WEBVTT

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On October 4, 1957,

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the world watched in awe and fear

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as the Soviet Union launched Sputnik,

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the world's first man-made satellite,

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into space.

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This little metal ball,

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smaller than two feet in diameter,

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launched a space race

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between the U.S. and U.S.S.R.

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that would last for eighteen years

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and change the world as we know it.

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Sputnik was actually not the first piece

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of human technology to enter space.

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That superlative goes to the V-2 rocket

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used by Germany in missile attacks

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against Allied cities

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as a last-ditch effort

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in the final years of World War II.

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It wasn't very effective,

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but, at the end of the war,

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both the U.S. and U.S.S.R. had captured

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the technology

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and the scientists that had developed it

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and began using them for their own projects.

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And by August 1957,

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the Soviet's successfully tested

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the first inter-continental ballistic missile, the R-7,

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the same rocket that would be used

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to launch Sputnik two months later.

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So, the scary thing about Sputnik

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was not the orbiting ball itself,

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but the fact that the same technology

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could be used to launch a nuclear warhead

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at any city.

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Not wanting to fall too far behind,

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President Eisenhower ordered the Navy

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to speed up its own project

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and launch a satellite as soon as possible.

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So, on December 6, 1957,

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excited people across the nation

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tuned in to watch the live broadcast

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as the Vanguard TV3 satellite took off

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and crashed to the ground two seconds later.

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The Vanguard failure was a huge embarassment

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for the United States.

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Newspapers printed headlines like,

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"Flopnik" and "Kaputnik".

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And a Soviet delegate at the U.N. mockingly suggested

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that the U.S. should receive foreign aid

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for a developing nation.