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The Sputnik crisis was a period of public fear and anxiety in Western nations about the perceived technological gap between the United States and Soviet Union caused by the Soviets' launch of Sputnik 1, the world's first artificial satellite. [1]
Sputnik 1 (/ ˈ s p ʌ t n ɪ k, ˈ s p ʊ t n ɪ k /, Russian: Спутник-1, Satellite 1), sometimes referred to as simply Sputnik, was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program .
In August 1957, the Soviets successfully launched the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), [158] and in October they launched the first Earth satellite, Sputnik 1. [159] This led to what became known as the Sputnik crisis.
The competition gained Western public attention with the "Sputnik crisis", when the USSR achieved the first successful satellite launch, Sputnik 1, on October 4, 1957. It gained momentum when the USSR sent the first human, Yuri Gagarin, into space with the orbital flight of Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961. These were followed by a string of other ...
In The New York Times, Aerospace Security Project director Kari Bingen and Project on Nuclear Issues director Heather Williams compared Russian anti-satellite capabilities to Sputnik 1 and the Sputnik crisis, [10] a claim made by Bloomberg News's Katrina Manson. [11]
The Soviets emphasized building ballistic intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). They fired their first ICBM in August 1957, followed by a highly public launching of the Sputnik 1 satellite in October 1957. The launch of the Sputnik energized the American missile program, and the U.S. fired its first ICBM in December 1957.
The Vanguard rocket [1] was intended to be the first launch vehicle the United States would use to place a satellite into orbit. Instead, the Sputnik crisis caused by the surprise launch of Sputnik 1 led the U.S., after the failure of Vanguard TV-3, to quickly orbit the Explorer 1 satellite using a Juno I rocket, making Vanguard 1 the second successful U.S. orbital launch.
The incident occurred at a time of severely strained relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. [1] Responding to the Soviet Union's deployment of fourteen SS-20/RSD-10 theatre nuclear missiles, the NATO Double-Track Decision was taken in December 1979 by the military commander of NATO to deploy 108 Pershing II nuclear missiles in Western Europe with the ability to hit targets ...