By the 1950s the competition had turned toward space It became known as the Space Race The United States had announced its plan to put a satellite into orbit in 1955 But the country's engineers had yet to succeed With the launch of Sputnik 1 the United States was suddenly lagging behind People feared that the Soviet Union might launch nuclear missiles next A month later the Soviet Union launched a second satellite Sputnik 2 carried a dog named Laika She was the first living being from Earth to orbit the planet However scientists had no way to bring her back to Earth so she died in space The United States tried to launch a satellite in December 1957 But on the day of the launch the rocket failed It rose a few feet off the launchpad and exploded in a ball of fire The satellite fell off the rocket and rolled away
The Soviet Union sent Laika to space aboard Sputnik 2 on November 3 1957 The United States finally sent a satellite to space in January 1958 Explorer 1 was launched aboard a Juno I rocket It orbited Earth and collected data about Earth's atmosphere The satellite measured cosmic rays and atmospheric temperatures It also studied micrometeorites These particles from space are small enough to enter Earth's atmosphere This information helped scientists learn more about Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field
THE EXPLORER I SATELLITE Flexible antennas Micrometeorite ultrasonic microphone Nose cone temperature probe Cosmic ray measuring instruments Micrometeorite erosion gauges The next few launch attempts including the Explorer 2 satellite were not successful Finally in March 1958 the Vanguard 1 satellite successfully reached outer space Later that month Explorer 3 also reached space But the Soviet Union was not far behind Sputnik 3 launched two months later
The US government did not want the Soviet Union to continue taking the lead in the Space Race So the US Congress created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA in July 1958 This organization would coordinate the country's activity in space This included both human and mechanical space exploration Before NASA was created the US military had directed these activities But now NASA scientists and engineers would be in control In 1958 NASA began working on Project Mercury The project's goal was to launch a rocket carrying an astronaut into space THINK ABOUT IT Why would creating NASA help the United States be competitive in the Space Race
