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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 behind the USSR====
====Eisenhower administration ratcheted up spending on missile technology====
[[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. This failure reminded Americans that the country had struggled to rockets that could reach lower earth orbit. It also raised fears that the US could not compete militarily with the Soviets.
On January 31, 1958, the United States finally succeeded in launching its first satellite, the Explorer. While Explorer was still smaller than Sputnik, it was successfully launch sent it deeper into space. Unsurprisingly, the Soviets wuickly quickly responded with yet another launch, and the space race continuedescalated.
====Conclusion====
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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 1950s, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev boasted about Soviet technological superiority and growing stockpiles of ICBMs, so the United States worked simultaneously to develop its own ICBMs to counter what it assumed was a growing stockpile of Soviet missiles directed against the United States. With both countries researching new technology, talk of creating a treaty banning nuclear testing faded away for several years. In this way, the launch of Sputnik fueled both 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 other.
Eventually, lawmakers and political campaigners in the United States successfully exploited the fear of a “missile gap” developing between U.S. and Soviet nuclear arsenals in the 1960 presidential election, which brought John F. Kennedy to power over Eisenhower’s vice president, Richard Nixon. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 served to remind both sides of the dangers of the weapons they were developing.
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* Republished from [https://history.state.gov/| Office of the Historian, United States Department of State]
