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On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the earth’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik-1. Sputnik-1 was an incredible technological achievement and its successful launch came as a shock to the United States. Americans were stunned that the US had not accomplished this scientific advancement first. Additionally, the Eisenhower administration immediately became concerned that the United States was falling behind the Soviet Union. In essence, after the launch, the United States began to consistently overestimate the state of Soviet rocket technology and invested billions of dollars to keep up. The successful launched ratcheted up both [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061176281/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0061176281&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=817e7466f852e8f21432f2801ea677c7 the space race] and the Cold War.
====United States fears failling falling behind the USSR====The fact that the Soviets were successful fed fears that the U.S. military had generally fallen behind in developing new technology. As a result, the launch of Sputnik intensified the arms race and raised Cold War tensions. During the 1950s, both the United States and the Soviet Union were working to develop new technology. Nazi Germany had been close to developing the world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) near the end of the Second World War, and German scientists aided research in both countries in the wake of that conflict. Both countries were also engaged in developing satellites as a part of a goal set by the International Council of Scientific Unions, which had called for the launch of satellite technology during late 1957 or 1958. Over the course of the decade, the United States tested several varieties of rockets and missiles, but all of these tests ended in failure.
The Soviet launch of the first Sputnik satellite was one accomplishment in a string of technological successes. Few in the United States had anticipated it, and even those who did were not aware of just how impressive it would be. At 184 pounds, the Russian satellite was much heavier than anything the United States was developing at the time, and its successful launch was quickly followed by the launch of two additional satellites, including one that carried a dog into space. Together, these orbited the earth every 90-minutes and created fear that the United States lagged far behind in technological capability. These concerns were compounded when the United States learned that the Soviet Union also tested the first intercontinental ballistic missile that year.