Sputnik crisis
The
Sputnik crisis was a turning point of the
Cold War that begun on
October 4,
1957 when the
Soviet Union launched the
Sputnik 1 satellite. The
USA had believed itself to be the leader of space technology and thus a leader of
missile development. The Sputnik launch proved it was not so. After this, the
Space Race began, leading up to the
Apollo program and the
moon landings in
1969, which eventually ended the Sputnik crisis.
The Sputnik crisis spurred a whole chain of strategic initiatives, from large to small. Many of them initiated by the United States Department of Defense.