The Race to Space

As both of the worlds superpowers fought to be better than one another, the United States struggled to keep up on being the first into space. On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union had successfully launched Spunik, the first satellite into space. Spunik was about the size of a beach ball and weighed approximately 183 pounds. While the Sputnik launch was just one event, it was the start of the space age and the United States and Soviet Union "race to space." Spunik had changed everything for space technology and exploration. The Soviet launch had caught the American public completely off guard and in amazement. Even thought Spunik was a huge accomplish for the world of space exploration, it cause great tension between both the Soviet Union and the United States. One year later on January 31, 1958 the United States successfully launched Explorer I. This was not a great success for the United States but it caught them back up with soviet space exploration.