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[[File:Sputnik-02.jpg|thumbnail|left|250px|Sputnik]]__NOTOC__On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the earth’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik-1. Sputnik-1 was an incredible technological achievement and its successful launch came as a shock to the United States. Americans were stunned that the US had not accomplished this scientific advancement first. Additionally, the Eisenhower administration immediately became concerned that the United States was falling behind the Soviet Union. In essence, after the launch, the United States began to consistently overestimate the state of Soviet rocket technology and invested billions of dollars to keep up. The successful launched ratcheted up both [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061176281/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0061176281&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=817e7466f852e8f21432f2801ea677c7 the space race ] and the Cold War.

====United States fears failling falling behind the USSR====The fact that the Soviets were successful fed fears that the U.S. military had generally fallen behind in developing new technology. As a result, the launch of Sputnik intensified the arms race and raised Cold War tensions. During the 1950s, both the United States and the Soviet Union were working to develop new technology. Nazi Germany had been close to developing the world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) near the end of the Second World War, and German scientists aided research in both countries in the wake of that conflict. Both countries were also engaged in developing satellites as a part of a goal set by the International Council of Scientific Unions, which had called for the launch of satellite technology during late 1957 or 1958. Over the course of the decade, the United States tested several varieties of rockets and missiles, but all of these tests ended in failure.

[[File:Explorerlaunch.jpg|thumbnail|left|250px| The Explorer 1 launch on Jan. 31, 1958]]Although President Dwight Eisenhower had tried to downplay the importance of the Sputnik launch to the American people, he poured additional funds and resources into the space program in an effort to catch up. The U.S. Government suffered a severe setback in December of 1957 when its first artificial satellite, named Vanguard, exploded on the launch pad, serving as a very visible reminder of how much . This failure reminded Americans that the country had yet to accomplish to be able struggled to rockets that could reach lower earth orbit. It also raised fears that the US could not compete militarily with the Soviets. At last, on January 31, 1958, the United States succeeded in launching its first satellite, the Explorer. The Explorer was still slighter than Sputnik, but its launch sent it deeper into space. The Soviets responded with yet another launch, and the space race continued.

The success of Sputnik had a major impact on the Cold War and the United States. Fear that they had fallen behind led U.S. policymakers to accelerate space and weapons programs. In the late 1950sOn January 31, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev boasted about Soviet technological superiority and growing stockpiles of ICBMs1958, so the United States worked simultaneously to develop finally succeeded in launching its own ICBMs to counter what it assumed was a growing stockpile of Soviet missiles directed against first satellite, the United StatesExplorer. With both countries researching new technologyWhile Explorer was still smaller than Sputnik, talk of creating a treaty banning nuclear testing faded away for several yearsit was successfully launch sent it deeper into space. In this wayUnsurprisingly, the Soviets quickly responded with yet another launch of Sputnik fueled both , and the space race and the arms race, in addition to increasing Cold War tensions, as each country worked to prepare new methods of attacking the otherescalated.