Sputnik's Impact On American Culture

After the USSR launched Sputnik 1, man Americans were frightened by what they would do next. “...(the launch of Sputnik) showed clearly that the United States was no longer safe behind it’s ocean barriers.” (Document A) America had long relied on the oceans to keep European and Asian powers at bay, however, when the Soviets entered and took control of space, the US was surrounded and the Soviets could bomb them from any location. The US wanted to regain control of the situation so the Vanguard, a rocket with a more advanced satellite than anything seen before, was set to be launched on live television (Document F) The rocket fired but it fell back down, collapsed, and exploded for the world to watch. Americans were humiliated by this disaster, however they knew they must continue to fight communism, which meant beating them in the Space Race. During this time Americans became extremely anti-soviet and anti-communist, which continued long after this and still exists

The Soviet Union seemed to be advancing against the United States during the 1950s. Then the unimaginable happen, the Soviet Union was able to launch a missile into outer space which contained the world’s first artificial satellite. In the United States, Americans were surprised that the Soviet Union had accomplished such a task. They were also afraid since

The launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union surprised many Americans. They thought that they were in danger because, it showed that the United States was no longer safe behind the ocean barriers. There was a claim that who ever controlled space controlled the world, and Soviet Union had been in the lead. As stated in Document B, the Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. after listening to the announcement of Sputnik’s launch on the radio, was in shock of realizing another nation could achieve technological superiority over America. People could no longer consider the Russians behind them in technology. Though it took them many years to catch to the atomic bomb and nine months to catch up to the

In addition to initiating a space race between the two current superpowers, the Sputnik spacecraft launch also had alarming military implications. The Sputnik satellites used intercontinental ballistic missiles that were initially used for their thrust capabilities but could theatrically be capable of flying from the Soviet Union to United States military targets in less than an hour—cutting the flight time to a fraction of a conventional bomber aircraft. In response to the launch of Sputnik, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958. The act created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) . To prevent the rise of Soviet dominance in military matters, Eisenhower also established the Advanced Research Projects Agency, a division of the U.S. Department of Defense. This was symbolic of a serious revelation of the standing of the scientific and technological capabilities of America in comparison to other countries, and also led to President Eisenhower issuing a proclamation to increase funding for education in America in science and engineering to combat this widening deficit. The quick Soviet lead in the newly emerging space race caused much panic, which shaped American foreign policy for the following decade(Document E). An example is avoiding “an all-out war with China” for fear of having to combat communism on two fronts.(Document

Now that after America and the Soviet Union where both partaking in the space race they both had suspicions about each other. Eisenhower, on the other hand, saw satellites as “pointless unless they provided something useful back on Earth” (DeGroot 5). “ A spy satellite, on the other hand, could provide accurate pictures of Soviet military capabilities, thus enabling the United States to spend its defense budget wisely, without wasting huge sums on challenging phantom forces” (DeGroot 5). America was worried about the Soviets spying on America because of security issues so America wanted to pursue on building themselves a satellite to “provide accurate pictures of Soviet military capabilities” (DeGroot 5). The only problem was that “ Flying over another nation’s territory without permission was, however, illegal under international law. What was not clear was whether the law applied to satellites” (DeGroot 5). America and the Soviets were in a battle to see which world power could be the best. The

According to Doc A "Sputnik came as a surprise to most Americans". Not only did "Sputnik came as a surprise to most Americans" Sputnik also struck fear into many Americans. Americans even prepared for a nuclear war, they also made a video called "Duck and Cover"(you can find it here " https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKqXu-5jw60 "). Around this time Dr. Wernher Von Braun made a full scale model of Explorer 1, replicating the first satellite by the U.S.(Doc E). While in a rush to catch up with The Soviet Union, and on December 6th, 1957 while in a rush to catch up, the U.S. sent the Vanguard rocket attempting to get the rocket to space quickly the U.S. rushed causing the rocket to turn into a fireball on TV.

Within a month after this, they successfully launched a second satellite. Americans were terrified, thinking that America was lagging behind the Soviets and that The Soviet Union could launch atomic weapons from space. America was so scared that they rushed and attempted to launch their own satellite (Vanguard), but it only rose a few feet off the launching pad before exploding. Americans were extremely embarrassed, and the Soviet Union was starting to look more powerful than the United States. Therefore, We poured millions of federal dollars into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Eisenhower and those around him were establishing the principle of “freedom of space,” the idea that outer space belonged to everyone, allowing satellite flights over foreign countries. Therefore, President Eisenhower and his close associates were not alarm over Sputnik going into space ahead of an American satellite. Meanwhile, during the Sputnik “crisis,” the White House, Central Intelligence Agency, Air Force, and a few defense contractors that had been highly selected and seen as trustworthy were building a spy satellite. Only a few dozen individuals knew the name, CORONA. Eisenhower and his National Security Council were not expecting the media and public reaction of the space race and their concern with winning against the Russians; instead, they were invested in launching surveillance satellites that could tell American intelligence the locations of Soviet

In the beginning of the Space Race, Russia put itself in the lead by launching Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2, launched respectively in October and November of the year 1957. These were the first satellites in space which was a huge achievement accomplished by the Russians. The launch of these satellites was very significant as they started the Space Race, and pushed Kennedy to declaring that America would put a man on the moon (“Sputnik Space Age” Launius). Also, holding the title of having the first satellite in space is something that Russia is very proud of. Just a year later, Sputnik 3 is launched (May 1958) and the constant launch of satellite’s puts America on it’s heels, pushing America to work harder (“Sputnik Space Age” Launius).

In 1965, NASA’s annual budget was $5.2 billion; this money was spent to heat up the Space Race (“Project Apollo”). The Space Race and its competitive nature is best illustrated in this passage from John F. Kennedy’s Address at Rice University on the nation's space effort, “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too” (“John F. Kennedy”). The launch of the Soviet satellite, Sputnik 1, was the event that began the Space Race (The First 13). It was launched on October 4, 1957 (Taylor, Roberts, and Bullock 2451; “The Space Race”). This metallic sphere created the panic of the Sputnik Crisis and the missile gap (Commager 628; Taylor, Roberts, and Bullock 2451; The First 13). Two products of the Sputnik Crisis were the National Defense Education Act and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (“A Brief;” Apollo to the moon 19-20; The First 25). From that point on, the race was on. Although the Soviet Union had a head start in the Space Race, the United States caught up with and surpassed them because of their advanced education system, the German engineers, technology from the Second World War, and their different types of government and economic systems.

“A direct result of the Sputnik crisis, NASA began operations on October 1, 1958, absorbing into itself the earlier National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics intact: its 8,000 employees, an annual budget of $100 million, three major research laboratories-Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, and Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory-and two smaller test facilities.”(Steve Ganer) This was because the start of the space race, although it had sent fear through so many, many more people had gotten jobs because of this. Although both Russia and the US had created new technologies, along with gaining new skills, there was only one winner of this Space Race. The winner was the ones who put in so much effort to keep their citizens safe, which was the US.

The creation of rockets into space, such as Sputnik, marked a change in the world of technology and brought about a new generation of discoveries. This new generation that sparked was known as the Space Age. The launching of Sputnik by the Soviets caused America to worry that they may be falling behind in technology, and also that they may now be vulnerable to attacks by enemy weapons placed in space.

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."- Neil Armstrong. On October 4, 1957, 7:28 PM life changed in the United States and Russia because of the launch of sputnik the first man-made object to orbit the earth. The space race wasn't just a race to space, but a Continuum of the Cold War and a competition to see who the better country was really was. The US always felt that their technology exceeded everyone else’s, but on the day of October 4, they were proven wrong; the Soviets were on top. The launch of Sputnik was a huge success, but Dwight Eisenhower would try to downplay it to avoid accepting defeat. The United States would put 400,000 people to work on the project. This is the first time the US had embarked on such on

Those sputnik satellites were genuine a technological wonder and most importantly, in the Soviet Union’s point of view, they did it before the United States. According to Siegelbaum, it was one of the most significant victories that soviets had in the Cold War. Especially Vasilii Dmitrievich Zakharchenko contributed greatly to changing pavilions focus to soviet scientific, technological and industrial development. Now the Soviet Union had their trump card. The sputnik satellites were something completely new and their pavilion became centered around the sputnik replicas.

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.