Assignment 7 Tommy Gardner

Date of event: 10/4/57
Event: Sputnik launched into orbit.



For the United States this was a very bad event. The launch of Sputnik was during a period of extreme anti-Soviet thinking in the USA. This launch led a lot of Americans to think that the Soviets were going to use satellites similar to Sputnik, to launch nuclear weapons against the United States. For the US government this was a bad event as it showed how far behind the US was in the Space Race. The launch of Sputnik influenced the USA to pick up the pace on the space program. Personally I don't have any negative opinion on the Sputnik launch. I don't exactly appreciate it, as Russia beat us to having the first satellite in orbit, however, it was still the first man made satellite in orbit which was a huge accomplishment for the world.