ipl-logo

Sputnik: Six Key Events Of The Space Race

202 Words1 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Space race introduction

In 1957, Sputnik 1 was launched into space. It was the world’s first artificial satellite, created by the Soviet Union, and was the object that began the Space Race. The launch of this satellite came as an unpleasant surprise to the United States (“The Space Race”). Less than a month later, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2, which carried a dog, Laika, in it (“6 Key Events of the Space Race”). A year later, in 1958, the United States retaliated by launching Explorer 1. The same year, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was formed (“The Space Race”). In 1959, the Soviet Union sent a man, Yuri Gagarin, into orbit around the earth on the satellite Luna 2. The U.S. responded by launching Mercury-Redstone 3 into space carrying
Show More
Related
566 Words | 3 Pages

With the following of Sputnik, a Russian satellite, Sonny and his friends decided to build their own rocket to send to space before the Russians. Roy Lee, Sherman, and O’Dell helped him. Their first rocket was made out of a flashlight body and powder from a firecracker. Once it was lit, disaster struck. “ The only problem was, it wasn't our rocket that streaked into that dark, cold, clear, and starry night.

Read More
423 Words | 2 Pages

The space program is one of the most thrilling things in history. The space program in Florida was founded on July 29, 1958. Ever since the space program was founded it has effected the state of Florida tremendously. It effected Florida’s culture, economy, and social benefits of technology.

Read More
538 Words | 3 Pages

The Soviet Union in 1980 spent 165 billion compare to US who spent 131 billion. The Soviet Union had 1398 missiles while the USA had 1054, the Soviet Union had 950 submarines while the USA had 656 Submarines. the Soviet Union has always been known for being competitive with their military. Document F states that they were first to send a satellite into space, even before the U.S. On October 1957 they sent ‘ Sputnik” the first satellite into space and within 7 years they sent the first dog, woman, and a man into space, before the US.

Read More
948 Words | 4 Pages

From a meeting of President Eisenhower’s National Security Council, a conclusion was reached, “…we could not permit ourselves to be panicked by the Soviet Achievement [Sputnik]” (Document 3). The launch of the Sputnik only encouraged Americans to accomplish more scientific breakthroughs—before the Soviets. Before the release of the Sputnik, President Truman had dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Shortly after, the Soviets had detonated their first atomic bomb in the late 1940s. Since the U.S. and the Soviets had both achieved a level of destruction through the atomic bomb they became engaged in an “arms race.”

Read More
719 Words | 3 Pages

Thus sparked a Cold War that would last for decades. One of the biggest events of the Cold War was the launch of Sputnik. On October 4th, 1957, Russia launched Sputnik into outer space. The satellite became the first object to orbit the Earth. Russian success in putting a vehicle into orbit sparked massive military, political, and technological implications.

Read More
983 Words | 4 Pages

The race continued until 1969 when Niel Armstrong set foot on the moon (Seedhouse 128). The first satellite the Soviet Union launched into orbit was called Sputnik and it came as an unpleasant surprise to many Americans (“The Space Race”). Historians argue that the Soviet Union won the space race on October 4 1957 with the launch of Sputnik, but most agree it was just the start to the race (Seedhouse 128). After the launch of Sputnik the United States launched their own satellite in 1958 called explorer 1 which was designed by the United States army. The race began to heat up and the Soviet Union launched Luna 2 which became the first space probe to hit the moon (“The Space Race”).

Read More
1328 Words | 6 Pages

The Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I on October 4, 1957. This first artificial satellite weighed about one-hundred eighty-four pounds, took ninety-eight minutes to orbit the earth, was silver in color, and was about the size of a beach ball. Despite it not being able to do much more than orbit the earth and transmit beeps, Sputnik I had one of the most unprecedented impacts on the United States.1The single launch of Sputnik I, initiated the United States vs. Soviet Union space race, which resulted in many military, political, technological and scientific advancements. Sputnik caught America off guard; it sparked worries of a nuclear war from the Soviet Union as well. Since the U.S. knew that they had this technological and scientific

Read More
1836 Words | 8 Pages

In 1957, the Soviets had created a satellite by the name of Sputnik 1 which was the first manmade object in space, to launch this satellite they used a Soviet R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile. This launch alarmed all Americans because, space was supposed to be the next frontier that America could conquer, that was not the only concern with the launch of Sputnik. A much larger concern was that if the R-7 could reach the heights of space there would be no problem for it to reach The United States, so the U.S. began gathering Soviet intelligence to insure that if they were going to attack the U.S. would be the first to know. About a year later the U.S. launches its own satellite into the Earth’s orbit engineered by the U.S. Army under supervision of rocket scientist Wernher von Braun. The same year president Dwight D. Eisenhower made the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) an agency dedicated to space exploration.

Read More
469 Words | 2 Pages

Every day 2,721 satellites orbit around Earth helping people communicate through texts, calls and social media. Some are as small as postage stamps, while some are as large as a football field, but the first ever satellite launched into space was a Russian satellite called Sputnik 1. The only task Sputnik 1 could do was transmit beeping sounds to receivers on Earth, but that was enough to make the U.S. feel like they were not the most powerful country in the world anymore. The U.S. joined the competition in space technology and thus, the space began. From 1957 to 1967 the Unites States and Russia competed to achieve many "firsts" in space, however, President Eisenhower was not threatened by Russia's accomplishments unlike many other government

Read More
275 Words | 2 Pages

In 1957 the soviets launched a probe known as “sputnik” it flew over the Earth and caused people in the U.S. to fear the U.S.S.R. This invention

Read More
825 Words | 4 Pages

On the other hand, the Republican Party tried to lessen the importance of Sputnik. Senator Alexander Wiley dubbed it a “great propaganda stunt” while Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson called it “a nice scientific trick” (Divine, xv). White House Chief of Staff Sherman Adams put it forward that the US had no plans to participate in “an outer space basketball game”. In contrast with the ideologies of the Democrats, presidential assistant Maxwell Rabb held that Sputnik was “without military significance” and thus not worth panicking over; in fact, professionals such as research scientists from Harvard University were more concerned with the public frenzy (Divine, xvi). Yielding to public pressure, President Eisenhower established the Advanced Research Projects Agency, otherwise known

Read More
402 Words | 2 Pages

In the early stages of the Cold War, both contestants set stage in space. In 1957, the Soviet Union the first ever artificial satellite, known as Sputnik. This would be the first man-made item to travel into earth’s orbit. To the US, this was a bitter surprise.

Read More
844 Words | 4 Pages

On September 12, 1962, at Rice University in Houston Texas, John F. Kennedy gave a powerful speech to garner support for the funding of the space race for the USA. He stated the importance of putting a man on the moon before the end of the decade in its efforts against the Soviet Union and the expectation was met in 1969 by the astronaut Neil Armstrong. His speech forged a new path that the US was heading and inherently started the revolution of the exploration of outer space. Kennedy’s “Moon Speech” makes use of ethos and Kairos to persuade the people of America to become interested in and invest in the ongoing space race. A very important factor in JFK’s speech was his effective use of rhetoric, notably ethos, which he used to make himself become more believable and authoritative.

Read More
1800 Words | 8 Pages

The pressure for the United States to be better than the Soviet Union caused the education in the United States to be more focused towards math and science. Maddin says, “Sputnik woke the nation up, serving as a “focusing event” that put a spotlight on a national problem. In this case, he said, the problem was education.” The sputnik launched in 1957 and was the first artificial earth satellite. Marsha Thompson even says, “I believe because of sputnik we came as a country to realize that science, scientist, and engineers would make all the difference in our futures.

Read More
737 Words | 3 Pages

When Neil Armstrong first touched down on the moon in 1969, millions of people watched him take the first step and create history (Villard). Yet even as we’ve moved on from the moon landings and consider them as a pivotal point for mankind, “Forty years after U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon, many conspiracy theorists still insist the Apollo 11 moon landing was an elaborate hoax”(Than). The idea that our voyage to the moon was deliberately staged seems to resurface year after year. While the conspiracy theorists claim the moon landing was a hoax, creating a fake moon landing would have been more expensive and difficult than actually reaching the moon. The race to the moon began on October 5, 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into orbit around the earth: “When the Soviet Union launched the satellite Sputnik, on October 4, 1957, the United States experienced a technological identity crisis”(Olson).

Read More

More about Sputnik: Six Key Events Of The Space Race

Open Document