CHAPTER ONE A THREAT FROM ABOVE The space age began with a beep on October 4 1957 The beep came from a tiny satellite called Sputnik 1 It was the first satellite made by people to orbit Earth But the United States didn't put it in space The Soviet Union did The United States and the Soviet Union both wanted to get to space Whichever country got there first would attract global attention The two countries were in a struggle to be the world's most pov nation This struggle was called the Cold War 1947 1991 The countries Sputnik 1 was approximately the size of a beach ball
never fought each other directly Instead they competed in other ways to gain power and influence Space exploration was one of these THE COLD WAR The United States and the Soviet Union were the two most powerful countries in the world after World War II 1939 1945 The Soviet Union was communist The United States was capitalist In communism one party controls the country and its economy In capitalism the government plays a small role in the economy Both countries wanted their way of government to become dominant in the world The Cold War was the countries fight for dominance Americans constantly feared that the Cold War would break out into nuclear war ways The competition became known as the space race Cold War fears made Americans wonder about the strange beeping object in the sky Some worried that the United States was behind the Soviet Union in science and technology American media outlets made a big deal about the satellite They tried to stir up fear
a The reality was that all Sputnik 1 could do was beep It was no threat to anyone But its presence showed that the Soviets could launch things into space One day they could launch weapon This unnerved some Americans US president Dwight D Eisenhower assured the public that Sputnik 1 was no threat But behind closed doors he knew what Sputnik 1 meant The United States had been beaten to space Now Americans had to respond THE SPACE RACE TAKES OFF PERSPECTIVES SOVIET NEWSPAPERS The Soviet Union boasted about its achievement in its newspapers On October 5 1957 an article in the Russian newspaper Pravda said The successful launching of the first man made Earth satellite is of tremendous importance for learning the properties of cosmic space and for studying the Earth as a planet of our solar system The Soviet Union and the United States battled to be first in space achievements The Soviet Union scored many
