The Sputnik Scare

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the world’s first artificial satellite into orbit. The satellite, known as Sputnik, did not do much: It relayed blips and bleeps from its radio transmitters as it circled the Earth. Still, to many Americans, the beach ball-sized Sputnik was proof of something alarming: While the U.S. economy was booming and its consumer technologies were advancing, the Soviets had been focusing on training scientists—and were positioned to win the Space Race, and possibly the Cold War, because of it.