Sputnik

The world's first artificial satellite, launched by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957. The Sputnik program (sputnik roughly translates into “fellow traveler”) comprised four separate launches.

At a weight of 184 pounds, Sputnik 1 was sent into space from the Soviet Union's desert rocket testing facility near Tyuratam in the Kazakh Republic. The satellite was designed to relay information about the upper atmosphere back to Earth. The launch of Sputnik 1 came as a surprise to the United States and created a sense of panic among many experts because it was believed that the Soviets could soon deploy a nuclear missile into space that would be capable of reaching the United States. Thus, far from being heralded as a great scientific achievement, Sputnik 1 shattered Americans' sense of security and technological superiority.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower was not very concerned with the Soviets being the first into space, but he missed the significance of the event to ordinary Americans. Technology had been a decisive factor in World War II, and fears that communists had taken the technological lead had Americans greatly concerned. After the launch of the 1,120-pound Sputnik 2 in November 1957, anxieties skyrocketed. Finger pointing among U.S. government officials and military departments led to debate over an ostensible technology gap between the United States and its archrival, the Soviet Union.

Sputnik 2 was also another first for space science—the satellite carried the first live passenger into orbit, a dog named Laika. The third Russian attempt to launch a satellite was a failure, although the fourth attempt was another success. Designated Sputnik 3, the satellite was powered by solar panels and returned geophysical data for over two years.

Although the post-Sputnik confidence crisis was largely the work of politicians and fanned by the media, public reaction to the Soviet launches prompted a deeply introspective period in the United States, followed by action to remedy the purported technology gap. It appeared that the Soviet Union had taken the lead in science education, and so such education in the United States received greater attention, particularly precollege physics and elementary-school science. Educators worked with prominent scientists to shape curricula that were to have far-ranging effects on U.S. technological, scientific, and industrial advances.

In 1958, Congress passed the National Defense Education Act (NDEA), which drastically changed the federal government's role in education and provided grants and loans to public and private schools, as well as individuals, for programs in mathematics, foreign [Page 675]language studies, and science. In response to the Soviet challenge, Congress also passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act (1958), creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); in that same year, the Department of Defense formed the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (first called ARPA). Numerous projects and agencies were advanced. The space race began with Sputnik. Eleven years later, after the launch of the first Sputnik, the United States became the first to put a man on the moon.