Sputnik_crisis definition and meaning

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Soviet stamp depicting Sputnik's orbit around Earth

The Sputnik crisis is the name for the American reaction to the success of the Sputnik program. It was a key event during the Cold War that began on October 4, 1957 when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite.

The United States had held itself to be the world leader in space technology and missile development.^{[citation needed]} However, the appearance of Sputnik I and the failure of the first two U.S. launch attempts rattled the American public. President Dwight D. Eisenhower called the shock the “Sputnik Crisis” because of the looming threat of the Soviet Union. During the Cold War, America was in a state of fear from the Soviet Union. Once the Soviets started to launch satellites into orbit, even a payload harmless to the U.S., the concern increased. If the USSR could launch a satellite, it could also launch a nuclear warhead able to travel intercontinental distances. The Soviets had demonstrated the ICBM capability or the R-7 booster more than one month earlier on August 21, with a successful flight test of ~6,000 km downrange as announced by TASS five days after the event (and published that month in Aviation Week, among other media).

Less than a year after the Sputnik launch, Congress passed the National Defense Education Act (NDEA). The act was a four-year program that poured billions of dollars into the U.S. education system. In 1953 the government spent $153 million, colleges took $10 million of that funding; however, by 1960 the combined funding grew almost sixfold because of the NDEA.^[1]

US Rep. Clare Boothe Luce referred to Sputnik's beeps as "an intercontinental outer-space raspberry to a decade of American pretensions that the American way of life was a gilt-edged guarantee of our national superiority."^{[citation needed]}

After the initial public shock, the Space Race began, leading to the first human launched into space, Project Apollo and the first manned moon landing in 1969.^{[citation needed]}

1 US response
2 Notes
3 References
4 External links

US response

The Sputnik spurred a series of U.S. initiatives, many initiated by the Department of Defense:^{[citation needed]}

Within two days, calculation of the Sputnik orbit (joint work by UIUC Astronomy Dept. and Digital Computer Lab).
Increased emphasis on the Navy's existing Project Vanguard to launch an American satellite into orbit, and a revival of the Army's Explorer program that preceded Vanguard in launching the first American satellite into orbit on January 31, 1958.
By February 1958, the political and defense communities had recognized the need for a high-level Department of Defense organization to execute R&D projects and created the Advanced Research Projects Agency, which later became the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA.
On July 29, 1958, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act,^[2] creating NASA.
Education programs were initiated to foster a new generation of engineers.
Increased support for scientific research. For 1959, Congress increased the National Science Foundation (NSF) appropriation to $134 million, almost $100 million higher than the year before. By 1968, the NSF budget would stand at nearly $500 million.
The Polaris missile program
Project management as an area of inquiry and an object of much scrutiny, leading up to the modern concept of project management and standardized project models such as the DoD Program Evaluation and Review Technique, PERT, invented for Polaris.
The decision by President John F. Kennedy, who campaigned in 1960 on closing the "missile gap", to deploy 1,000 Minuteman missiles, far more ICBMs than the Soviets had at the time.

Notes

^ (Layman 190)
^ [1]

References

Layman, Richard. "National Defence Education Act of 1958." American Decades 1950–1959. 6th ed. 1994.

External links

Roger D. Launius: Sputnik and the Origins of the Space Age, nasa.gov

Cold War

Participants and notable figures ANZUS NATO Non-Aligned Movement SEATO Warsaw Pact

1940s	Yalta Conference Operation Unthinkable Potsdam Conference Gouzenko Affair War in Vietnam (1945–1946) Iran crisis of 1946 Greek Civil War Corfu Channel Incident Restatement of Policy on Germany First Indochina War Truman Doctrine Asian Relations Conference Marshall Plan Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948 Tito–Stalin split Berlin Blockade Western betrayal Iron Curtain Eastern Bloc Chinese Civil War (Second round)

1950s	Korean War 1953 Iranian coup d'état Uprising of 1953 in East Germany 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état Partition of Vietnam First Taiwan Strait Crisis Geneva Summit (1955) Poznań 1956 protests Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Suez Crisis Sputnik crisis Second Taiwan Strait Crisis Cuban Revolution Kitchen Debate Asian–African Conference Bricker Amendment McCarthyism Operation Gladio Hallstein Doctrine

1960s	Congo Crisis Sino–Soviet split 1960 U-2 incident Bay of Pigs Invasion Berlin Wall Portuguese Colonial War (Angolan War of Independence Guinea-Bissau War of Independence Mozambican War of Independence) Cuban Missile Crisis Vietnam War 1964 Brazilian coup d'état United States occupation of the Dominican Republic (1965–1966) South African Border War Transition to the New Order Domino theory ASEAN Declaration Laotian Civil War Greek military junta of 1967–1974 USS Pueblo incident Six-Day War War of Attrition Cultural Revolution Sino-Indian War Prague Spring Goulash Communism Sino-Soviet border conflict Bunkers in Albania

1970s	Détente Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Black September in Jordan Cambodian Civil War Realpolitik Ping Pong Diplomacy Four Power Agreement on Berlin 1972 Nixon visit to China 1973 Chilean coup d'état Yom Kippur War Carnation Revolution Strategic Arms Limitation Talks Rhodesian Bush War Angolan Civil War Mozambican Civil War Ogaden War Sino-Albanian split Cambodian–Vietnamese War Sino-Vietnamese War Iranian Revolution Operation Condor Bangladesh Liberation War Korean Air Lines Flight 902

1980s	Soviet war in Afghanistan 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics boycotts Solidarity Soviet reaction Contras Central American crisis RYAN Korean Air Lines Flight 007 Able Archer 83 Star Wars Invasion of Grenada People Power Revolution Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 United States invasion of Panama Fall of the Berlin Wall Revolutions of 1989 Glasnost Perestroika

1990s	Democratic Revolution in Mongolia Breakup of Yugoslavia Dissolution of the Soviet Union Dissolution of Czechoslovakia

Foreign policy	Truman Doctrine Marshall Plan Containment Eisenhower Doctrine Domino theory Kennedy Doctrine Peaceful coexistence Ostpolitik Johnson Doctrine Brezhnev Doctrine Nixon Doctrine Ulbricht Doctrine Carter Doctrine Reagan Doctrine Rollback

Ideologies	Capitalism Chicago school Keynesianism Monetarism Neoclassical economics Reaganomics Supply-side economics Thatcherism Communism Marxism–Leninism Castroism Eurocommunism Guevarism Hoxhaism Juche Left communism Maoism Stalinism Titoism Trotskyism Liberal democracy Social democracy

Organizations	ASEAN CIA Comecon EEC KGB MI6 Stasi

Propaganda	Active measures Izvestia Pravda Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Red Scare TASS Voice of America Voice of Russia

Races	Arms race Nuclear arms race Space Race

See also	Brinkmanship NATO–Russia relations Soviet and Russian espionage in U.S. Soviet Union–United States relations US–Soviet summits

Category Portal Timeline

Definition and meaning of Sputnik_crisis

Definition

Sputnik crisis

Contents

US response

Notes

References

External links