HIS 106
Short Term Effects Life in the United States was very different once the space race was underway, and especially after the Soviet Union was able to launch the first space craft, Sputnik 1, into space. After the launching of Sputnik 1, Americans were struck with fear knowing that an enemy satellite was flying right over their heads and that we were behind the Soviet Union in the space race. As a counter to the launching of Sputnik 1, the CIA, white house, and Air Force all teamed up and created a surveillance satellite that would be able to monitor where every Soviet Union missile was being held. America was intimidated by the Soviet Union’s initial success in the space race, and although leaders of America never admitted to in,
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The answer soon came from scientists and engineers when they told Congress that the United States’ math and science programs had fallen behind and students were not learning the information that they needed to. This lead Congress to pass the National Defense Education Act in 1958 which provided college scholarships for rising scientists, engineers, and mathematicians. Teachers in high schools had to reevaluate the way they were teaching physics, biology, and chemistry in order to help students catch up with the rest of the world’s education systems. These advances of education in America would help the United States win the space race and land the first man on the moon. With all of the new technology and inventions coming out, film makers did not hesitate to take advantage of the new material. Several movies and television shows were released, including the movie “Plan 9 from Outer Space” and the popular television show “The Jetsons.” The space race also had an impact on artwork, as artwork started to shift towards very clean and futuristic pictures. Architecture was even touched by the space race as buildings started to be built with wing-like roofs, domes, and satellite shapes to mimic space
The Soviet’s were responsible for putting man on the moon, rovers on Mars, and launching the Hubble Space Telescope. Indeed, it was the United States’ foes that drove the U.S. to accomplish perhaps the greatest feats of the twentieth century. Following the defeat of Germany and Japan in World War II, tensions between former allies, the United States and the Soviet Union, began to grow. In the following decades, the two superpowers would duke it out in competitions and tremendous shows of nationalism. They formed unmatchable rivalries in politics, economics, sciences, and sports. These rivalries would become clear when two countries competed in the space race, a competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union concerning achievements in the field of space exploration. The Soviet’s took the early lead as they put the first satellite, Sputnik 1, into space. The launch of Sputnik 1 established a sense of fear into the American Public, resulting in the creation of NASA in the late 1950’s which opened the door for space exploration today and for future generations.
Following the conclusion of the Second World War, the United States and the Soviet Union made it a priority to outdo each other in every possible facet from arsenals of missiles to international alliances and spheres of influences. Yet when the Soviets launched Sputnik on October 4th, 1957, the world changed forever. The first manmade object was fired into space, and it appeared that American technology and science had fallen behind. Yet, the public feared that not only were they now technologically inferior to the Soviets, but also deduced that if a satellite could be launched into space, a nuclear missile could just as likely reach the mainland United States. Less than a month later, the Soviets pushed the bounds of technology yet again by
When the Soviet Union launched “Sputnik” in 1957 that put America on a speed track to have science, mathematics, and foreign language programs governmentally assistance within schools. It was a “space race,” but also a reflection of fear. Fear that America could not remain a world leader; therefore, our population was on high alert for education and technology. The National Defense Education Act was passed, this allowed different level of assistance form the content areas taught in public schools, to loan given to students in field of a particular study.
The 1960’s were full of questions, and one of the biggest questions the world was pondering about was regarding the Space Race: was the USA going to beat their communist enemy, the Soviet Union? The Space Race was a series of events that helped to symbolize and determine in the worlds’ eyes which form of government was better, communism (Soviets) or democracy (United States)? In the beginning of the race, the Soviets had the lead, and it was not looking good for America. Then the United States picked up the pace and spent well over eight billion dollars funding the space studies. This period of time made many scientists and astronauts heroes in the eyes of Americans. The Space Race was a combination of determination, intelligence, space projects, and American pride, all used to reach our exploration goals and surpass the Soviets.
The cold war by the late 1950s had weaved into the everyday life of society for both countries. The announcement from the US that they will launch a satellite into orbit was challenged by the Soviets. On October 4th 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. This was the world’s first artificial satellite and man-made object to be in earths orbit. The launch was unexpected to the US, having caught them off guard. As a result Sputnik began to raise fears amongst the public, fearing the possible event of a nuclear attack, due to previous cold war
This blow to national pride along with the fear that the Soviets could potentially launch ICBMs from space led to “Rocket fever”. The sudden wave of nationalism and the desire to build a space program worthier to that of the Soviet Union led to the establishment of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under President Eisenhower, the investment of billions of dollars in missile development, and the expansion of the National Academy of Science’s charter.... ... middle of paper ... ...
The Cold War presented the United States with a unique decision. The Soviet Union had created a space program and the United States needed to decide if a space program would be beneficial for them. The Soviets sent probes out to space, and soon American probes followed. There are many reasons that the U.S. could have made this decision, but two reasons are more prominent that the others. Firstly the United States found it necessary to compete with the Soviets, and they could not accept the fact that the U.S.S.R had something that they didn’t. Secondly, JFK and his administration thought that space was the final frontier, and it would provide valuable scientific research. Ultimately, John F Kennedy and the United States decided to create a space
On October 4, 1957 Russia launched a rocket named Sputnik ( faculty etsu, 2001). The United States (U.S) was caught off guard. Sputnik had the ability to orbit the Earth in just 96 minutes and transmit a frequency easily heard with an amateur radio (Figure 1). If the Russian could launch a satellite under our noses without our knowledge and have the ability to send a signal into our homes in 1957 it was clear that the U.S. was unprepared and had under estimated the ability of their adversaries. We clearly needed a new way of doing business, a new way of defending our country and our families. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had now received a wakeup call, it was time to act. Our enemy could now be thousands of miles away, and still able to get into our homes. The enemy could get to our families without even stepping foot into our homes. The world as we knew it would never be the same.
The Americans took a much more urgent approach after seeing what the U.S.S.R. was truly capable of. The United States would respond with various satellites including those of the Explorer Series and more. However, the Soviet Union would again one-up the United States, and all of their now seemingly feeble satellite launches, by putting the first man into outer space, Yuri Gagarin, in 1961. Now the quest gained an even more competitive drive and the United States soon put Alan B. Shepard into space twenty-three days later. The Space Race was truly a trek for the firsts of history, essentially just exterrestrial one-ups throughout an extended period of time. That very same year, John F. Kennedy founded NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, just for that purpose, to explore the world beyond their own, while maintaining the central aim, to beat the Soviets outright. JFK was a leading power in this race, and “by giving NASA programs top priority, his actions essentially played on American fears of communism and implicitly inferred that the Eisenhower administration had not done enough to meet the Sputnik challenge. Too many Americans were beginning to feel a need to vindicate the ‘long-standing communist boast that theirs was the superior system for galvanizing human productivity’” (Koman 43). Winning this space race was way more than just an extraterrestrial victory, it would hopefully squander the communists’ hopes and assert true American dominance. The United States sought to eliminate any presumption of communist superiority and did so in the near future by winning this Cold War space race, thanks to the execution of a truly unimaginable
Hugh L. Dryden, Deputy Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said in 1963, "... the leadership finally decided to make the education system focused on STEM topics for the new generations of Americans who were now taken in by the space race. In a few short years, the race had impacted major advances in our knowledge of the universe and the system that we live in. Its results are seen in every aspect of our modern life such as electronics and communications, in new materials, in
The parties had been competing to see who had the most advanced technologies for atleast a decade. The United States had been spying on the USSR with their U2 spy planes throughout the 50s and observed that they were making great technological advances and hired three to four times as many Soviet scientists as there were American. The soviets launched Sputnik in October of 57 which gave birth to the “Crisis of Confidence” of Sputnik (PBS). Americans feared what the Soviets could do with their satellite orbiting and functional. This spurred the United States to get their technology that they have been working on to orbit. This rushed mentality created by American media and the red scare led the Vanguard TV3 rocket to an arguably premature
During 19th century Georges Méliès creates a new form of special effects and introduced the story board which will later change the world of cinema.
Exploring into the vast lands of the universe used to be something people would put into movies and books- it was science fiction. Now with the developments in science and technology we have seen around the world, space exploration has become a reality. We have put a man on the moon, created an International Space Station for astronauts to live, and discovered other planets and galaxies millions of lightyears away. These are monumental achievements for the human race and I believe that there are a significant amount of benefits that we can gain from further space exploration. However, I also believe that there are many cons associated with space exploration.
Introduction I. Attention Getter: The International Space Station is the most complex machine ever built by man. Comprising over 1 billion parts, this modern marvel orbits Mother Earth at a speed of over 4 miles every second. II. Relating to the Audience: I believe that the Space Shuttle program has fascinated most, if not all, of you at some point of time, so much so that it has driven some of us to pursue Aerospace Engineering.
In society today, many people don’t truly recognize that space exploration has benefited us in the way we are here and how it will continue to do so. Space exploration is the investigation of space by using satellites, rockets or the help of life. Many people find that space exploration is useless or absurd because it doesn’t assist us, but this is incorrect. The beginning was in 1957, when the first satellite was launched into space by the Soviet Union to get some idea of the altitude at which they can build missiles to. What the Soviet Union didn’t know was how important that moment in history was and how an amazing impact it was in our future.