Sputnik 1

The encounter on Friday, October 4, 1957, seemed to be a regular encounter to almost all Americans, considering the week-long of international scientific meetings, but little did they know that this encounter would change lives all over forever. There was some tension between The United States of America and the Soviet Union for a while because both, The United States of America and the Soviet Union wanted a chance to improve, both educationally, and economically, but what the Soviet Union had announced that evening changed the development of the Cold War, and affected everyone worldwide.Doctor John P. Hagen, a senior scientist with the Naval Research Laboratory, tried to push America into launching the Sputnik because they were behind schedule and over budget. America had attended an international meeting with five other countries where they talked about their plans in launching the Sputnik. The Soviet Union had gave some hints that they could launch the Sputnik in weeks rather than months or years, but it was shrugged off by everyone besides Doctor John P. Hagen. Later, Doctor John P. Hagen had brought the fact that The Soviet Union had announced the fact that they could launch the Sputnik within weeks, but the scientist put it to the side.Due to the fact that no one had listened to Doctor John P. Hagen, Friday, October 4, 1957, became one of the most dreadful days in United States history.

Walter Sullivan, a reporter from the New York Times had received a very worrying call form is bureau chief that stated the the Soviet Union is in the midst of launching Sputnik 1, and just like that the Soviet Union had launched Sputnik 1. As you can probably assume, this was a very devastating time for America, they were beaten, let down and it destroyed them. Many Americans were extremely confused, and wondering how they had been beaten in a two man race.The satellite itself stayed in space, and orbited for exactly three months before it fell out of space. History changed on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world’s first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball (58 cm.or 22.8 inches in diameter), weighed only 83.6 kg. or 183.9 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path. That launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. While the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S.S.R space race. The Sputnik 1 launched by the Soviet Union was the first satellite to orbit all around the entire eartThe Soviet Union began boasting about itself, calling itself the most advanced on technology, and all around the best and most advance in the world. Propaganda was very frequent in Russia after the launch of Sputnik 1. Communism grew tremendously, and Russia had greatly enhanced overnight.

The governments in La La Land, and they were acting like everything was okay, and that they should congratulate The Soviet Union on it’s success rather than try and find a way to make a comeback, and they were blind to the fact that American citizens disliked the fact that the Soviet Union had beat them.After The Soviet Union had beat America in launching Sputnik 1, many saw America as a country with bad technology, and education in general. There were some major tensions that arose between America and the Soviet Union after the Soviet Union had launched Sputnik 1. The Soviet Union was seen as the most advanced in technology and science, and in the political sense, they were seen as the “big dogs.” This is when American realized that they had to do something about the launch of Sputnik 1. They knew that they couldn’t just do nothing anymore, and they wanted answers, and they wanted them now! America decided to launch a satellite of their own to try and raise American pride. The test launch was called “Project Vanguard.” On December 6, 1957 the United States had decided to launch Project Vanguard. With the world watching America had launched Project Vanguard. As I stated, Project Vanguard was launched as an intention to raise American pride, but it had ended up doing the exact opposite. Project Vanguard was a fail, and American citizens were let down once again. Americans were yet again devastated at yet another American failure, and at this point they were losing hope.What happened? This was a very common question that was posed on the launch that America had made called Project Vanguard.

Project Vanguard had went about three feet above the platform that it was on, it shook for a little bit, then Project Vanguard had disintegrated into flames, and as Project Vanguard disintegrated into flames, so did American hope, and citizens lost all hope that they had at America ever making a comeback from the devastating blow when the Soviet Union had beat the in launching the Stupnik. Doctor John P. Hagen was said to be demoralized at this devastating event.During this crisis, the army had a major impact on the people. The army was the last shred of hope that there was in America, and it was also the shred of hope that there was in America. The army had played an important role in the lives of Americans at that time, and the military was looked up to tremendously. You can imagine what it meant to the American citizens when one of their one soldiers, Wernher Von Braun, volunteered to be a member of the rocket team.With Project Explorer up and ready, Americans were now more eager than anything, and they were hoping for a victory, because they knew that at this point, a defeat would CRUSH them. The launch was so close, it was almost coming, and this was the most nerve racking event so far. As they began their first attempt to launch Project Explorer everyone in America was completely filled with nerves, because their first launch at Project Explorer was unsuccessful. Americans were hopeless.

They thought that there was no way out now, but then, that same day, the second attempt at launching Project Explorer was different.Defeat after defeat, America had finally pulled it of, and they had finally successfully launched a rocket into space. On America’s second attempt at launching Project Explorer they finally came up with a way to successfully launch a rocket into space. Yes, the had lose the Space Race with the Soviet Union, but this success was greater than any loss in the Space Race, for America had finally regained its initial hope, pride, and faith that Americans used have when facing internation, or any problems in America for that matter. This nail bitting and shocking event meant everything for American citizens, because they could finally be proud to be Americans again.There was a big difference between the American and the Soviet Union’s rocket. This is mainly because after he Soviet Union beat America in launching the first satellite into space, America did not want to copy off of the Soviet Union because they wanted to create something better. America wanted to “get back” at the Soviet Union after their humiliating loss in the Space Race. America also wanted revenge because the Soviet Union had to rub it in America’s face by launching another satellite into space before America could even get four feet off of the ground without exploding and nursing into flames.The Sputnik launch changed everything. As a technical achievement, Sputnik caught the world’s attention and the American public off-guard.