketed the famous satellite into orbit was actually a shelled-out casing of a ballistic missile that the Soviet Union presumably built initially for wartime (Garber). To the United States, this was proof that the Soviet Union was capable of launching a large missile and possibly a missile attack. Consequently, one year after Sputnik I’s successful debut, President Eisenhower signed the Space Act, officially creating the NASA agency in the United States (Penny4NASA). Neil DeGrasse Tyson, an American astrophysicist and science communicator, states the significance of how the space race begun, and how it came to a halt:

A couple of years later in 1965 the Gemini project was created as a “bridge to the moon” to show the world that American astronauts could change their orbit in space, remain in space for at least two weeks, rendezvous and dock with other spacecraft, and work outside the spacecraft. With what they learned from the Gemini missions, NASA created the Apollo Project to try and send a man to the moon, and they did in the summer of 1969 with the successful landing and return from the moon. The landing of a manned spacecraft on the moon was a huge success for NASA and humanity or as Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, put it “ That’s one small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind.” The Apollo missions continued through 1972 with five more successful missions to the moon and with the Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975 the program finally ended. Only two years after the Apollo-Soyuz mission the Voyager spacecrafts were created with the primary missions of exploring Jupiter and Saturn. After that was completed the mission was extended for Voyager 2 and it was sent to Neptune and Uranus and is still the only spacecraft to have visited

The Space Age emphasized the invention of a sophisticated technology, Sputnik 1, an artificial satellite launched by the Soviet Union. The development of these artificial satellites led other countries such as German and the U.S. to compete with each other. V-2 rocket technology then developed by German scientists leading to a more advanced space technologies. The U.S. also invented rocket engines by Robert Goddard and Wernher von Braun that contributed to the world’s space systems still today. President John F. Kennedy of the U.S. announced Apollo 11 spacecraft as to be the first in landing a human on the moon after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2 successfully carried a dog into space proving the possibility of human space travel (Fitzgerald,

with the launch of the Sputnik satellite. The U.S. followed with the satellite Explorer the

Apollo 11 was the first space mission that landed humans on the moon. On July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin landed on the Moon while Michael Collins stayed in the Command Module. On the surface, Armstrong and Aldrin spent two and a half hours collecting samples, taking pictures, and exploring the surface of the moon. After they got their samples, they placed a three by five feet American flag on the moon, a plaque that said, “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon. July 20, 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.” They landed off the shores of Hawaii on July 24, 1969. Apollo 11 landing on the moon exchanged new scientific and technological information in history, encountered a new region to discover, and started more explorations in space.

The craze about space began in the 1950’s. After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union began what is more widely known as the “Space Race,” where the Soviet Union and the United States raced to see who could successfully launch and orbit a satellite, then eventually a manned spacecraft ( A Brief History). The Soviets launched into orbit before the United States. In 1957, Sputnik 1 was sent into space.