The race for becoming “superpower” between United States of America (USA) and The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) started soon after WWII. Although both were on the same side, they had different ideologies. The USSR supported communism while the US supported capitalism. They both wanted their ideology to win, so they exploited their role of building Europe back up with throwing influences of capitalism or communism into a mish-mash. And thus the "cold war" begun, in reality they wanted the world to see who was the better and more developed country on the planet. For national security they wanted to develop extremely powerful missiles technology that could travel in outer space without being detected, and till late 1950’s space became
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Soviet Union inaugurated “Space Age” with launch of Sputnik-1 on 4th October 1957 and later in November also sent female dog named Laika into space by launching Sputnik-2. Sputnik was world’s first artificial satellite and first manmade object to be placed in earth’s orbit. Prior to the launch of Sputnik, majority of Americans took their country's technological superiority for granted. America had been the first nation in building up technologies like nuclear bomb, led the path for computing and hardware and, in the years following the end of World War II, had been ahead of the Soviets in missile technology. Hence it was obvious to assume that America would be the first nation to put a satellite into earth's orbit. But the launch of sputnik shocked Americans and led to “sputnik crisis”. Many people feared that Soviet technology has surpassed the American technology, it resulted in big increase in funding for high technology industries like missile defence. The fear increased when Americans failed to launch Vanguard Test Vehicle 3 into orbit on 6th December 1957, it turned out to be a disaster when, two seconds after lift off, the engines failed, rocket fell back to the launch pad and the fuel tanks ruptured which caused huge explosion of the rocket. In year 1958 America formed Advanced Research Projects Agency, later renamed as Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop new missile defence for US military and also created famous National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a federal agency concerned with America’s non-military efforts in space
Soviet Union inaugurated “Space Age” with launch of Sputnik-1 on 4th October 1957 and later in November also sent female dog named Laika into space by launching Sputnik-2. Sputnik was world’s first artificial satellite and first manmade object to be placed in earth’s orbit. Prior to the launch of Sputnik, majority of Americans took their country's technological superiority for granted. America had been the first nation in building up technologies like nuclear bomb, led the path for computing and hardware and, in the years following the end of World War II, had been ahead of the Soviets in missile technology. Hence it was obvious to assume that America would be the first nation to put a satellite into earth's orbit. But the launch of sputnik shocked Americans and led to “sputnik crisis”. Many people feared that Soviet technology has surpassed the American technology, it resulted in big increase in funding for high technology industries like missile defence. The fear increased when Americans failed to launch Vanguard Test Vehicle 3 into orbit on 6th December 1957, it turned out to be a disaster when, two seconds after lift off, the engines failed, rocket fell back to the launch pad and the fuel tanks ruptured which caused huge explosion of the rocket. In year 1958 America formed Advanced Research Projects Agency, later renamed as Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop new missile defence for US military and also created famous National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a federal agency concerned with America’s non-military efforts in space