Why did sputnik concern americans

The U. Government suffered a severe setback in December of when its first artificial satellite, named Vanguard , exploded on the launch pad, serving as a very visible reminder of how much the country had yet to accomplish to be able to compete militarily with the Soviets.

At last, on January 31, , the United States succeeded in launching its first satellite, the Explorer. The Explorer was still slighter than Sputnik , but its launch sent it deeper into space. The Soviets responded with yet another launch, and the space race continued. Fear that they had fallen behind led U. With both countries researching new technology, talk of creating a treaty banning nuclear testing faded away for several years.

In this way, the launch of Sputnik fueled both the space race and the arms race, in addition to increasing Cold War tensions, as each country worked to prepare new methods of attacking the other. The launch of Sputnik gave the Soviet Union an enormous boost in world respect and influence.

Politicians and average Americans reacted in shock, and demanded increases in military and science education spending. The eventual launch of Explorer I in January finally allowed the United States to enter the space race. However, it took later successes in the s for the United States to surpass the propaganda coup achieved with the launch of Sputnik. View Pages: 1 2.

National Archives Identifier: Top Skip to main content. Resources Beschloss, Michael. Mayday, The U-2 Affair. New York: Harper and Row, Halberstam, David. The Fifties. The one you likely know is that the US was caught by surprise when it found the Soviets had succeeded at launching an artificial satellite on Oct.

Within months, Americans made a series of investments, including the creation of NASA, to catch up and eventually beat the Soviets in the space race. The upshot: even though Soviets breached space first, a little more than 10 years later, it was Americans who were the first and still only humans on the moon. The other story is more complicated. Sputnik caused hysteria among Americans, who had relaxed into believing that they were technologically superior to the communists.

To make matters worse, the Vanguard launch was a failure and it was watched on televisions across the country. To the American public, and their representatives in the US congress, it seemed they were losing to the Soviets, and so far behind that they might never be able to catch up. Moscow understood the power of using science and technology for propaganda, and wielded it effectively with Sputnik.

But Washington was not going to take it lying down. Over the next decade, the country poured money into beating the Soviets in space, edging out ahead in the mids.