Alteration in History
After World War II came to an end in the mid-20th century; a new conflict began known as the Cold War. The Cold War triggered hostile and the wary relationship between the two great powers, the democratic, capitalist United States and the communist Soviet Union. It was a dominate affair and both countries had different beliefs that led to the weapons of devastations. They had major crises like the Cuban missile crises, Hungary, and the Berlin Wall but the most worrying issue was the growth of mass destruction weapons. The history changed in the late 1950s, when the former Soviet Union launches Sputnik in space. Sputnik was the World’s first artificial satellite. The American political and cultural appalled that …show more content…
Sputnik had spurred on an age of innovation never been seen since in the history of humanity. Sputnik itself was nothing particularly innovative; it was just a little more augmented than the size of a basketball and weighed only 184 pounds. The first satellite was carried into space by an R-7 rocket. Its purpose was simple: emit a constant “beeping” by using a single radio transmitter which could track the object in space (The launch of Sputnik). It was highly polished so it was seen by the naked eye. Furthermore, when the shiny satellite was passing by the Americans in the sky overhead, they thought they were being spied by the Soviets (Levy). The launch of sputnik was the defining moment in the history for the United States. The United States may have beaten them in developing the first atomic weapon but the first aircraft in space went to the communist. The Soviets had transcended the Americans in technological innovation and more deftly in the military. The Sputnik Crises were primarily concerned with the advancement of the space program and a bigger problem in the United States. The launch of sputnik made the people of the United States in great panic. The public feared for their safety because if the Soviets could send a satellite of around 200 pounds into orbit, sending an inter-continental ballistic missile to any terrestrial place was not far behind (The Cold War …show more content…
Fearing of the inter-continental ballistic missile and other unknown Soviet research projects the congress and Eisenhower administration decided it was time to set up a permanent research. First action that was needed to be done was to launch an American space satellite in orbit to show that the US is not far behind the space technology. There current program was the U.S. navy’s project vanguard, gained a massive influx of fund but unfortunately the project was a complete failure. Vanguard was exploded on its launch pad and hurl to the ground (Levy). It compounded American’s embarrassment over its space program. President Eisenhower was forced to decide to develop a new agency or one built on an already established institution like the National Science Foundation (NSF), The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) or The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) (Dunbair). It was a weighty issue that had to be resolved. So President Eisenhower tried taking suggestions from the vice president Nixon because he did not want the space program to be too militaristic. As a result, he changed the Civilian agency National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to National Aeronautics and Space administration called the NASA. President Eisenhower signed the space act NASA into law on July 1958 (Dunbair). NASA opened for business on Oct 1, 1958. The Act clearly split civilian from military Space technology,
After World War II came to an end in the mid-20th century; a new conflict began known as the Cold War. The Cold War triggered hostile and the wary relationship between the two great powers, the democratic, capitalist United States and the communist Soviet Union. It was a dominate affair and both countries had different beliefs that led to the weapons of devastations. They had major crises like the Cuban missile crises, Hungary, and the Berlin Wall but the most worrying issue was the growth of mass destruction weapons. The history changed in the late 1950s, when the former Soviet Union launches Sputnik in space. Sputnik was the World’s first artificial satellite. The American political and cultural appalled that …show more content…
Sputnik had spurred on an age of innovation never been seen since in the history of humanity. Sputnik itself was nothing particularly innovative; it was just a little more augmented than the size of a basketball and weighed only 184 pounds. The first satellite was carried into space by an R-7 rocket. Its purpose was simple: emit a constant “beeping” by using a single radio transmitter which could track the object in space (The launch of Sputnik). It was highly polished so it was seen by the naked eye. Furthermore, when the shiny satellite was passing by the Americans in the sky overhead, they thought they were being spied by the Soviets (Levy). The launch of sputnik was the defining moment in the history for the United States. The United States may have beaten them in developing the first atomic weapon but the first aircraft in space went to the communist. The Soviets had transcended the Americans in technological innovation and more deftly in the military. The Sputnik Crises were primarily concerned with the advancement of the space program and a bigger problem in the United States. The launch of sputnik made the people of the United States in great panic. The public feared for their safety because if the Soviets could send a satellite of around 200 pounds into orbit, sending an inter-continental ballistic missile to any terrestrial place was not far behind (The Cold War …show more content…
Fearing of the inter-continental ballistic missile and other unknown Soviet research projects the congress and Eisenhower administration decided it was time to set up a permanent research. First action that was needed to be done was to launch an American space satellite in orbit to show that the US is not far behind the space technology. There current program was the U.S. navy’s project vanguard, gained a massive influx of fund but unfortunately the project was a complete failure. Vanguard was exploded on its launch pad and hurl to the ground (Levy). It compounded American’s embarrassment over its space program. President Eisenhower was forced to decide to develop a new agency or one built on an already established institution like the National Science Foundation (NSF), The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) or The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) (Dunbair). It was a weighty issue that had to be resolved. So President Eisenhower tried taking suggestions from the vice president Nixon because he did not want the space program to be too militaristic. As a result, he changed the Civilian agency National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to National Aeronautics and Space administration called the NASA. President Eisenhower signed the space act NASA into law on July 1958 (Dunbair). NASA opened for business on Oct 1, 1958. The Act clearly split civilian from military Space technology,